Google Gemini now supports the Pixel Tablet — kind of

For Google right now, this is the summer of Gemini — it was basically all the company could talk about back at I/O in May. Every major tech firm is betting big on AI right now, and that’s no different for Google, with the service touching pretty much everything it’s been doing lately. Right now, you can get Gemini on your Android phone, but we’re already looking to where it’s headed next. Maybe that’s going to be earbuds, but a recent report raises the possibility of official Pixel Tablet support being right around the corner.

Google’s been getting Gemini’s ready for tablets for a little while now, and even a few months back, the team at 9to5Google was able to manipulate it into running on a Pixel Tablet. Today, the site shares that Gemini should be operational for anyone sideloading onto the device, and the app finally displays tablet-specific onboarding instructions.

That’s still a reasonably big hoop for the average user to jump through, and until Pixel Tablet owners can grab Gemini straight from Google Play, it’s a little early to call this official support. That said, it feels like we’re starting to close in on that final stretch.

Since this is the Pixel Tablet we’re talking about, its docked Hub Mode is key to the unit’s smart home functionality — but that’s also one area where Gemini has yet to match Assistant’s broad feature set. In 9to5’s tests, the site observed that even with Gemini active on the Tablet, it still utilizes Assistant for Hub Mode interactions.

We’re curious if this behavior will persist once support formally arrives, as while the app clearly acknowledges the need to lean on Assistant for certain features, that feels like a lesser commitment than the sort of full fallback happening in Hub Mode now.