Magic Cue gets a new design?

The first thing that caught my eye popped up at the 24:00-mark and certainly appears to be a new design for Magic Cue, which is currently only on the Pixel 10 series.

You know Magic Cue as the service on your Pixel 10 or Pixel 10 Pro that tries to surface info you may need at the precise moment you may consider going to look for it. This could be someone’s phone number that was requested, an address, information about a location, a shortcut to make a calendar items, a confirmation number while on a phone call, etc.

During the “What’s new in Android” talk, the speakers were talking through several proactive features of Android and then showed the image above for Magic Cue. Can you see what’s new?

First off, the image is of Magic Cue working in Snapchat, which Google confirmed is because Magic Cue will soon expand to more apps. So that’s neat! But the change in design here, with the Magic Cue option listed as a floating button at the bottom of the screen, is new.

Google must be evolving Magic Cue to overlay on top of apps, down where Gemini lives. This actually seems like a better spot for it, rather than it changing locations and showing in an area that might not be as easy to spot. This looks like a bit of a pop-up that also includes an “X” to be able to close it off.

New Continue On feature for Android 17

At the 42:30-mark, Google showed off a new feature called “Continue On” for Android 17 that very much feels like something they could have announced at the I/O Android pre-show.

They talked briefly about it, but the idea is pretty straight-forward. Continue On allows you to start a session in an Android app on one Android device and then transition to another device while continuing where you left off. To start, this will work in mobile-to-tablet transitions, but Google envisions it working bidirectionally between all types.

An example of this would be a Google Docs session on your phone that transitions to a tablet with Continue On. As you switch devices, you would see a taskbar suggestion for that Docs experience on the tablet. A simple tap on the shortcut would open it just where you left off on the phone.

You can see how this would look at this Continue On developer page.

The talk also ran through the new Wear OS 7 update that we detailed for you, Android XR updates, new media apps for cars that are being worked on (like Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and more), Gemini Nano 4, a new style for Live updates (Metric Style), unified call history for multiple apps (WhatsApp, Meet and Phone all in the same history), and more.

We’ve included the session below if you want to dive into more.

Read the original post: Google Saved a Couple of New Android Secrets for I/O

We shared a brief write-up yesterday about some of the changes you can expect once your Fitbit app has become Google Health. We’ve also talked through Google Health Premium vs. Basic plans and wrote out a full overview of Google Health. All of those are worth looking at if you are hesitant to be among the first to update your Fitbit app.

For those who updated as quickly as they could, how are things going? How was the first day with Fitbit no longer a part of your health and fitness journey?

What has Google Health brought that you like? What are you already missing?

Read the original post: You Updated to Google Health From Fitbit: How is It?

We learned a bit about Googlebook earlier this month, and honestly, we expected to learn more about it yesterday during the company’s keynote. They didn’t mention it at all, focusing more on AI and Gemini products. Regardless, we have more information thanks to a dedicated landing page for the product, catered for app developers.

The page says, “Googlebook provides a high-performance, large-screen canvas for your apps, allowing users to transition seamlessly from quick mobile interactions to deep, focused sessions on a laptop.”

• Design for Desktops: Leverage a larger display to maximize productivity with higher information density.
• Comprehensive Input Support: Optimize for precision and versatility by supporting keyboard, mouse, trackpad, stylus, and game controller interactions.
• Contextual Cursors: Enhance usability by implementing custom cursors that provide visual feedback and text entry, resizing, and specialized tool interactions.
• File and Print Management: Support file-level interactions and printing, ensuring your app handles document management and export tasks natively.

What we take away is this: Googlebook is very much a laptop experience, not just an Android-powered tablet with a keyboard. However, it’ll be important for apps to support a user switching between both devices, the Googlebook and an Android phone, as well as for Android apps to run beautifully on the Googlebook.

Google wants the highest quality apps to support drag and drop, multi-instance for seamless multitasking, as well as widgets on the desktop experience.

We still don’t have a launch date or an idea on pricing from Google, but it seems possible that we could see launch later this year. Google is already teasing the hardware, so something is coming eventually.

Are you ready for Googlebook?

// Android Developers

Read the original post: Google Wants App Developers Prepared for Googlebook Launch

Below you can find the details of the new AI Ultra plan, but the highlights include Gemini 3.5, priority access to Antigravity, 20TB of cloud storage, plus a YouTube Premium individual plan.

Google also cut down the price of its highest tier plan, from $250/month to $200/month. All Ultra plans comes with first access to Gemini Spark, the company’s new 24/7 AI Agent, but Project Genie access is limited to those who pay for the $200/mo option.

Gemini Omni: The latest model available for Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers. It can create anything from any input, starting with video. As Google describes it, “It combines Gemini’s intelligence with our generative media models for a new level of world understanding.”

