Google Gemini Being Tested in Messages App; New Android Features Coming

Google rolled out 9 new options for Android units, together with a number of generative synthetic intelligence (AI)-based options, on Monday, February 26. The announcement of the options has coincided with the primary day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024. The spotlight among the many options is the mixing of Gemini, the corporate’s newest AI-powered chatbot, into the Messages app. While it’s at present in beta testing, the tech big has begun rolling out different options for smartphones, Android Auto, and Wear OS.

The announcement was made by way of a publish on Google’s Newsroom, which highlighted that these new options are aimed toward bettering productiveness of customers. Gemini’s integration with Google Messages is an fascinating growth by the corporate. Users who’ve enrolled in Google’s beta testing programme ought to quickly see it. The characteristic provides a separate chat field for Gemini the place they will have a dialog, ask queries, get it to put in writing or rewrite messages and far more. With this replace, Gemini is offered as a standalone app, as digital assistant, and inside the Messages app. It shouldn’t be sure whether or not the characteristic might be included in the Gemini Advanced plan as soon as it’s out of testing.

Messages app shouldn’t be the one place the place AI is being added, nevertheless. Android Auto can be getting the same characteristic the place generative AI can summarize lengthy texts or group chats and skim it out whereas the consumer drives. It may also recommend related replies and actions that may be chosen by way of only a single faucet.

One accessibility characteristic can be being added to the Lookout app. The app is designed for visually impaired customers and might establish objects, learn texts, and extra by means of the smartphone’s digital camera. It will now routinely create AI-generate captions for pictures seen on-line or obtained by means of messages and skim it out to customers. It is rolling out globally in English. In the identical vein, Google Maps can be getting an replace to Lens in Maps, which was first added in October 2023. Users can now level the telephone’s digital camera at environment and the TalkBack characteristic will learn the place’s data out loud, together with its enterprise hours, score or instructions on how you can get there.

A number of non-AI options are additionally making their debut. The most notable is the handwritten annotation characteristic for Google Docs on Android. This will permit customers to put in writing and draw with both fingers or stylus on paperwork to create notes for themselves. The second is a tweak to the output switcher for Spotify, which permits customers to select the gadget the place the output of the sound will come from. This can now be achieved straight from the house display.

Finally, shifting to the Wear OS-based options. Google is now rolling out an replace to its Health Connect app that can permit customers with wearables similar to Fitbit, Oura Ring, and apps similar to AllTrails and MyFitnessPal to combine their knowledge. The app will present detailed view of well being and health trackers and can present actionable insights on them.

Last two Wear OS options are smaller however might be helpful for some customers. Google Wallet passes are actually accessible on Wear OS smartwatches and can permit customers to entry them straight. Google Maps for Wear OS will now present public transit instructions to assist customers catch a bus or a prepare. The app will present particulars similar to departure occasions, compass-guided navigation, and choice to mirror instructions from telephone to the smartwatch.