Google’s Gemini is coming to Chrome for faster, easier browsing

By Judy Sanhz Published March 20, 2025

Gemini Live Glic setting — Windows Latest

Google is testing the integration of Gemini at the top of the browser in the latest Chrome Canary build, to facilitate access to the AI and make your browsing experience easier, as Windows Latest reports. Google is also working on a widget for Gemini.

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Thanks to browser researcher Leopeva64, new details about how the feature works have emerged. Windows Latest tried turning on the GLIC-related flags to enable the Gemini icon but experienced some issues. A new “Glic” setting appeared in Chrome, allowing you to personalize how to open Gemini on your Windows PC. The setting gives you options to override existing shortcuts or enable them inside the menu.

Once you enable the toggle, you should see the Gemini icon beside the control icons to close, maximize, or minimize it. When you click on the Gemini button, the AI assistant appears in a floating window, which could have both a floating and fixed state. It seems Google wants Gemini in as many places as possible, so it makes it feasible for you to add it to the taskbar. If you go to the browser’s settings page, you can configure it to make the Gemini icon appear in the system tray as well.

The system tray icon allows you to force close Gemini and change its appearance, access, or shortcut settings. However, you will only see Gemini in the system tray if you use it, whether it’s to use your search history or not. It looks like Chrome is finally catching up to ChromeOS since Gemini has recently replaced Google Assistant on Chromebooks. However, the feature will roll out in phases, so don’t worry if you don’t see it immediately on your Chromebook.

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Judy Sanhz is a Digital Trends computing writer covering all computing news. Loves all operating systems and devices.

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Google launches Gemini 2.5 Pro, its ‘most intelligent AI model’ yet

In a blog post today, Google announced Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) for developers and Advanced subscribers, aiming to help you tackle increasingly complex problems. It's the first in the family and set up to "think" before it speaks.

Google says it'll be available today in Google AI Studio (its developer platform) and for Advanced subscribers, with Vertex AI support coming soon. Google also claims to outperform the competition, and that Gemini 2.5 Pro takes the number one spot on the LMArena leaderboard with 18.8%, surpassing other AI models such as ChatGPT and Deepseek.

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You can now have secret chats with Google’s Gemini in incognito mode

Launching Gemini Deep Research query on Chrome desktop.

You can now have a quick chat with Gemini on your web browser without having to sign in first. And, to speed up the process, the Gemini website even takes you directly to the chat window instead of showing you a landing page first.

This move, spotted by 9To5Google, is pretty smart as it allows unconvinced users to try out the product with no strings attached. With any luck, they'll enjoy the experience and decide to sign up to get access to more of the features.

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I saw Google’s Gemini AI erase copyright evidence. I am deeply worried

Gemini Advanced on the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Update: Google has responded to Digital Trends’ queries. The story has been updated with company’s statement below.
The rise of generative AI has been a fairly messy process, especially from fair usage ethics and copyright perspective. AI giants are inking deals with publishers to avoid legal hassles, while at the same time, they are embroiled in copyright tussles in courts in multiple countries.
As the ravenous appetite for training AI on user data grows, we might be in for another ethical conundrum. Multiple users on X and Reddit have shared demonstrations of how Google’s latest Gemini 2.0 series AI model can remove watermarks from copyright-protected images.
Going by the before/after samples of images, it seems Gemini is doing a fairly good job of removing the watermarks. Notably, it’s not only erasing those banner-style watermarks, but also fairly complex overlays with design and stylized text elements.
https://x.com/ajiteshleo/status/1901484196972945872?s=61
The model in question is the Gemini 2.0 Flash, which was released earlier this year and got a reasoning upgrade, as well. It is worth noting here that you can not remove the watermark if you are using the mobile or desktop version of the Gemini 2.0 Flash model. Trying to do so returns a message like this:
“Removing watermarks from images without the explicit permission of the copyright holder is illegal in most countries. It is important to respect the copyright laws and intellectual property rights. If you want to use an image with a watermark, you should contact the copyright holder and ask for permission.”
You can, however, try and remove the watermark from images in the Google AI Studio. Digital Trends successfully removed watermarks from a variety of images using the Gemini 2.0 Flash (Image Generation) Experimental model.

It is a violation of local copyright laws and any usage of AI-modified material without due consent could land you in legal trouble. Moreover, it is a deeply unethical act, which is also why artists and authors are fighting in court over companies using their work to train AI models without duly compensating them or seeking their explicit nod.

How are the results?
A notable aspect is that the images produced by the AI are fairly high quality. Not only is it removing the watermark artifacts, but also fills the gap with intelligent pixel-level reconstruction. In its current iteration, it works somewhat like the Magic Eraser feature available in the Google Photos app for smartphones.
Furthermore, if the input image is low quality, Gemini is not only wiping off the watermark details but also upscaling the overall picture. .
https://x.com/kaiju_ya/status/1901099096930496720?s=61
The output image, however, has its own Gemini watermark, although this itself can be removed with a simple crop. There are a few minor differences in the final image produced by Gemini after its watermark removal process, such as slightly different color temperatures and fuzzy surface details in photorealistic shots.