Google adds new shortcut for instant answers on Gemini AI

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, speed often competes with depth. While the industry has recently trended toward complex reasoning models that take their time to ponder, Google is now introducing a way to bypass the wait. The tech giant has officially begun rolling out a new Answer Now feature for its Gemini app, aimed at users who value immediacy over exhaustive analytical processing. This update marks a strategic pivot in how Google balances its high-end reasoning capabilities with the practical, fast-paced needs of everyday mobile users.

The core of this update is the replacement of the previous Skip button with a more proactive Answer Now prompt. When users engage with Gemini Pro or the more advanced Gemini Thinking models, they are often met with a spinning status indicator as the AI constructs a multi-layered response. For complex queries, this process can feel like an eternity in digital terms. The new feature allows users to intervene mid-thought, essentially telling the AI to stop over-analyzing and deliver a direct response immediately. It is a tool designed for those moments when you need a quick fact or a simple instruction rather than a long-form essay or a step-by-step logical breakdown.

What makes this development particularly interesting is the technical implementation. According to reports from 9To5Google, hitting the Answer Now button does not simply downgrade the request to the basic Gemini Fast model. Instead, Gemini continues to use the selected high-end model, such as Gemini Pro, but skips the intensive deliberation stages. This ensures that while the answer arrives faster, it still retains the sophisticated context and data access of the more capable models. It is a middle ground that provides the best of both worlds: high-quality intelligence without the associated latency of deep reasoning.

Parallel to this functional update, Google is also restructuring the way it manages usage limits for its various AI tiers. The company has introduced a more granular system for both free and paid subscribers. For instance, AI Pro users now have a daily allocation of 300 Thinking prompts and 100 Pro prompts. For those on the top-tier AI Ultra plan, these limits are significantly higher, offering 1,500 Thinking prompts and 500 Pro prompts per day. Even users on the basic free access tier are seeing these structured limits, indicating that Google is becoming more meticulous about how it distributes its computational resources across its massive user base.

The introduction of Answer Now arrives alongside other significant enhancements to the Gemini ecosystem. Google recently integrated a Personal Intelligence feature, which allows the assistant to tap into a user's broader Google environment, including Gmail, Photos, and Search history. This creates a much more tailored experience, where the AI understands the personal context behind a query. However, in a nod to growing privacy concerns, Google has kept this feature strictly opt-in. It remains disabled by default, ensuring that users have full control over which parts of their digital life the AI can access.

From a user experience perspective, the workflow is straightforward. When a prompt is entered, a notification appears confirming that Gemini is skipping in-depth thinking to prioritize speed. This transparency is crucial as it sets expectations for the output. Users are essentially trading off a bit of nuance for a lot of time. In the competitive race against rivals like OpenAI, this flexibility could be a key differentiator for Google, making Gemini feel more like a versatile tool that can adapt to the user's current urgency rather than a static engine that always operates at the same speed.

This global rollout spans across Android, iOS, and web platforms, ensuring a consistent experience regardless of the hardware. As AI models become increasingly complex and "heavy" in their processing, features like Answer Now represent a necessary evolution. They acknowledge that in the real world, the most intelligent answer isn't always the best one—sometimes, the best answer is simply the one that arrives exactly when you need it.