Gemini extensions are now accessible from your phone’s lock screen

Google is rolling out some important improvements to Gemini on Android. Starting this week, Android users can access Gemini extensions directly from their phones’ lock screens.

This is an incredibly useful new feature that makes it possible for the most frequently used interactions with Gemini to be accessible without having to unlock your Android phone.

For previous Assistant on Lockscreen or Gemini on Lockscreen users, the new Extensions on Lockscreen feature should work by default, so no change is needed. The rest must open Gemini, tap the avatar, choose Settings, then Gemini on lock screen, and enable “Use Gemini without unlocking.”

With the expansion of Gemini actions on lockscreen, Android users can try different invocations methods, as well as usual prompts on lock screen. Here are some examples provided by Google:

Try different invocation methods - ensure your phone is locked (if you have Face Unlock enabled, please ensure that your face is not positioned in such a way that the device is actually unlocked) and then initiate Gemini by:

• Using the “Hey Google” hotword for a hands-free experience
• Long-pressing the power button (Pixel users) or, using any other method you use to activate Gemini.

Try your usual prompts on lockscreen - you can start by trying out all of your typical prompts. However, if you need some inspiration to get you started, below are a few examples:

• “I’m planning a date night tonight, remind me to pick up some chocolates, strawberries and roses”
• “What time does the nearest Starbucks close at, and how long would it take me to get there?”

Although Android users can access most Gemini extensions directly from their phones’ lock screens, Gemini will still require them to unlock for some actions. For example, whenever a Gemini response contains personal content from apps (i.e. calendar events), you will have to unlock your Android phone to be able to read the answer.

The changes announced over the weekend should now be available to all Android users, you don’t even need to manually update anything.