Google Bard could get renamed to Gemini in a couple of days

We recently heard that Google Bard could get renamed to Gemini, after the underlying large language model that now powers it. However, it sounds like this renaming could take place as soon as this week.

Developer Dylan Roussel spotted an early changelog for Google Bard (ostensibly via the Bard update page) that points to several notable changes coming on February 7, 9to5Google reported. Check out the screenshot below.

The most noteworthy change mentioned is that “Bard is now Gemini.” Google used the changelog to elaborate on the decision:

We’re committed to giving everyone direct access to Google AI and, as of this week, every Gemini user across our supported countries and languages has access to Google’s best family of AI models. To better reflect this commitment, we’ve renamed Bard to Gemini.

This isn’t the only notable nugget of information gleaned from the changelog, as it turns out that Gemini Advanced (based on Gemini Ultra 1.0) will be available to try from February 7 as well. Google’s log mentions that this will be accessible via a paid plan (there’s no word on pricing) and available in over 150 markets. Gemini Advanced features mentioned by Google include “expanded multi-modal capabilities,” better coding support, and the ability to upload documents, files, data and more to have them “deeply” analyzed.

The changelog notes that the Gemini app will be available for Android, while iOS users can access Gemini via the Google app. The Gemini app is said to only be available on “select devices” in the US for now, but Google adds that it’ll be available in Japanese, Korean, and English globally in the “coming days.”  However, this support doesn’t extend to the UK, Switzerland, and European Economic Area countries. 

Finally, Gemini on the web will be launching in Canada (supporting all languages), with the Gemini app coming to the country “soon” in English.