What you need to know
- Initially limited to the United States, the Gemini app is now apparently spreading to more countries in Europe and Asia.
- A user in Germany reported getting Gemini to work on their Pixel 7 Pro by sideloading the APK.
- Sideloading and installing the Gemini app from APKMirror also worked seamlessly in India without any issues.
Last week, Google rebranded Bard to Gemini and added a new Android app for the AI. While the Gemini app was initially only available in the United States, it looks like Google is spreading it to more countries now.
Jack Krawczyk, the product lead for Gemini at Google, previously confirmed that the Google Assistant-replacement app is expanding to Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa, and the rest of North America soon.
Now, the folks over at Android Police have already gotten their hands on the Gemini app in parts of Asia and Europe, even though Europe wasn’t initially mentioned.
Word was going around that Google was waiting for the EU to pass its new AI Act, which is the first-ever rulebook that lays down a set of rules for creating, selling, and using artificial intelligence across the European Union. This legislation makes AI models cough up more detailed documentation, play by EU copyright rules, and divulge more information about their training data.
Anyway, an editor at Android Police managed to launch and use the Gemini app (in US English) on the Pixel 8 Pro. Meanwhile, a user in Germany shared that they got Gemini running on their Pixel 7 Pro by sideloading the APK.
The Gemini app started working for me today in the European Union (Germany)!!! I installed the APK yesterday but it was not working, today it suddenly worked 🥳 (using Pixel 7 Pro with assistant language set to English).February 10, 2024
Additionally, it looks like sideloading and installing the Gemini app from APKMirror worked smoothly in India with no problems.
Previously, people outside the US could sideload the APK from online sources. However, trying to install this sideloaded Gemini APK didn’t work out because of geo-restrictions.
EU lawmakers are gearing up for a vote on the AI Act this week, and the European Parliament is set to chime in next month. So, it might take a bit before the Gemini app becomes available across all of Europe.