Google is bringing Gemini to the Messages app in an AI-flavored Android Feature Drop

BARCELONA – Google opened MWC 2024 with a bag of new features for Android phones. And as with previous releases of Android features, you don’t have to look far to spy on the AI ​​here.

An early copy of the company’s announcement, released Monday, leads with the news that Android’s Messages app will now let you chat with an entity we believe isn’t in any of your contact lists: Google’s Gemini AI chatbot, renamed earlier this month from Google Bard.

Google’s post features a GIF of Gemini suggesting ways to optimize a joke that was already in the realm of dad jokes. The results show that humor is still something best left to analog pranksters.

(Credit: Google)

Another new feature, previously spotted by 9to5Google in Android code, puts AI to work inside Android Auto to reduce the driver’s cognitive load by automatically summarizing texts and conversations and suggesting situationally relevant responses and actions, like sharing your estimated arrival time.

Accessibility also figures into this feature breakdown. Google Maps will be able to speak important details about nearby places, such as business hours, when you point your phone’s camera at your surroundings. And Lookout, the vision-assistance app Google introduced in 2019, is expanding its support for automatically generated English-language image descriptions to locations outside the US.

For Android versions of Google Docs, the novelty includes the addition of the option to leave handwritten comments in documents in the colors of your choice. Typing on your phone screen with a swipe of your finger might not allow for long comments, but “huh?” it probably comes through more forcefully when drawn in large virtual red ink.

Google’s Fitbit app, meanwhile, supports the Health Connect enclave delivered in Android 14 to display data from apps that have been updated to work with this secure data platform co-developed by Google and Samsung.

One of these Android updates will improve one third-party app: the output switcher shortcut available on the Android home screen now works with Spotify in addition to Google YouTube Music, allowing faster switching between playback devices when streaming audio from your device.

Finally, Google’s smartwatch operating system will get two features that Apple’s watchOS has had for years: Wear OS will be able to display passes stored in Google Wallet, such as boarding passes and frequent flyer cards, and display turn-by-turn transportation directions.