Google Gemini adds minimize feature, can be collapsed into a floating bubble on screen edge

Google recently added a "minimize" button to the Android platform's Gemini overlay interface, allowing the AI assistant to no longer occupy a large portion of the screen during use. The update has not been officially announced and has been quietly rolled out to some devices. During conversations with Gemini, users can click the button above or next to the reply box to collapse the overlay into a compact bubble with a spark icon, freeing up screen space to continue using other applications.

Minimized design balances continuous conversation and multitasking

The core of this interface adjustment is to enhance the flexibility of switching between Gemini and other applications. When Gemini is processing more complex instructions and the screen is in a loading state, users do not need to continuously stare at the progress waiting for results. By clicking the minimize button, they can immediately return to email, social media feeds, or the browser to continue working on their current tasks. After the bubble is collapsed, the interface will display a line of prompt text, indicating that clicking the bubble can reopen the conversation, dragging the bubble can adjust its position, and swiping to one side can completely close Gemini.

The collapsed floating bubble will automatically adhere to one of six preset positions on the edge of the screen, retaining the option to reopen the conversation at any time without taking over the currently used work interface. For devices running Android 17, users can further build a more flexible multi-window layout by clicking outside the panel area, using system return gestures, or leveraging system-level bubble options.

Staggered rollout strategy and room for subsequent optimization

This feature is not immediately fully available, as Google is adopting a staggered rollout approach, with some devices receiving the update first. Early testers have reported that the bubble always resets to the bottom right corner of the screen after each minimization, indicating that there is still room for optimization in the mechanism, which may be the reason why Google continues to refine it before a large-scale rollout. Although the rollout pace is relatively cautious, the addition of the minimize entry point does make Gemini appear less "intrusive" in daily use: evolving from a static panel that occupies most of the screen each time it is invoked to a background tool that can retreat into the background and be ready for service at any time.

For the increasingly mobile office scenario where AI assistants are relied upon to handle trivial tasks, this "ready for service, unobtrusive" form is clearly more in line with actual needs than full-screen conversations. Through this interface tweak, Google has repositioned Gemini as a background assistant tool, allowing users to synchronize other operations while querying information or executing commands, without having to repeatedly switch between the assistant and applications.