Gemini AI is coming to cars, wearables, and more this year, Google confirms

Google’s Gemini AI has been a hit with phone users, with the chatbot offering the ability to answer complex questions, provide information in bullet points, and giving the option to export answers to a Doc file. Other features include the ability to analyze files, interact with the phone’s camera to give information about what you’re looking at, and other assistant-like functions which put it ahead of Apple’s Siri. It’s been out as an app for Android and iOS devices for a while now, and will also be coming to Google TV.

Now, Google has confirmed that people will be able to use Gemini on a wider variety of devices, as it will be coming to Android Auto, wearables, and more. It will be rolling out to these devices later this year, Google announced.

Android 16 is finally expanding beyond Google Pixel phones

The next major build of Android has reached a handful of new milestones, ahead of its public release. Google has just started the rollout of Android 16’s fourth beta update, reaching the second platform stability. 

Developers who have optimized their apps to target Android 16 can now ship their updates via the Google Play Store. The latest beta update is also the near-final version, as all the app behaviours and background functionalities have been finalized. 

Gemini’s most interesting feature is now free for all Android users

Of all the features that Google’s much-anticipated Gemini AI offers, one of the most exciting has been screen sharing and camera access for brainstorming and object identification. Previously that had been for Pixel devices only, but today Google announced that the feature is coming to all Android users for free via the Gemini app.

Our team tested out the camera abilities of Gemini and found them “shocking” — you can point your camera at an object or scene, enable Gemini to access your camera, then get information about what you’re looking at from your assistant. Point your camera at a painting, and Gemini will tell you about it via text or voice. Show it a page from a book and it’ll recognize the text and tell give you an overview of the book’s key points. Snap a photo of a sketch you’ve created, and it’ll help with guidance and advice.