Gemini on the web can now be accessed without a Google account

Google’s Gemini app has just made a notable shift in its general availability. From the start, a Google account was mandatory for using Gemini’s chat feature, but that’s no longer the case for basic interactions. As of today, navigating to gemini.google.com in Incognito Mode bypasses the traditional sign-in landing page and plops you right into the standard chat interface, ready to make a query.

This new, open approach allows for immediate engagement with Gemini, regardless of your Google account status. Users are greeted with suggested prompts that offer a quick start to exploring the AI’s capabilities. The personalized “Hello, [your name]” greeting is replaced with a more generic “Meet Gemini, your personal AI assistant” for users who aren’t signed in, but it has no real impact on the abilities on offer.

While the model picker shows users the options of 2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental), Deep Research, and Personalization (experimental), access to these more advanced models requires a Google account. Without signing in, users default to Gemini 2.0 Flash. Additionally, features like file uploads and chat history are exclusively available to signed-in users for pretty obvious reasons.

For now, however, it’s important to note that the Gemini app on Android still requires a Google account for access. But this move does make great strides in allowing users to experience the core functionality of Gemini without immediate account commitment. Taking this restriction away only opens the gates to more people giving Google’s advanced AI models a try, and that feels like a win in my book.

VIA: 9to5 Google