I tried out Gemini’s last feature and you should too

Google rolled out a new feature for Gemini A couple of weeks ago called Canvas. Since I use Gemini every day and pay for Advanced versionI wanted to see if it actually helps me get things done.

I have been playing with it since it came out and have a pretty good idea now about how useful it is, who can like it and what it is about. Let’s get into it.

Before we get to the practical part, I will quickly cover what the canvas actually is. The easiest way to describe it is that it is like an interactive notepad to create things – whether it is writing a blog post like this or code your next IT project.

The main idea is that everything you need should be there in the canvas, so you don’t have to jump between different apps. For example, if you write a speech, you can ask Gemini for an outline. Then you can refine it with several questions, change the tone to sound more professional or relaxed, and even make sentences or paragraphs longer or shorter.

This is how it should work, anyway. But how does it actually work in real life? Let’s find out.

The canvas can be used for many things, but I decided to test it by writing a speech for a friend’s wedding coming up.

It was easy to get to the feature -I just opened Gemini and clicked the “canvas” button in the chat window. It works with both the Free 2.0 Flash model and Experimental 2.5 Pro model (which is part of Gemini Advanced). I used the 2.0 model for my test since everyone can access it.

I started with a pretty basic guide to get a first draft:

Gemini whipped up a speech in just a few seconds. It was okay, but honestly, a little bland and generic – like something straight out of a cheese romantic movie. It didn’t have much personality or feeling. On the bright side, Gemini suggested adding personal stories about the couple to do better, which is always a good move.

Now for the fun part – editing. I gave Gemini a story to include, asked it to throw in a few jokes and asked it to make the speech more random and less as a standard wedding speech. Once, however, I ran into a problem.

The story I shared with Gemini was about how I introduced a couple of years ago, which means the wedding wouldn’t have happened without me. And while the speech included that part, Gemini also laid strangely to a sentence before it said it was my friend who introduced Amanda to me, which didn’t make sense. It was a pretty obvious mistake I didn’t expect. Fortunately, Gemini fixed it as soon as I pointed it out.

When it comes to the other changes I wanted – the random tone, humor and made it unique – Gemini nailed it. It changed the speech from something I would never say publicly to something I would actually be happy to say. It felt original, witty, and had enough personality to interest the audience and maybe even laugh. You can check out First draft hereand The end result here.

But I wasn’t done yet. Until that time, I had only used requests for editing. Then I started messing with the extra features Canvas has to offer. I kept the speech a little longer with one click because the last version felt too short. With a new click, I made the tone even more informal. I also fine -tuned specific sentences I didn’t like by highlighting them and telling Gemini what to change. Canvas even offered extra suggestions that I was able to accept or ignore.

Even with the early hiccup, I was impressed with the canvas towards the end. After all the editions, the final speech proved good.

It seems that canvas can create good content, but you definitely have to guide it with specific instructions and requests to get it right. If you only provide the basic information, the first draft will probably be quite generic.

Sure, a person (especially an experienced author) can probably write something better. But Gemini wins his hand down on the speed. The whole process, from the first draft of the finished speech, only took a few minutes. You can probably do it even faster when you get it. So it is almost impossible to match Gemini’s speed, especially for longer writing assignments.

You may be thinking, “Why do I need canvas if I can only do this in the regular Gemini chat?” While you can skip the canvas, the dedicated feature has more editing tools built. In addition, the setup on stationary – quick box on the left, draft right – editing faster because you see changes happen live. In the classic chat window you will just get a rewritten text block and must scroll back and forth a lot to make sense of it.

So whether you write a wedding speech like me, a work presentation, school paper or something else, Gemini’s canvas feature is worth checking out. Just be sure to read the final version carefully because errors can still happen – Gemini is not perfect.

Since I am not a programmer, I could not test how well the canvas handles code. If you have it, let me know how it went in the comments.