The last time I checked (a few days ago) it only had an "Upload Image" option... and I have been playing with Gemini on and off for months and I have never been able to actually upload an image.

It's basically what I've come to expect from most Google products at this point: half-baked, buggy, confusing, not intuitive.

It definitely has the ability to upload normal files, the + button has several options.

If you don't have it, you might be in a Google feature flag jail-- this happens frustratingly often, where 99.9% of users have a feature flag enabled but your account just gets stuck with the flag off with no way to resolve it. It's the absolute worst part about Google.

Because sometimes the text is the result of my whisper transcription.

Friction.

Claude automatically uploads it as "Pasted text" if it is too long that you paste into the textarea. Works either way anyways.