Google redesigns Gemini AI to do away with the ‘giant wall of text’

Google says its new Gemini redesign is meant to end the era of prompt-and-response chat logs, replacing them with an interface that adapts to the query—using visuals, interactive elements, and magazine-like layouts. The changes roll out with input toggles for

For years. using an AI assistant has meant settling into a familiar rhythm: type a prompt. wait for a response. then scroll—sometimes for a long time—through what many people experience as a “giant wall of text.” At Google’s annual developer conference. Google I/O. the company moved to break that spell.

Google has released a new version of its AI assistant. Gemini. and it is a redesign of the prompt-and-response interface that has shaped how generative AI feels for much of the mass market. Gemini’s UI/UX lead. Jenny Blackburn. described the problem in plain terms: instead of users typing questions or prompts and receiving detailed written answers. Gemini will now respond with a wider variety of content. ranging from rich visuals to interactive elements to magazine-like graphic layouts.

Blackburn said the shift is intended to change what the experience feels like. “It stops feeling like you’re scrolling through this endless chat log and more like the interface is organically adapting around the information that’s being generated.” The core idea is that the interface will choose the most appropriate display format depending on the prompt or query. adjusting how much detail shows up and in what form.

The scale of the change matters because Gemini is already one of the main ways many people interact with AI firsthand. Google estimates Gemini has 900 million monthly users.

Until now, those interactions have been constrained by the conventions of the chat format. Blackburn said that can be clunky—sometimes requiring people to ask and re-ask questions to coax useful answers that avoid hallucinated information. The redesigned Gemini app and desktop experience was built around adaptability. with what Google describes as more intuitive controls and features. more ways to add context or collateral detail into a prompt. and more nimble responses.

“We think that as this technology becomes more capable, the interface should actually get simpler,” Blackburn said. She added that the long-standing pattern of users learning and adapting to software is due for a rethink. “Instead of you as a user having to learn and adapt to the software. which has been how software has been forever. we really see a future where the software adapts to the user and takes into account their specific needs.”.

That adaptability is designed to show up not just in how answers are displayed, but in how people can supply context. One prominent request Blackburn cited was easier toggling between input modes—switching from typing a query to speaking to uploading documents or reference images.

“Multimodality matters a lot,” Blackburn said. “We see, particularly on phones, people use their camera a lot to give context to Gemini. They also really like to switch between voice and typing. And they were telling us you need to make this easier.”

Google’s redesign streamlines the typing experience by displaying only the text box and the keyboard during written prompting. Other forms of input are moved into a separate menu presented as a simple grid of icons.

Beneath the interface changes is a new design language that Google says is meant to make the experience feel less like a linear conversation and more like a system responding in motion. Blackburn said her team referenced “the atomic-level movement of energy” and “simple interconnected units” as a visual concept. The resulting design language is called Neural Expressive. “This is a subtle nod to what’s happening behind the glass. And it’s intended to capture the fluid momentum of the model as it’s processing data,” Blackburn said.

“We wanted to create the feeling of seeing neurons fire,” she added.

The concept shows up across the product. including a procedurally created animated background on the main query screen and menu motion when the system is listening or processing information. Google also says Neural Expressive governs how Gemini responses are displayed in the redesigned layout. giving information a hierarchy and organizing it so large amounts of information are easier to process.

For a typical query, Google says Gemini will show a simple overarching answer at the top of the page. Additional information will appear in digestible layouts—chunks of text broken up with embedded images or videos—and offset bullet points summarizing key takeaways.

“Every single change we made was really engineered to make it more scannable, reduce the fatigue of reading, and really make it easy and effortless to deep-dive into the content,” Blackburn said.

The redesign also brings a more flexible imagery strategy. Some of what Gemini displays will be real images. such as photos of actual products in response to a shopping query. Other times. when an image would better explain a concept than text. Google says Gemini will generate images on the fly using Google’s Nano Banana AI image generator.

Blackburn said this added functionality is designed to avoid burdening performance. “The way I thought about that was this can’t be slower. If people have to wait, that’s a really hard trade-off,” she said. “We did a lot of rigorous testing to make sure that these responses are not slower because they have these new attributes in them.”.

The company frames the redesign as more than surface-level polish. Blackburn said, “It’s not just a cosmetic refresh. It really is sort of like a deep reimagining of the experience.” As responses become more tailored to what a user needs. she said. it is expected to change how people use the product.

“As responses become a lot more tailored to what the user needs, that’s going to change how they use the product,” Blackburn said.

Google Gemini Jenny Blackburn Google I/O generative AI AI interface multimodality chat log Neural Expressive Nano Banana AI image generator