Gemini App Redesigns ‘plus’ Menu, Adds Canvas On Android And IOS

Following the web introduction on Tuesday, Gemini Canvas is now rolling out to the Android and iOS app with a redesign of the plus menu.

Instead of a list, the ‘plus’ menu now places Camera, Gallery, Files, and Drive (which is not available on iOS) side-by-side. Underneath the pill-shaped buttons, you get shortcuts for:

Deep Research: Get in-depth answers
Canvas: Write docs and code

Old vs. new

In the case of Deep Research, it saves you from having to go to the model picker. It follows Google no longer specifying what model is leveraged, currently: 2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental).

When a feature is unavailable with a particular model, the buttons are grayed out. On gemini.google.com, those two buttons appear in the prompt bar. As of this week, you’ll also find a new “Files in this chat” button in the top-right corner.

Canvas on mobile does not offer a split-pane interface like on desktop, which somewhat impacts the convenience. You can open and read drafts, but all edits require closing the document and then entering a new prompt in the chat. The ability to highlight and edit is unavailable on this form factor. However, there are preview and next version shortcuts in the top bar to quickly browse revisions.

Canvas with this plus menu redesign for the Gemini app on Android and iOS is rolling out now. It follows the mobile Audio Overviews rollout.