Other Android updates announced at MWC include letting AI auto-summarize texts and chats in Android Auto, displaying passes stored in Google Wallet on Wear OS, and more.
BARCELONA–Google opened MWC 2024 with a grab-bag of new features for Android phones. And as in previous Android feature drops, you don’t have to look hard here to spy AI.
An advance copy of the company’s announcement, posted Monday, leads off with the news that Android’s Messages app will now let you talk to an entity that we trust isn’t in any of your contacts lists: Google’s Gemini AI chatbot, renamed earlier this month from Google Bard.
Google’s post features a GIF of Gemini suggesting ways to optimize a joke that was already in dad-joke territory. The results suggest that humor remains something best left to analog jokesters.
Another new feature, earlier spotted in Android code by 9to5Google, puts AI to work inside Android Auto to reduce the cognitive load for drivers by auto-summarizing texts and chats and suggesting situationally relevant replies and actions, like sharing your estimated arrival time.
