(Credit: Jeffrey Hazelwood/PCMag; Google)
Color me shocked that the Gemini AI chatbot was the main focus of Google's annual I/O conference. The company went all out, announcing the new Omni and 3.5 Flash models, a redesigned Gemini user experience, a next-level suite of AI image and video creation tools, and tons of new agentic functionality, among many other things. Not everything is live just yet, but I tried out what I found most intriguing among what's now available. Read on for my initial findings.
Gemini's New Look Is Polished, Though Not Necessarily Better
Neural Expressive is the design term Google uses to describe Gemini’s new interface. I find it clean and sleek, giving Gemini a more modern feel than the familiar simplicity of ChatGPT or Claude. I appreciate some of what the new interface offers, such as its dedicated tab for generating images with Nano Banana, but other changes feel like a step back. For example, on the web, you no longer get a sidebar with past chats; you have to open a separate screen to scroll through them, which isn't nearly as convenient.
Gemini’s original interface was already straightforward and easy to use, so I don't see the adoption of the Neural Expressive design language as anything but a lateral move. I have similar feelings about Apple’s Liquid Glass. I didn't have any issues with the preceding interface in either case, but perhaps you did.
3.5 Flash Model Delivers Serious Speed—But at a Cost
The newest version of Gemini’s flagship Flash model, 3.5 Flash, is here, and it’s just as capable and quick as the previous 3.1 Flash model at answering questions and searching the web. Still, it's hard to tell much of a difference between the two when running these relatively lightweight tasks.
According to Google, the biggest improvements in 3.5 Flash are in the realm of coding. The company claims that the new model offers near GPT-5.5 intelligence, despite being far faster and more efficient. It’s still early days in my testing, but so far, I can confirm that 3.5 Flash works significantly faster than GPT-5.5, completing coding tasks in a fraction of the time. However, I also noticed 3.5 Flash forgetting instructions and making mistakes much more than GPT-5.5. Perhaps most importantly, I ran out of my Gemini AI Pro plan’s usage in just 15 minutes with 3.5 Flash, after which it told me I needed to wait six hours for my allotment to reset.
The coding community seems to have similar feelings. Posts complaining about the punishing usage limits with 3.5 Flash and those impressed by the efficiency and speed of 3.5 Flash currently dominate the r/google_antigravity subreddit at the time of writing.
Omni Actually Delivers on Its Creative Potential
Omni is an all-new model capable of “creating anything from any input," according to Google. However, it’s not immediately clear to me if Omni is genuinely new tech or just some amalgamation of 3.5 Flash, Nano Banana, and Veo. For example, in the new video tab of the Gemini interface, where Google tells me I can create with Omni, the actual model selection drop-down doesn’t offer an option for Omni. Instead, it displays 3.5 Flash.
Nonetheless, whatever underlying technology Omni leverages, it’s fairly impressive. I uploaded a 10-second clip of me spinning my (impeccably crafted) Voruna in Warframe, alongside two concept art images from Doom 2016. Then, I asked Gemini to make a hype video with a fire-and-brimstone vibe. About a minute later, Gemini gave me the following:
The video doesn't perfectly capture the character's look, but it makes a few changes to her armor and helmet and absolutely delivers on the spirit of the prompt in a remarkably cohesive video. What’s more, it took only about a minute for Gemini to process my materials and generate the clip.
Google Flow Makes AI Filmmaking Easier and More Conversational
Omni is also now available in Google Flow, Google’s filmmaking tool. In Flow, Omni is actually selectable as a model. As mentioned, Omni’s ability to create videos from whatever you input is impressive, but its raw video quality doesn’t strike me as meaningfully better than Veo 3.1’s, which was already best-in-class. Omni has some unique limitations in Flow that Veo doesn’t, as well. For instance, you can't extend Omni-created videos like you can with Veo-created clips.
Outside of Omni support, Flow gains a dedicated AI agent. Essentially, you can turn the AI video generation process into a conversation with Flow’s agent. This can be convenient, such as when I asked Flow to make some different versions of the video I created above. It followed up by asking if I wanted totally different styles or just different takes on the original with the same style before carrying out my request. Of course, I could have just prompted Omni to generate another video with the same style, sans Flow’s agentic experience.
Flow also has Tools now, which you can create and share. Think of Tools as multimedia-focused apps that exist within the Flow ecosystem. For example, I tried the Shot Explorer Tool, which lets you see images from different angles. I took a still from the video I created earlier (first slide) and used Shot Explorer to generate a version from a different angle (second slide). This worked without issue, and I see the potential usefulness of Tools, but they seem more about making what’s already possible with Gemini easier rather than introducing anything truly new.
Google's Biggest Gemini Features Haven’t Even Arrived Yet
All of the above is just a small subset of the new features and updates that Google plans for Gemini. A lot more is coming soon. Gemini Spark, for example, will be available to Gemini AI Ultra subscribers next week (and is coming to Chrome this summer). Google describes Spark as “your 24/7 personal agent” that’s capable of working on tasks in the background, even if you turn your computer or phone off. I have mixed feelings about AI agents, but an agent that works in the background makes my historical problem with their speed at least a non-issue.
Google also announced that AI agents are coming to Google Search this summer. The pitch sounds good. For example, you will be able to set up an AI agent to monitor the web for apartments that meet your criteria and get a notification when new listings are posted. However, how well these work and whether they can differentiate themselves from the many online services willing to notify you when certain things change or happen remains unknown.
Lastly, Google plans to launch Pics this summer, a bespoke app dedicated to AI image editing, courtesy of Nano Banana tech. It's a top-notch AI model that won our Technical Excellence Award, so an app that integrates its core capabilities seems promising. However, whether Pics can truly compete with full-on photo editing apps is an open question.
I'll continue testing and covering all the new Gemini features that roll out over the coming months, so make sure to check back for more.