Inside the Gemini app, simply upload a video or photo from your camera roll, then take advantage of built-in templates or speak your truth to have Omni transform your media. For a more detailed look into Gemini Omni, view Google’s blog here.

YouTube Premium: Google announced that paid AI Pro subscribers will be getting a YouTube Premium Lite subscription added to their account, adding $8.99 of value to your plan. Premium Lite offers ad-free YouTube videos, as well as offline and background play support. Health Premium and Home Premium are also included in AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions at no additional cost.

So. Much. AI.

// Google

Read the original post: Google Updates AI Subscription Plans, Highlighted by New $100 AI Ultra Plan

That’s really the whole story here too. If you decide to search for something, but keep coming up with the same videos that might not quite be what you are looking for, this more advanced search can potentially filter out the stuff you don’t want and help you refine with follow-up questions.

For those wanting to try it out, you can right now as a YouTube Premium subscriber. Just head to youtube.com/new and sign-up. It’s the featured called “Discover a new way to search on YouTube.”

Ask YouTube should then roll out more broadly to all YouTube users “soon.”

// YouTube

Read the original post: YouTube’s “Ask YouTube” is AI-Powered Search

Gemini truly is getting a handful of major changes and features that could end up doing a lot for you. There’s a new app UI, new Gemini Flash 3.5 model, a Daily Brief, and a feature that Google is calling Gemini Spark.

There’s a lot to run through, so stick with us.

Gemini’s New “Neural Expressive” Design

We’ve always been a sucker for a good UI overhaul and Google gave us that for the Gemini app today. This was seen a few days ago, but it’s official and rolling out on both Android and iOS as you read this.

Google is calling this new UI its “Neural Expressive” design and it is stunning. They describe it has having “fluid animations, vibrant colors, new typography and haptic feedback.” It also just has these really cool colorful gradients and designs behind actions and the main bar in the app.

If this is the future of Google design, I’m here for all of it.

Gemini Spark is Your AI Assistant

A new tab within the Gemini app is called Spark and it’s basically your new AI assistant with a lot of power. Google wants you to think of Spark as your assistant that transformed from simply answering questions “into an active partner that does real work on your behalf and under your direction.”

What does that mean? Initially, Spark will work through all of your connected Google apps to handle several tasks for you, sometimes at the same exact time depending on what you’ve asked from it.

Here are 3 ideas that Google shared today that Spark can do:

• Set recurring tasks or triggers: Automatically parse monthly credit card statements to flag new or hidden subscription fees.
• Teach it new skills: Direct it to check your inbox for ongoing updates from your kids’ school, extract critical deadlines and send a consolidated daily digest to you and your partner.
• Create complete workflows: Ask it to synthesize raw meeting notes across emails and chats, create polished Google Docs with its findings and even draft the companion email kicking off a project.

Did you catch all of that? In one of those examples, Google suggests you have Spark run through your inbox to see what’s going on at your kids’ school, pull out all of the critical deadlines, and then send them out as a consolidated daily digest to both you and your partner. That’s pretty wild stuff.

Spark takes what you’ve requested, could break it down into several different tasks, and does all of it in the background while you move on about your day. If you happen to be juggling multiple tasks or events at a time, this could be incredibly handy.

Because we use more than just Google apps, Google also announced today that it is partnering with all sorts of additional services to make it even more powerful. Services like Instacart, Uber, Zillow, Dropbox, and Adobe are all on the list.

For now, Gemini Spark will begin rolling out to Google AI Ultra subscribers (boo!) “next week” in beta.

Gemini Daily Brief

Next up, we have the Gemini Daily Brief, an agent that will give you a personalized morning digest that you might actual look to every day. Should you opt-in to it, Gemini connects everything in the background and then surfaces upcoming events from Calendar, finds urgent updates from Gmail, and then puts them together in an easily digestible briefing. It’s a lot like how Google CC works (we love Google CC).

The new Daily Brief should start rolling out today to Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers in the US.

Finally, so much of this is powered by Gemini Flash 3.5, which Google says “The first in our next generation of models that combines frontier intelligence with lightning-fast action.”

// Google

Read the original post: Gemini App Getting So Many Crazy New Features

Support for this focuses on quicker interactions with a UI, whether it be the Google TV home page or within an app. Google wants to developers to get ahead of this by ensuring their apps are ready to go.

Here’s what Google said specifically in its blog post.

Pointer remotes bring motion-controlled input to the big screen, unlocking faster user navigation across the Google TV Home page and within content-heavy apps. To ensure your app is ready for this shift and provides a great experience for all users, now is the time to start thinking about pointing input.

Pointer remote support is very much a hardware feature, so until Google announces its own pointer remote or 3rd-party manufacturers produce one, you’ll have to stick to your traditional remote for navigating Google TV.

