Summary

  • Gemini 2.0 Flash update rolls out for everyone including free-tier users.
  • The new Gemini Flash 2.0 model offers improved responses for writing, learning, and brainstorming tasks.
  • Advanced subscribers can access a variety of Gemini models for query handling, with a phased rollout for Flash 2.0.

Google’s AI chatbot rival to services like Meta AI and OpenAI’s ChatGPT is Gemini, but it isn’t as simple as pulling up a chat and querying away. Google offers a variety of different models to choose from, even if you aren’t paying for a subscription to use advanced models. Of these, Flash is the one that strikes a balance between the performance of Pro and the compactness of Nano, and it just got an update.

An illustration with the Gemini 2.0 logo against a festive, pink background


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Google describes Flash as the Gemini model you would rely on for daily tasks, such as those instructions to Gemini which now replaces Google Assistant. The company says you can now use Gemini 2.0 Flash for conversations with the AI in the Gemini app for Android. The new model superseded Gemini 1.5, and analyst @MaxWeinbach on X (formerly Twitter) notes its performance is notably better than OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Claude 3.6 Sonnet.

Flash 2.0 was an experiment first released in December last year, but it is now in stable, so all users have access to it. However, if you’re a Gemini Advanced subscriber, you can now choose between the following Gemini models for query handling:

  • Flash 2.0
  • Flash 1.5
  • Pro 1.5
  • Pro 1.5 with Deep Research
  • Experimental Advanced 2.0

New features for free

Phased rollout might need users to wait a little

Google Gemini prompt displayed on a phone sitting on a green patterned background

Google confirms the older Gemini Flash 1.5 will be sticking around for the next few weeks, so users engaged in interactions with it can wrap up their work before switching to the new model. Specifically, the company says Flash 2.0 is snappier with responses for tasks such as writing, learning, and brainstorming. This might seem cryptic or too little to gauge what has changed, and you’d be right to believe that, because it seems to be an incremental update, and not a giant leap ahead. However, Gemini also runs the latest version of Imagen 3 now, for image generation needs, which is more accurate.

Flash 2.0 is coming to the web and mobile, but we aren’t seeing it on our devices at the time of writing, so it could be a phased rollout. In any case, Gemini updates are often linked to the Google app as well, so ensure you update the it as well as the Gemini app before checking if you have access to the new model.

Thanks: Armando