A better way to use Gemini on your Mac

In April, Google joined OpenAI and Anthropic offers special Mac software For AI chatbot software. Two months later, it became clear that Gemini for Mac was not doing so well.

Gemini for Mac is not a very good macOS app

Since I’m interested in AI technology and its development over time, I’ve used Gemini regularly on Mac since the Mac app was not rumored.

I’m also a Safari user. For this reason, it was my solution to use Gemini on Mac Safari’s “Add to Dock” feature.

When Gemini first came to the Mac as a dedicated app, I still preferred Safari’s “Add to Dock” pattern. I just like that Command + N opens a new chat window, and I can have multiple open chat windows.

This method of multitasking is better for me than switching between chat threads. I’m more likely to forget a task in a chat thread if I don’t have a window open on my Mac.

Missing features and app icon jail

I also have at least one chat thread that doesn’t work on Gemini’s Mac app. It works fine in the “Add to Dock” version of Safari because it’s just a website presented as an app.

Instead of letting me continue the conversation, Gemini’s Mac app replaces the text input box with a button to open a website. I prefer to use the web app version of Safari where it works fine.

Using the word “yet” in the message does a lot at this point.

Another complaint is the icon. Gemini’s Mac app is in icon jail.

Icon Prison a Stupid Apple behavior For app icons that don’t draw to the exact shape and size that Apple forces on macOS Tahoe.

Although this was an Apple-mandated issue for Mac apps that predated Apple’s dumb rule, the Gemini Mac app came months after the release of macOS Tahoe.

Then it led me to mention how I used Gemini on a Mac in the first place.

This week Brave FireballJohn Gruber wrote about why he removed the Gemini Mac app:

What really turns me off about the Gemini Mac app is Google’s gall. The Gemini app installs a background helper called “GeminiAppLauncher” on your login items. It also installs GoogleUpdater as a process with the privilege to run in the background whenever it wants. Gemini never asks for permission to install any of these, and most arrogantly, if you, as an informed user, remove any of them, the Gemini app silently adds them back. Gemini has no setting to override this.

This made me realize that I kept Gemini Mac just to check for software updates. Although there are occasional updates, they still haven’t fixed my two issues with the software.