It’s Gemini season again. Google is announcing a bunch of new features for Gemini during its Android pre-I/O show, many of which are aimed at helping you make the most of your phone. You’ll find Gemini in many places, like Chrome on Android, in your autofill suggestions, and in all your apps — if you want.
Google also has a new name to remember, because it can’t help itself: Gemini Intelligence. “It brings the best of Gemini to our most advanced Android devices,” according to Google’s director of Android, Ben Greenwood. Google bundles existing and new Gemini features under this name, and seems to have reserved it for flagship Android phones like the Galaxy S26 series. Write it down on your I/O bingo card.
Task automation is clearly one of those “best of Gemini” features. It’s already on some of the latest Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones, and it enables the Gemini to run certain apps on your device. It has been limited to a few rideshare and food delivery apps so far. That’s changing “soon,” Google says, when task automation will open up a wider range of applications.
It will also add multimodality; previously, Gemini could only use voice or text commands to inform its actions. Now you can throw a screengrab or photo into the mix, which seems like something you should have been able to do from the start. You’ll be able to give Gemini a screenshot of a grocery list in your Notes app and it will add those items to your cart. You know, as long as you have an Android phone that supports Gemini Intelligence.
Another feature under the all-new Gemini Intelligence umbrella is Create My Widget. Google’s blog post calls it the first step toward “generative UI,” and it lets you describe the functionality you want in natural language and let AI create a custom widget. Google’s examples include a custom weather widget for a cyclist who wants to see wind speed and precipitation at a glance, and a dashboard that will display specific recipe suggestions, such as “three high-protein meal prep recipes for each week.” These widgets will carry over to Wear OS, so they’ll be available on watches, too.
It’s a pretty simple idea on the face of it, but when you think of widgets as little apps that you can vibe-code right on your phone’s home screen, it gets even more fun. Perhaps this is a really small step towards a self-created interface. Or maybe that’s too much pressure to put on a humble widget feature. Either way, I’ll be curious if we hear more during the I/O keynote about “productive UI.”
Google is also bringing Gemini features present in the desktop version of Chrome to its Android app. That means you’ll see a Gemini button in Chrome where you can share web page content and ask Gemini questions right inside the browser. If you’re signed up for Google’s AI Pro or Ultra plans, you’ll also get automatic browsing to help complete your tasks, like booking appointments. That will start rolling out in late June.
Gemini will also appear – optionally – in the auto-fill on Android. You will be able to choose to connect Gemini to help fill out the forms. This means Gemini can use its Personal Intelligence connection to things like your Google Photos and Gmail to look for the right information. In theory, that could mean things like pulling your license plate number into Photos. Is it useful? Is it scary? Another mix of the two? That’s Gemini season, baby. Gemini Intelligence features “will be rolled out in waves as they become ready throughout the year,” Greenwood said, with Galaxy and Pixel phones first in line to start receiving updates this summer.
