Google has introduced a new feature called Canvas to its AI-powered Gemini chatbot. Similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT Canvas and Anthropic's Artifacts, this feature provides Gemini users with an interactive space for creating, refining, and sharing writing and coding projects.
Gemini's product director noted in a blog post that Canvas is designed to work seamlessly with Gemini, helping users transform their ideas into reality. This workspace represents the latest effort by AI companies to turn their chatbot platforms into comprehensive productivity suites. Compared to text-only interfaces, these workspaces offer greater precision and allow real-time code previews.
Canvas for Gemini can be accessed via the prompt bar in both web and mobile applications. Users can draft long messages with Canvas, then edit and fine-tune them. Dedicated tools enable users to update specific parts of a draft and adjust tone, length, and formatting. For instance, you can highlight a section of text and instruct Gemini to make it more concise, professional, or casual. If collaboration is needed, content can be exported to Google Docs with a single click.
In addition, Canvas includes programming-related features. Users can generate and preview prototypes of web applications using HTML, React, and other code formats. Gemini can modify the preview based on user instructions, and Canvas will iteratively refresh the display.
Google has also integrated NotebookLM's audio summary feature into Gemini. This capability creates lifelike podcast-style audio summaries from various sources such as documents and web pages. In Gemini, audio summaries support multiple file formats and content types. Uploading a document through the prompt bar triggers the audio summary shortcut, and once generated, the summary can be downloaded or shared via the web or mobile Gemini app.
Starting Tuesday, both Canvas and audio summary features are available free of charge to Gemini users worldwide. However, the code preview functionality of Canvas is currently limited to the web version, and audio summaries are only available in English.
