You Can Add These New Gemini Widgets to Your IPhone Lock Screen
You can now use Siri with ChatGPT added on your iPhone, but Google wants you to use its Gemini AI bot instead: The official Gemini iPhone app launched a few months ago, and now we have several lock screen widgets to use alongside it.
While you can’t completely replace the iPhone’s default digital assistant like you can on Android , these six new lock screen widgets make Gemini easy to access on iOS and are handy shortcuts if you prefer Google’s AI. Widgets are available to you whether or not you pay $20 a month for Gemini Advanced .
To use these widgets, you will first need to install Google Gemini for iOS . Launch the app after downloading it and you will be prompted to sign in to your Google account. Next, switch to the Lock screen, long-press on an empty part of it, then select Customize .
Tap anywhere for widgets—just below the clock or in the bottom corners—to find all the widget options, including Gemini options. Select Gemini from the list, swipe left or right to scroll between the suggested widgets, then tap or drag the one you want to use to a location on the screen.
First up, there’s the Type prompt , which does exactly what its name suggests: it brings up the Gemini app and lets you start a new conversation with a text prompt. Instead, for voice chat, you can add Talk Live , which launches a Gemini Live interface designed to simulate a human conversation as closely as possible.
Open Mic takes you to a simpler voice interaction mode in Gemini, and Use Camera takes you straight to the camera interface: you can take a photo of something and ask Gemini questions about it (like what kind of flower you’re looking at or how to fix something broken).
Share Image lets you select an image from your iPhone to work with Gemini—for example, to ask a question about it or create new AI art—and finally there’s Share File , which allows you to provide Gemini with a file for analysis. One way to use this is to ask an AI assistant to summarize a PDF.
During my testing, all of these widgets worked as advertised and truly provide quick and easy access to the Gemini interface. You only save a couple of taps each time, but those taps can add up if you use Gemini a lot, even if getting to Gemini isn’t as easy as getting to Siri.
Widgets should now be available in version 1.2025.0762303 of Google Gemini in the App Store. The release notes also mention UI improvements, bug fixes, the ability to share text, images, and links directly to Gemini from any other application, and access to Deep Research for Gemini Advanced users.