We’ll keep you posted.

// Android Developers

Read the original post: Google TV Gets Pointer Remote Support

For Google Docs, you could fire up a live session and put together a speech that pulls from all sorts of attached Google apps, adds proper structure, provides ideas based on the subject, and so much more.

Here’s how Google describes it working:

• Think it through — and write it out — with Docs Live: Docs Live acts as your thought partner and co-writer to help you get to a first draft faster using just your voice. Just talk, and Docs Live handles the heavy lifting — organizing your thoughts, structuring your document, and, with your permission, pulling relevant details from your Gmail, Drive, Chat and the web. Whether you’re rambling a stream of consciousness or brainstorming an idea, Docs Live helps you outline, refine your tone, and create seamlessly.

To get the full picture of how powerful this could be, you should watch the demo video below.

As for Google Keep, you can probably guess how this works. You fire up a live session and can then describe multiple lists or notes that Keep (with the help of AI) can organize for you. Google describes it below, plus they offer an example of someone going live and putting together a birthday list, shopping list for a recipe, and then a to-do list for room painting preparations.

• Just talk to Keep to organize your thoughts: In Keep, you’re usually just trying to capture a quick idea or note that crossed your mind. Now, you can just “brain dump” and Keep not only understands your rambles, it gets to work in the background — turning what you say into organized notes and lists.

Like with Gmail, these live features will hit Docs and Keep this summer for Google AI Pro and Ultra customers.

// Google

Read the original post: Google Docs and Keep Get Live Talking Experiences Too

Today, Google introduced Gmail Live, a voice-activated way to search your inbox. The idea here is that you might be on the go and don’t have time to type out a search query and could instead just talk to Gmail by voice. Think of it like Gemini Live only in Gmail.

Google describes it this way:

When you’re on the go, you don’t have time to dig through emails. With Gmail Live, you can just ask for what you need. Say things like, “What’s my flight’s gate number?” or “What’s going on at my kid’s school this week?” and Gmail Live will search your inbox to find the answer instantly.

To activate it, you would tap on the voice or Live icon in the search bar of Gmail and then start talking to it, just like you do in Gemini Live. In the example above, a person asked Gmail Live if they need to bring anything to kindergarten today for their child? Gmail Live responded by saying, Yes, today is Show & Tell” day, which it knew from knowing the deep ins-and-outs of their inbox.

Gmail Live will begin rolling out to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers this summer.

As an added bonus, Google announced today that they have new features to introduce within the AI Inbox feature they first brought to us in January of this year.

Those new features are as follows, according to Google:

• Personalized draft replies: When an email needs a quick reply, AI Inbox doesn’t just remind you — it generates a contextual draft so you can review and respond in seconds.
• Instant file access: No more digging through threads. When a task requires reviewing a Google Doc, Sheet or Slide, the relevant link is surfaced right next to your to-do.
• Streamlined task management: Keep your view clutter-free by marking individual tasks as done, dismissing unhelpful suggestions or marking all emails in a given topic as read with a single click.

Gmail’s AI Inbox was previously only available to Google AI Ultra subscribers, but starting today, it’ll roll out to Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers in the US.

// Google

Read the original post: Gmail Live is the Future of Searching Your Inbox

Wear OS 7 Canary is now available today for developers via an emulator for app testing, but as users, there are many features to look forward to: Gemini Intelligence, Wear OS widgets, Live Updates, and much more.

Wear OS Widgets: Tiles on Wear OS are evolving into widgets. The Android team notes that on the development side, the switch from tiles to widgets will be easy for developers. For users, widgets are designed to be “flexible and dynamic,” but of course, it’ll be up to 3rd-party developers to ensure their widgets are designed well.

Gemini Intelligence: Later this year as part of a broader rollout, select watches set for launch will come with Gemini Intelligence, which will provide proactive and personalized help to users. Google detailed GI earlier this month, so catch up on what was announced here.

Live Updates: Live Updates offer real-time, important information from apps running on your watch or connected mobile phone. These are glanceable updates, such as food orders or activities like that.

Enhanced System Media Controls: There are two fantastic upgrades here. Google is bringing per-app media auto-launch controls, as well as audio routing with Remote Output Switcher. From your Wear OS 7 device, you can choose where your audio is being routed to, giving you more control over where you’re listening to your tunes from.

With the per-app media auto-launch controls, users can now personalize their media auto-launch experience per-app directly from the System Media Controls on a watch.

Watch Face Format version 5 (WFF5): WFF5 is designed make watch face building easier. It includes Enhanced Alignment Options, Auto-Size Enhancements, Blend Modes, Stroke Joins, Hierarchical settings. If you couldn’t tell already, the announcement is very much aimed at developers.

Wear OS 7 arrives this year on supported devices.

