You can now use Siri with added ChatGPT on your iPhone, but Google is keen for you to use its Gemini AI bot instead: A few months ago, an official Gemini iPhone app was launched, and now we have some lock screen widgets to go with it.
While you can’t swap out the iPhone’s default digital assistant entirely, as you can on Android, these six new lock screen widgets do give you easier access to Gemini on iOS, and are handy shortcuts if you prefer Google’s AI. The widgets are available to you whether or not you’re paying $20 a month for Gemini Advanced.
To make use of these widgets, you first need Google Gemini for iOS installed. Launch the app after it’s been downloaded, and you’ll be asked to sign into your Google account. Next, switch to the lock screen, long press on a blank part of it, then choose Customize.
Gemini now shows up in the lock screen widgets list.
Credit: Lifehacker
Tap inside any of the widget spaces—just below the clock, or in the lower corners—to find all of your widgets options, including the Gemini ones. Choose Gemini from the list, swipe left or right to scroll between the widgets on offer, then tap on the one you want to use or drag it into place on screen.
First up there’s 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. For a voice chat instead, you can add Talk Live, which launches the Gemini Live experience—designed to mimic talking to a person as much as possible.
Open mic leads you to the more basic voice interaction mode in Gemini, while Use camera sends you straight to the camera interface: You can snap a picture of something and ask Gemini questions about it (like what species of flower you’re looking at, or how to fix something that’s broken).
You’ve got six widgets to pick from, including Talk Live.
Credit: Lifehacker
Share image lets you pick an image from your iPhone for Gemini to work with—to ask a question about it, for example, or to create new AI art—and finally there’s Share file, which lets you give Gemini a file to analyze. One way to use this would be to have the AI assistant summarize a PDF.
All these widgets worked as advertised during my testing, and do indeed allow quick and easy access into the Gemini interface. You’re only saving a couple of taps each time, but those taps can add up if you’re using Gemini a lot—even if it’s not quite as simple to get to Gemini as it is to Siri.
The widgets should be available now in version 1.2025.0762303 of Google Gemini in the App Store. The release notes also mention improvements to the user interface, bug fixes, the option to share text, images, and links directly to Gemini from any other app, and access to Deep Research for Gemini Advanced users.