The biggest new features in Gemini have to do with controlling your phone

It’s, once again, Gemini season. Google is announcing a bunch of new Gemini features during its Android pre-I/O showcase, many of which are aimed at helping your phone work for you. You’ll find Gemini in more places, like Chrome on Android, in autofill suggestions, and all in your apps — if you want it.

Google also has a new name to remember, because… She just couldn’t help herself: Gemini’s intelligence. It “brings the best of Gemini to our most advanced Android devices,” according to Google’s director of Android experiences, Ben Greenwood. Google is bundling some existing and new Gemini features under that name, and appears to be reserving them for premium Android phones like the Galaxy S26 series. Write that on your I/O card.

Obviously, automating tasks is one of the “best of Gemini” features. that it Already on some recent Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phonesand enables Gemini to use certain applications on your behalf. It has been limited to a few ride-sharing and food delivery apps until now. Google says this will change “soon,” as it will open up task automation to a broader range of applications.

It will also add multimedia; Previously, Gemini could only use voice or text prompts to communicate his actions. You can now add a screenshot or photo into the mix, which feels like something you should have been able to do from the beginning. You’ll be able to give Gemini a screenshot of your grocery list in the Notes app and he’ll add those items to your cart. You know, provided you have an Android phone that supports Gemini Intelligence.

Another brand new feature under the Gemini Intelligence umbrella is Create My Widget. Google’s blog post describes it as a first step toward a “generative UI,” allowing you to describe the functionality you want in natural language and letting AI create a custom widget. Google examples include a dedicated weather widget for a cyclist who wants to see wind speed and precipitation at a glance, and a dashboard to display specific recipe suggestions, such as “Three high-protein meal prep recipes each week.” These tools will also be ported to Wear OS, so they will be available on watches as well.

It’s a pretty simple idea on the face of it, but if you think of widgets as little apps that you can send directly to your phone’s home screen, it gets a lot more interesting. Perhaps this is really a small step towards a more user-friendly interface It creates itself on the fly. Or maybe it’s too much pressure to put in a mediocre widget feature. Either way, I’ll be curious if we hear more during the I/O keynote about “Generative UI.”

Google is also bringing Gemini features found in the desktop version of Chrome to its Android app. This means that you will see a Gemini button in Chrome where you can share web page contents and ask Gemini questions directly within the browser. If you’re on the Google AI Pro or Ultra plans, you’ll also get automated navigation to help complete tasks for you, like booking appointments. This will begin rolling out in late June.

Gemini will also – optionally – appear in Autofill on Android. You’ll be able to choose to connect a Gemini to help fill out forms. This means that Gemini can use it Her personal intelligence contact To things like Google Images and Gmail to search for the right information. In theory, that could mean things like pulling your license plate number from photos. cooperating? fishy? A combination of both? ‘Tis Gemini season, my dear. Greenwood says Gemini Intelligence features “will roll out in waves as they become ready throughout this year,” with Galaxy and Pixel phones being first in line to start getting updates this summer.