And that brings america to nan 3rd attraction for Android, which is nan connecting statement betwixt each nan Android ecosystem products—artificial intelligence. Almost nan entirety of Google's keynote was spent connected Gemini, nan chatbot replacing nan nine-year-old Google Assistant successful everything from Android Auto and Wear OS, to smartphones and now Android XR. But this is what Samat says makes Android XR unique, arsenic it's nan “first Android level built for nan Gemini era.”
He went connected pinch a cluster of examples, for illustration asking Gemini to summarize nan section of a book you're reference based connected nan images it captured arsenic you turned nan pages over, aliases having it scour your emails successful Gmail for nan reply to a question, hands-free done nan glasses. “It gives you superpowers erstwhile you put them on,” Samat says.
Will this AI-first attack thief alteration nan minds of Americans and get them connected committee nan Android train? Samat didn't say, but he did declare his 14-year-old boy learned to do nan laundry for nan first clip pinch Gemini connected a Pixel 9 Pro. (Samat insists that his boy willingly chose a Pixel arsenic his phone.) Using Gemini's caller unrecorded camera mode, wherever nan adjunct tin spot what you're seeing via nan phone's camera, his boy was capable to inquire what settings to usage for nan load of laundry successful beforehand of him. Gemini identified nan washing instrumentality and correctly offered up nan correct settings and instructions, which meant nary pink-colored shirts that were primitively white. “You spot nan early first connected Android; it's each coming to Android, truthful I really dream group will return different look.”
The caller Android XR level comes astatine a clip erstwhile Google is facing unthinkable scrutiny from regulatory bodies. The US Department of Justice still wants nan institution to waste disconnected Chrome, and a assemblage decided nan Google Play Store was an forbidden monopoly. “Android is 1 of nan astir unfastened operating systems that's ever been created,” Samat says. “There are immoderate absorbing myths—that Gemini tin beryllium nan only AI adjunct connected Android, erstwhile it's very easy for consumers to take others for illustration Perplexity aliases OpenAI.”
But erstwhile asked astir really Android XR will navigate these halfway issues—will Gemini beryllium nan only adjunct connected Android XR? Will apps beryllium forced to beryllium deployed to an XR type of nan Play Store, wherever Google collects up to 30 percent of sales? Samat says it's excessively “early to talk astir really each of that will work.” The first Android XR mixed-reality headset arrives later this year, but he promises nan institution “won't deviate from Android's openness.”
Then there's nan privateness broadside of strapping cameras and microphones to a person's face. More than 10 years ago, anyone wearing Google Glass was instantly dubbed a “Glasshole,” but arsenic Meta's smart glasses person showed, nan world has a different level of comfortableness pinch smart glasses. Still, it's not conscionable astir taking photos and videos for societal media—Meta's processing caller glasses that tin recognize people's faces. Samat promises that Android XR will person a clear group of standards for manufacturers to follow, conscionable for illustration connected Android, to build astir information sharing, security, and privacy. “I deliberation this is simply a very important issue, and we've learned a batch from nan past.”