Google doubles Gemini users to 900m

Google used its May 19 I/O keynote to put a hard number on Gemini’s scale: more than 900 million monthly users. The figure came from Chief Executive Sundar Pichai, who said the app had 400 million monthly active users at last year’s conference and had more than doubled since then. Pichai also said daily Gemini requests had grown more than sevenfold and that Google now processes more than 3.2 quadrillion tokens a month across its products. That user number matters because Google is no longer presenting Gemini as a standalone chatbot. The company used I/O to describe a broader shift toward “agentic” products across Search, Android and the Gemini app, with new systems designed to take actions, handle multi-step tasks and stay available across devices. Google’s own I/O roundup said the company had moved “beyond AI tools that just help us write, to agents that help us act.” (blog.google) ### Where did the 900 million figure come from? Sundar Pichai gave the number in Google’s opening keynote in Mountain View, California, on May 19. In a separate Google post about the Gemini app, the company said more than 900 million people in 230 countries and more than 70 languages now use Gemini each month. The comparison point was explicit. Last year’s I/O, Pichai said, marked 400 million monthly active users for the Gemini app, making this year’s figure one of the clearest growth metrics Google disclosed during the conference. (blog.google) ### How is Google tying Gemini to Search? Google’s Search team said AI Overviews now use Gemini 3 by default and that users can move from an overview into follow-up questions and a conversational exchange in AI Mode. (blog.google) A February company post described that as “one fluid experience,” while a May post said Google was still changing how links appear so users can reach websites, brands and sources more easily. The product direction has been visible since Google began widening AI Overviews and testing AI Mode. In March 2025, Robby Stein, Google Search’s vice president of product, said AI Overviews were used by more than a billion people and described AI Mode as Google’s “most powerful AI search,” built for deeper reasoning, multimodality and follow-up questions. (blog.google) ### What does Google mean by “agentic” Gemini? Google’s I/O materials described Gemini 3.5 Flash as a model built for “real-world agentic workflows,” and the Gemini app update said the product was becoming more proactive and available around the clock. The developer keynote recap said Google had shifted from AI that assists to agents that can navigate complex tasks across workflows. (blog.google) Android is part of that push. Google said Gemini Intelligence will roll out on select Samsung and Google phones this summer, with wider availability later in 2026, and framed the features as ways for Gemini to automate multi-step tasks across devices. Google also published a separate security post saying the company wanted Android to remain an open platform for third-party and device-maker agentic experiences. (blog.google) ### Why did a search for “disregard” become part of this story? On May 22 and May 23, users and several outlets reported that Google Search’s AI Overview treated words such as “disregard,” “ignore” and “dismiss” as if they were instructions rather than dictionary-style queries. Reports described responses such as “Understood. Message disregarded,” with standard links pushed lower on the page. (blog.google) The glitch landed awkwardly for Google because it echoed a problem the company has already acknowledged in AI search. In a May 2024 post, Google said it had received feedback on odd or incorrect AI Overview answers and had taken steps to improve how the system handles nonsensical queries and satirical or misleading content. Google has not, in the sources reviewed here, published a dedicated post on the “disregard” issue itself. (usatoday.com) ### What should readers watch next? This summer is Google’s next clear milestone. The company said Gemini Intelligence features will begin rolling out on select Samsung and Pixel phones in the summer, with broader device availability later this year, while Search continues adding AI Mode and AI Overview updates across Google’s core products. (blog.google 1) (blog.google 2)