Gemini’s latest updates are all about controlling your phone

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. Tech TechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Tech AI AIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All AI Google GooglePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

FollowSee All GoogleGemini’s latest updates are all about controlling your phoneWe’re one step closer to our phones just using themselves. We’re one step closer to our phones just using themselves. by Allison Johnson Allison JohnsonPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Technical Details

FollowSee All by Allison JohnsonMay 12, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC Gemini Intelligence comes with a Liquid Glass-ish visual treatment. Image: GooglePart OfAndroid Show 2026: all the news and announcementssee all updates Allison Johnson Allison JohnsonPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Allison Johnson is a senior reviewer with over a decade of experience writing about consumer tech.

She has a special interest in mobile photography and telecom. Previously, she worked at DPReview. It is, once again, Gemini season.

Google is announcing a host of new Gemini features during its pre-I/O Android showcase, many of which aim to help use your phone for you. You’ll find Gemini in more places, like Chrome on Android, in your autofill suggestions, and all up in your apps — if you want. Google also has a new name for us to remember, because it just can’t help itself: Gemini Intelligence.

Industry Implications

It “brings the very 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 this name, and seems to be reserving them for premium Android phones like the Galaxy S26 series. Write that one down on your I/O bingo card.

RelatedGemini task automation is slow, clunky, and super impressiveGoogle announces its Chromebook successor: the GooglebookTask automation is apparently one of those “best of Gemini” features. It’s already on some recent Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones, and it enables Gemini to use certain apps on your behalf. It’s been limited to a handful of rideshare and food delivery apps until now.

That’s changing “soon,” says Google, when task automation will open up to a wider range of apps. It will also add multimodality; previously, Gemini could only use voice or text prompts to inform its actions. Now you can throw a screengrab or a photo into the mix, which kind of seems like something you should have been able to do from the start.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.