I wonder if they will finally let you use past chats without having to turn on the data sharing, since it’s possible to store chat context on disk. (No chance).
It wasn't even the local-ness so much. Even if they stored at remotely it would be okay like ChatGPT or Claude but unlike the others for a long time the only way to let it store history on their servers was also allowing them to train on it. I haven't checked if it's changed.
I've had the gemini web app in a safari embedded browser tab for 6+months its worked great as a local app. (M1 Pro base spec)
I set Super + C set to open it.
First impressions of the native app:
I think I will save RAM and it will be faster - Cool.
Download, install, sign in - Easy.
Change the keyboard shortcuts - Simple.
cmd + N to open a new chat - better than cmd + shift + O in the web app.
Back to work, a few moments pass.
super + C - ... wait ... there is a noticable delay in opening the app?
Maybe try the new mini chat? - Same delay 800+ms?
Thats annoying, every other app on my mac switches instantly?
Why is this slow? The delay long enough that you break my flow and make me think spending the RAM is worth it for the old web version? Whats the point of native if its slow?
Second grip - the text layout is too wide to read comfortably. At least give me the option to put it in a more narrow layout. I use every app full screen so reading text across the full width of my screen is pretty awkward.
Anyway I'll give it a go and see if it grows on me but right now the web app feels more polished and responsive so I will likely switch back.
Im just replying to my own comment to praise the team for the latest update. They have fixed the speed issue and the text is now a sane width on my screen.
Well done and thank you.
If I was to ask for more there are a few things that Claude and Codex are doing better on.
Way more integrations / skills. I wish I could use MCPs and skills here.
Modern design and feel too. This design, while native, feels very outdated
Why would it save any RAM if you already have a browser open where it just eats the cost of an extra tab? I haven't used it but I'm assuming it's electron or similar and not actually "native"
I was essentially installing the web app as a PWA. Why? This allows me to set a deterministic keyboard shortcut to open gemini, in my case super + C, as if it were a native app. Downside is that it eats some ram. I haven’t benchmarked this I have no idea how heavy on ram this really is. FWIW I’m fine spending ram on this if it improves my workflow, which it does.
The Windows app doesn't always (or even usually, in my experience) stay synced with the webapp, so I only use webapp now. Wondering if the same will be true for the Mac app.
Man, I’ve spent so many years now without google, I want to try it because I want to try different agents but I don’t really want to setup google on my MacBook.
Does this have console like Claude and codex?
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I was able to install and use Gemini on macOS fine authentication worked. I had some issues authenticating with the cli app, some certificate issues.
Once I got past the certificate issues, now it will not let me use the cli code assist without verifying that I am 18+ but I can use the UI app just fine without the verification.
To verify, seems to require submitting a government issued ID or credit card.
No thanks. This kind of stuff is why I dropped google long ago.
However the app doesn't support the notebooks in Gemini web yet, which is very helpful for Gemini acting as a research assistant. Looking forward to its updates.
> The Gemini app is now available as a native macOS experience
Ok Google, this is well-earned. This is enough to make me try Gemini over Claude.
I'm so fed up with _fucking_ self-updating Electron apps. One day it's working, next day its not. I'd rather just have releases once it's confirmed working, and something I can roll back if it breaks. I have work to get done, and it's like rolling the dice right now every day.
I'm going to be honest - this is over a year late. I still use ChatGPT on Mac because it actually had a Mac App from May of 2024, whereas I had to go to the Gemini website to use Gemini. It was even worse because of the fragmented experience - there's been an iOS Gemini app for a while now. Integrating Gemini into Chrome is not the same experience as having a standalone app.
Now that it's at least here, hopefully Google can continue updating it instead of giving up on it if their metrics don't show as fast growth as iOS or Chrome usage.
The amount of products and updates shipping from the AI-invigorated Google is mind-boggling.
They are leading or highly competitive in every AI segment: foundation model, open-weights model, video model, image model, world model, AI IDE, AI CLI, text-to-music, text-to-speech, etc. etc. etc.
98 comments
First impressions of the native app: I think I will save RAM and it will be faster - Cool. Download, install, sign in - Easy. Change the keyboard shortcuts - Simple. cmd + N to open a new chat - better than cmd + shift + O in the web app.
Back to work, a few moments pass.
super + C - ... wait ... there is a noticable delay in opening the app?
Maybe try the new mini chat? - Same delay 800+ms?
Thats annoying, every other app on my mac switches instantly?
Why is this slow? The delay long enough that you break my flow and make me think spending the RAM is worth it for the old web version? Whats the point of native if its slow?
Second grip - the text layout is too wide to read comfortably. At least give me the option to put it in a more narrow layout. I use every app full screen so reading text across the full width of my screen is pretty awkward.
Anyway I'll give it a go and see if it grows on me but right now the web app feels more polished and responsive so I will likely switch back.
Edit: typos
Well done and thank you.
If I was to ask for more there are a few things that Claude and Codex are doing better on. Way more integrations / skills. I wish I could use MCPs and skills here. Modern design and feel too. This design, while native, feels very outdated
Does this have console like Claude and codex?
---
I was able to install and use Gemini on macOS fine authentication worked. I had some issues authenticating with the cli app, some certificate issues.
Once I got past the certificate issues, now it will not let me use the cli code assist without verifying that I am 18+ but I can use the UI app just fine without the verification.
To verify, seems to require submitting a government issued ID or credit card.
No thanks. This kind of stuff is why I dropped google long ago.
I used gemini for past few months as using Safari's add to dock feature. Been waiting for gemini app tho as web version is just so buggy.
Can’t even use the new Gemma on device model… no model selection besides fast/normal/thinking.
Also requires Google login
- Can't adjust font display size
- Can't open multiple chat windows at once
- Can't Cmd+F within a chat to find content
Hoping it succeeds, waiting until it does.
Have been seeing that happen consistently where older chats have some messages missing in between
> The Gemini app is now available as a native macOS experience
Ok Google, this is well-earned. This is enough to make me try Gemini over Claude.
I'm so fed up with _fucking_ self-updating Electron apps. One day it's working, next day its not. I'd rather just have releases once it's confirmed working, and something I can roll back if it breaks. I have work to get done, and it's like rolling the dice right now every day.
Now that it's at least here, hopefully Google can continue updating it instead of giving up on it if their metrics don't show as fast growth as iOS or Chrome usage.
They are leading or highly competitive in every AI segment: foundation model, open-weights model, video model, image model, world model, AI IDE, AI CLI, text-to-music, text-to-speech, etc. etc. etc.