A leaked roadmap in late 2022 offered insight into Google’s hardware plans, and a credible Pixel 9 rumor this week has corroborated some of what we saw there. Artificial intelligence wasn’t part of that Google roadmap, but with the breakneck development speed of things like Gemini and Galaxy AI lately, there was no predicting what was to come in this arena. Even Google can’t get its own story straight with Gemini Nano AI, but at least the company is under-promising and over-delivering on that and Circle to Search. Between these moves and a major Samsung One UI rollout, the two biggest players in the Android space absolutely dominated this week’s top headlines.
Catch up on last week’s biggest Android headlines here
Android 15 shows its true colors while Apple sees red in this week’s news
Google can’t get its Gemini Nano story straight
Google launched the Pixel 8 Pro as the first phone to run Gemini Nano, its lightweight AI foundation model, entirely on-device. But Gemini Nano was only available on the more expensive Pixel 8 Pro when it launched late last year, not the standard Pixel 8. Many of us speculated this was a cash-grab move meant to push people toward the more premium offering, but a few weeks ago, Google outright said “Nano will not be coming to Pixel 8 because of some hardware limitations.”
Fast-forward to this week, and the company has done a complete 180, announcing that Nano will indeed come to the Pixel 8, while citing some vague RAM constraints as its reason for the delay. Who knew a phone with the same exact SoC and nearly identical hardware could be made to run the same software?
Gemini Nano is coming to the Pixel 8 after all
Google is bringing its on-device LLM to its smaller flagship as a developer preview
Gemini AI finds a new host
Since launching Gemini Nano at the end of 2023, Google has been hell-bent on getting its Gemini branding on as many surfaces as it can. It renamed the Bard chatbot to simply “Gemini,” and the AI models behind it all have names like Gemini Pro and Gemini Advanced. Now, Gemini has infected yet another host.
This week, Google Messages beta users have started to see a new “Gemini in Messages” AI showing up in their chat app. Functionally, it’s like you’re texting straight to the web version of Google Gemini over an encrypted (but not end-to-end) RCS chat. Sadly, this means you can’t call on the chatbot in your regular message threads, a concept Google pioneered way back with Allo, but some might find it easier to access Google’s AI this way instead of setting Gemini as the default Android assistant, which still leaves a lot to be desired at this point in its development.
Gemini in Google Messages sees a wide beta rollout
If you’re lucky, you can now try out Gemini on the Messages app
Galaxy AI goes mainstream
Sure, many of the features are powered by Google Gemini, but Samsung’s got its own suite of AI functionality for Galaxy devices, and it’s finally starting to see widespread availability. A rollout of One UI 6.1, complete with Galaxy AI, was announced earlier in the week, then Samsung quickly delivered as promised.
As a result, users can now access features like live in-call translations, writing style tweaks courtesy of Samsung Keyboard, and AI-powered image editing in the Samsung Gallery app. All of these features, plus other One UI 6.1 goodies like restoring minimized windows in one tap, are now available on the entire Galaxy S23 series, the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip 5, and the Galaxy Tab S9 series.
One UI 6.1 is coming to Samsung’s 2023 flagships this week
With Galaxy AI and Circle to Search in tow
Circle to Search hits more phones
Just as Galaxy AI and Gemini Nano were exclusive to the S24 series and Pixel 8 Pro, respectively, these two phone lines had another software trick up their sleeves: Google’s Circle to Search. And just as the AI features are being opened up to older models, so is Circle to Search.
Towards the middle of the week, Google announced that Circle to Search is coming to all currently-supported Pixel phones, and the rollout already seems to be widespread. At the same time, Samsung’s One UI 6.1 update for its 2023 devices also included Circle to Search, and the company went on record saying it was the most-used AI feature on the S24, so we’re happy to see cutting-edge flagship tech make its way to older devices.
Google’s Circle to Search is coming to more phones
Google’s quick search feature also gets translation support
That leaked Google roadmap is looking like the real deal
In December 2022, a roadmap of Google’s hardware plans leaked, and it outlined potential changes to the Pixel series. Supposedly, the company would keep a close eye on Pixel A-series sales as it considered a potential shift to a three-flagship lineup, potentially abandoning plans for a Pixel 9a in 2025 in favor of an affordable Pixel flagship paired with a large and small variant of the Pro-series Pixel.
We saw a leaked Pixel 9 Pro earlier this year, but it wasn’t until an alleged Pixel 9 surfaced that the roadmap was called back to mind, as the second device also had pro-like features, such as a triple-camera setup with a periscope telephoto lens, and a temperature sensor. Now, a new leak claims that second device was the Pixel 9 Pro, and the larger one presumed to be the 9 Pro was actually the Pixel 9 Pro XL. The leak in question shows off a base model Pixel 9 with dual rear cameras, more in line with what we’d expect, pointing to a potential trifecta of Pixel flagships this fall.
New Pixel 9 renders point to 3 Google flagships coming this fall
Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL
