Google renames ‘Gemini Extensions’ to just ‘apps’

Abner Li | Mar 3 2025 - 5:46 pm PT

Amid this morning’s big Live announcement, Google is renaming “Gemini Extensions” to “apps.” There’s also a small tweak to the model picker on the homescreen.

With the latest beta (version 16.8) of the Google app on Android, the “Extensions” branding has been phased out across Gemini. This includes in the account menu and the full page for enabling and disabling each tool.

Old	New
Gemini Extensions help you bring it all together	Bring it all together with Gemini and your favorite apps
Turn Gemini Extensions on or off anytime	Manage which apps Gemini connects to
One conversation, many extensions	One conversation, many apps

Top comment by Zargh

Liked by 10 people

The new name also makes sense in the context of Android 16's new "App Functions" API: it will allow them to put third party apps which support that within the same list. Even though Google's architecture makes a distinction between Extensions (structured wrapper over an API which an LLM directly uses) and Functions (The LLM passes the request over to an app then recieves the result), there's no reason for the user to know about any of this as for all intents and purposes its the same outcome.

Plus wouldn't be surprised if some of the existing Android-only extensions like Spotify are already using a pre-release version of a backported version of the new API, and they plan to open up wider support for third parties at IO.

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They are now called “apps” — not capitalized — in a shift that does not appear to have any functional impact. The logo in the account menu has not been updated and is still a generic extension icon.

The change makes sense for Workspace, Messages, Google Home, YouTube, etc., but not that much for Utilities, which lets you access phone functionality. Extensions was a well-suited name for that.

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While people are familiar with the concept of extensions (thanks to browsers), apps are arguably more widespread. This update is not yet live on gemini.google.com/extensions.

Meanwhile, on the homescreen, a small change places the current model you’re using in a tiny pill that now includes the downward-facing chevron. (The old UI that had the triangle next to the Gemini tier was centered in a displeasing manner.)