Joe Maring / Android Authority
Thanks to a recent APK teardown, we discovered that Google’s At a Glance feature on Pixel phones is getting a major overhaul. What we know as At a Glance will be rebranded as “Gemini Space,” and with that, Google is also adding more contextual cards to the longstanding widget — including sports scores, birthday reminders, finance updates, and more.
From what we’ve seen, Gemini Space aims to show a lot more contextual info than At a Glance currently does, bringing it more in line with something like Samsung’s Now Brief/Now Bar experiences. Assuming Google can make Gemini Space’s content more helpful and personalized than Now Brief, that’s not a bad pitch.
However, with this being the biggest At a Glance refresh we’ve ever seen, I hope Google also uses this as an opportunity to fix something that’s been a problem for years.
Are you looking forward to Gemini Space? 22 votes Yes, it already looks great! 36 % Yes, but only if Google adds more customization options. 41 % No, it doesn't seem very impressive. 23 % Other (let us know in the comments). 0 %
The main thing I want Gemini Space to fix
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
Ever since Google added At a Glance to Pixel home screens in 2017 with the Pixel 2, the widget has been extremely rigid by design.
Google has always given us control over what content we want to see in At a Glance, but we’ve never been able to change the widget’s appearance or placement. You can’t move At a Glance to the middle of your phone or place it further down on the home screen. You can’t make the widget larger or smaller, and you certainly can’t get rid of At a Glance if you don’t want to see it. You’re simply stuck with the widget at the top left of your Pixel home screen, and you just have to accept its placement there.
Although there’s currently no indication that Gemini Space will add such customization options, I hope Google is using this big overhaul as an excuse to finally address this. If Google is adding so many new cards and going as far as to rebrand At a Glance to Gemini Space, it suggests that the company sees Gemini Space as a significant evolution of the old At a Glance feature. If that’s the case, why not fix a pain point that Pixel users regularly complain about?
Joe Maring / Android Authority Now Brief home screen widget.
Although its implementation is slightly different, Samsung offers precisely this with Now Brief in One UI 7 and 8. If you want quick access to Now Brief on your home screen, you can add a widget and place it wherever you’d like. If you don’t care about Now Brief, you can remove the widget and largely ignore the feature — just as it should be.
I certainly hope Gemini Space’s new cards are good enough that I don’t want to remove/disable it, but the fact remains I should have that option to choose. Further, if I love Gemini Space but want to move it somewhere else on my phone, I should be able to do that, too.
As someone who’s long felt like At a Glance is a good idea with a lot of wasted potential, I’m genuinely excited about the prospect of Gemini Space and hope it supercharges At a Glance in a way we haven’t seen before. But just as much, Google needs to open up the customization floodgates it’s kept locked away for far too long.
It’s time for Google to ease its restrictions
Joe Maring / Android Authority
Limited home screen customization has been an issue with Google’s Pixel phones since the beginning. Just like how Google hasn’t let you change anything with At a Glance, the same is true of the Google Search bar at the bottom of Pixel home screens.
The search bar was a point of discussion last month when Google added a new AI Mode icon, much to my chagrin. However, after years of lacking customization for the search bar, we recently found a new “Customize Search widget” settings page that includes the option to remove the AI Mode icon — a good sign that Google is finally starting to ease some of its home screen restrictions.
Limited home screen customization has been an issue with Google's Pixel phones since the beginning.
Could we see similar options for Gemini Space whenever it rolls out? The ability to move the widget anywhere on the home screen or remove it altogether? Given how significant an update Gemini Space appears to be, and Google adding new customization tools for the Google Search bar, the pieces are certainly there for it to happen.
Gemini Space has the potential to be one of the best Pixel home screen upgrades we’ve ever seen. And as much as I can’t wait to get my hands on it, I also can’t wait (Google willing) to move Gemini Space wherever I damn well please.