The AI gadgets that were meant to save us from our phones have come a long way — whatever illusions we may have held that a Humane AI pin or a Rabbit R1 can handle any of our personal affairs. Will offer salvo. Tech is gone. Hot gadget spring is over and developer season is upon us, starting this coming Tuesday with Google I/O.
It also happens to be an important time for Android. I/O comes on the heels of a major re-org that brought the Android team together with Google's hardware team for the first time. The direction is clear: go full speed ahead and put more AI into more things. Not prioritizing Google's own products was a basic tenet of Android, though that model began to change years ago as the hardware and software teams collaborated more closely. Now, the wall is gone and the era of AI has arrived. And if the past 12 months are any indication, it's going to be a bit of a mess.
Gemini launched three months ago as an AI-fueled alternative to the standard Google Assistant, and it still didn't feel quite ready. On the first day, it couldn't access your calendar or set a reminder — not very helpful. Google has since added these functions, but it still doesn't support third-party media apps like Spotify. Google Assistant has supported Spotify for most of the past decade.
But the more I come back to the Gemini, the more I can see how I use my phone is going to change. It can memorize dinner recipes and talk to me while I'm cooking. It can sense when I'm asking the wrong question and give me the answer I'm looking for instead (a fig is a fruit with dead wasp parts; not a date, as I learned). It can tell me which Paw Patrol toy I'm holding for Pete's sake.
Again, though – party tricks. Gemini's true usefulness will come when it integrates more seamlessly into the Android ecosystem. When it's built into your earbuds, your watch, and the operating system itself.
Android's success in the AI era rides on these integrations. ChatGPT can't read your emails or your calendars as easily as Gemini. It doesn't have easy access to the history of every place you've been in the last decade. These are real advantages, and Google needs every advantage right now. We've seen plenty of hints that Apple plans to unveil a much smarter Siri at WWDC this year. Microsoft and OpenAI aren't sitting still either. Google needs to lean to its strengths to deliver AI that's more than a party trick — even if it's a little un-Android-like.