- 9to5Google reported on May 3, 2026 that Google’s full Gemini app redesign has begun a limited rollout on iOS.
- The homepage replaces the existing prompt with a pill-shaped box; voice input and Gemini Live remain on the right, with a “+” button opening a bottom-sheet for Photos, Camera, recent images, Files, Notebooks, and uploads.
- The model picker moves back to a top-left dropdown; the redesign uses thin, rounded outline icons and a colorful pulsating gradient background that fully leverages when prompts are entered.
- On iOS specifically, the redesign heavily uses Liquid Glass — Apple’s translucent material introduced earlier this week — going further than the initial Liquid Glass support that landed days earlier.
What Happened
Google’s full Gemini app redesign surfaced in a limited iOS rollout on May 3, 2026, according to 9to5Google. The publication reports a small number of iOS users seeing the redesign in the past 24 hours. The redesign overhauls every part of the UI: homepage, prompt box, tools menu, model picker, navigation drawer, and chat thinking-steps placement.
Why It Matters
Gemini’s app design has been an explicit competitive front against ChatGPT throughout 2025-2026. ChatGPT‘s mobile interface has stayed stable while Google has iterated through several Gemini-app revisions. The current redesign consolidates a unified tool surface that Google has been testing on Android, desktop web, and (already live) Gemini for Mac, suggesting cross-platform parity is the medium-term goal. The Liquid Glass-heavy iOS treatment also signals Google’s continued willingness to lean into Apple’s design language on iOS — uncommon among Google’s first-party iOS apps historically.
Technical Details
The homepage now shows a pill-shaped prompt box. Voice input and Gemini Live remain on the right side. A “+” button opens a bottom sheet with a carousel: Photos, Camera, recent images at the top, then Files, Notebooks, and “More uploads” at the bottom. Below the carousel is a tools list with descriptions: Images, Videos, Music, Canvas, Deep research, and Guided learning. The greeting is centered above the prompt: “Hi [name], what’s on your mind?” with the Gemini spark above it. The headline visual change is a colorful pulsating gradient background that fully leverages once a prompt is entered.
The model picker has moved back to the top-left as a dropdown menu, after previous experimentation with other placements. The icon set has switched to thin, rounded outlines. The navigation drawer changes the account switcher placement: Google has moved it to the bottom, a notable departure from first-party Google app conventions. The “See thinking steps” element in chats has moved from inline display to the overflow menu, with the thought process now appearing as a bottom sheet when invoked.
On iOS specifically, the redesign uses Liquid Glass — Apple’s translucent material — substantially. This goes further than the initial Liquid Glass support 9to5Google reported earlier in the week. Android behavior in this redesign was not yet visible at the time of 9to5Google’s reporting. The rollout pattern suggests Google is testing iOS first, with Android likely to follow once iOS feedback surfaces.
Who’s Affected
Gemini’s existing user base — particularly the iOS subset — is the directly affected group. Power users who have configured workflows around the previous tool layouts will need to relearn surface placement. ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity face an updated competitive surface for mobile AI experience that prioritizes a more visually distinctive treatment. Apple gains a high-profile third-party showcase of Liquid Glass on a major app, supporting Apple’s design-system rollout. Mobile-app design teams across the AI industry will study Gemini’s specific choices — particularly the unified tool surface and the gradient-background motion — for cues on what Google considers tested-and-shippable.
What’s Next
The rollout is currently limited; broader iOS availability and the Android counterpart are likely to follow over the next several weeks. Watch for Google’s own announcement (typically a blog post or Sundar Pichai social post) confirming the redesign and detailing the full feature changes. The bottom-sheet thinking-steps treatment is particularly worth tracking — if it sticks, expect ChatGPT and Claude to follow with similar progressive-disclosure patterns rather than inline reasoning displays.
