Google ships Gemini 2.5 Flash, Live Camera for iOS

The Gemini app for iOS is being updated with extra AI smarts, including a better-performing Gemini 2.5 Flash and a new Gemini Live camera.

Google I/O is the search giant's annual gathering to show off the company's latest innovations. As usual, a lot of it is about artificial intelligence, and some of it applies to iOS.

The Gemini app for iOS is the beneficiary of some of the announcements, with updates to the app rolling out to users from Tuesday onwards.

The first main change is Gemini 2.5 Flash, an AI model that is fast and uses fewer resources compared to other models in the Google catalog. For the new iOS release, 2.5 Flash includes considerable improvements to performance.

Depending on the usage, Gemini 2.5 Flash is now using about 25% fewer tokens for queries than in previous versions of the Gemini app. This means it will use fewer resources for queries, or can offer better responses or a lower latency compared to earlier editions.

Aside from general performance, there is also Gemini Live camera, a visual interface for Gemini queries. Based on Project Astra, the camera and screen sharing feature is a fullscreen interface, which users can use to ask queries based on what's in view.

For example, a user could point the iPhone's camera at an object and ask what it is.

Google also plans other additions to Gemini Live via integrations with other Google apps. Links to Google Calendar events and Google Maps navigation are two possibilities to arrive in the coming weeks.