What you need to know
- Google recently announced that it has rebranded Google Bard to Gemini.
- It also debuted a $20 subscription for the Gemini Advanced service, which can handle complex tasks and hold longer and more detailed conversations.
- Gemini Advanced will be part of the new Google One subscription tier, Google One AI Premium Plan.
- Aside from granting access to Gemini Advanced, the plan features additional perks, including 2TB of storage and more.
Almost a year into its existence, Microsoft decided to rebrand Bing Chat to Copilot at Ignite 2023. This strategic move paved the way for Copilot Pro's recently announced paid subscription. The $20 service promises better image creation capabilities, enhanced performance with 100 daily boosts, and more.
And now, Google is seemingly borrowing a page from Microsoft's playbook. The company just announced rebranding Google Bard to Gemini, further adding that it represents its "most capable family of models."
Besides changing Bard's name, Google is unveiling a Copilot Pro-like service dubbed Gemini Advanced. For context, Gemini is based on the Gemini Pro LLM, which is quite powerful and efficient. However, it stacks miles behind the Gemini Ultra model, which powers Gemini Advanced.
RELATED: What's the difference between Microsoft Copilot (free) and Microsoft Copilot free?
The Ultra 1.0 model lets Gemini Advanced handle complex tasks, including coding, logical reasoning, and more. What's more, it can handle longer and more detailed conversations. It also can pick up important details from past conversations for context and continuation of new chats.
However, Gemini Advanced isn't free. Like Copilot Pro, it's a paid subscription for $19.99 per month. It's worth noting that the subscription is part of Google's new Google One AI Premium Plan.
Interestingly, the plan will also provide subscribers access to additional perks included in the existing Google One Premium Plan, including 2TB of storage and more. Google also indicated that AI Premium subscribers can leverage Gemini's capabilities across its platforms, including Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, and more. It's like adding $10 to your Google One Premium Plan (currently costs $9.99/month) to gain access to Gemini Advanced.
Users interested in trying Gemini Advanced can take advantage of the two-month free trial before committing. It's available in English across 150 countries and territories, with plans to expand it to more languages. Google also plans to bring more multimodal capabilities, interactive coding features, and deeper data analysis capabilities to Gemini Advanced soon.
Gemini Advanced has one up on ChatGPT Plus and Copliot Pro
Like Microsoft and Google, OpenAI's ChatGPT has a paid version, too. The company has buried most of its essential features under ChatGPT Plus. Ironically, Microsoft is providing some of these features for free on Copilot's free version, including DALL-E 3 image generation technology and OpenAI's GPT-4 model.
While this is tactical, and the presumption would be that most users would flock to Copilot, this isn't the case. A research survey by Appfigures reveals that ChatGPT continues to dominate the mobile market share. This is despite Microsoft launching the Copilot app for Android and iOS. The speculations attribute Copliot's slow adoption to Microsoft's "poor promotion" practices, making it challenging to dent ChatGPT's revenue and installs.
Some of these paid subscription services are negatively impacted by performance issues despite promised 'priority access' during peak times. In my opinion, Google has positioned itself to win with Gemini Advanced by offering it to users as a packaged deal. Besides getting the AI-powered chatbot, you also get access to many perks (who doesn't pay for extra storage anyway).
Additionally, this packaged deal could help Google grow its subscribers for its Premium Plan services. It's a win-win situation.