Wear OS 7 Emulator

// Android Developers

Read the original post: Wear OS 7 Announced, Includes Gemini Intelligence and Live Updates

Details are relatively limited, but we anticipate we will learn more from Google this week during its annual developer conference. On stage, Google described it as a, “dedicated home base for agents on your phone.”

In a brief blog, the company said the following.

Android Halo makes your agent’s status visible by bringing subtle communication to the top of your phone screen as it takes on a task, goes into live mode or sends you a message. This means you can see the agent’s progress right from the top of any screen you’re on, without having to stop what you’re doing.

Android Halo will be available later this year. It will work with Gemini Spark and other supported agents. More details coming later this year.

// Google

Read the original post: Android Halo Coming to Android 17 This Fall

For those just catching up, Google stopped issuing Android 17 beta builds in April with the build reaching platform stability in preparation for a full stable release to everyone in Q2. Since that version of Android 17 went (mostly) stable, Google was quick to give us the next big quarterly update, which is Android 17 QPR1. We had QPR1 Beta 1 at the end of April, followed by QPR1 Beta 2 in early May.

In this build, we’ll be diving in momentarily to see what’s new. Since this is an I/O release, we hope there are lots of goodies included.

This fresh update is available (now) for all still-supported Pixel devices, which includes the Pixel 6 up through the Pixel 10 series.

The best way to get this update is through the Android Beta Program (sign-up). If you are into flashing images, there are OTA images available (here) too.

Android 17 QPR1 Beta 3 bug fixes

• A recurring system error in ContextHubClientManager that caused excessive logcat noise when attempting to send messages to unregistered clients. (Issue #289721806)
• Clicking on the date on at a glance prompts to open the terminal (Issue #506101970)
• Wi-Fi unexpectedly disconnects due to erroneous low-quality detection despite strong signal strength. (Issue #494670350)
• Users experienced frequent crackling or distorted audio during media playback from any source. (Issue #482749744, Issue #471865281, Issue #485701794, Issue #489062503, Issue #494050912, Issue #494901502, Issue #493915745, Issue #458363923)
• UI elements are partially cut off or positioned off-screen when apps are expanded to full-screen mode. (Issue #476830614, Issue #489452085)
• Home screen widgets would disappear or become unavailable in the widget picker after a device reboot. (Issue #488125748, Issue #505117543, Issue #505671079, Issue #497140330, Issue #506685943, Issue #510967059)
• The mobile data icon incorrectly remains active in the Quick Settings panel after Airplane Mode is enabled. (Issue #501368569, Issue #505757076)

// Google

Read the original post: Android 17 QPR1 Beta 3 is Here for Pixel Phones

Pricing details are still yet to come, but importantly, we have photos of the hardware and a broader vision of what Google is shooting for on the software side.

Each model is made with Samsung leading the hardware engineering, Google handling the AI (Android XR software), and then the actual frames designer, like partners Warby Parky and Gentle Monster creating the aesthetic.

If you have missed everything about Android XR smart glasses, think of them as the answer to Meta and Ray-Ban’s smart glasses. They run Android XR, with Gemini always in your ear and ready to help with specific tasks. For example, you can access navigation assistance, get nearby recommendations, hear summarized notifications, add events to your calendar, and even get real-time language translations with audio that matches the speaker’s voice.

Samsung details that the glasses will work seamlessly within the Galaxy ecosystem, capturing photos and managing tasks all without ever having to take a phone out of your pocket. But don’t worry, they should work seamlessly on most Android phones, including Pixel phones, too.

The first collections of Android XR-powered intelligent eyewear are scheduled to launch this fall with additional details to be announced in the coming months.

// Samsung | Google

Read the original post: Google and Samsung Unveil Android XR Smart Glasses, Launch Later This Year

We anticipate many announcements concerning Android, Android XR, and of course, AI and Gemini. We should also see a new Android 17 build get released, but that’s unconfirmed currently.

It’s going to be a busy day, so grab some snacks and lock in.

Google I/O 2026 Keynote Livestream

Read the original post: Watch Google I/O Keynote at 10AM PT (1PM ET)

First introduced alongside the Fitbit Air a few weeks back, Google told us that the rollout of Google Health would begin on May 19 and finish by May 26.

We’ve shared a lot of info about Google Health already. We have an entire write-up on the change to the new Google Health app from the Fitbit app. Yes, your Fitbit app is going away once it updates to Google Health.

The new Google Health app brings a refreshed UI that can provide much more detail about your metrics, including sleep, heart rate, activity, etc. It also brings us the Google Health Coach, a premium feature that acts as an AI assistant by your side throughout your health and fitness journey.

Of course, since we previously had Fitbit Premium, we now have Google Health Premium in its place. This service costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Having Premium gets you a few extra features over the free version of Google Health, like the new coach, more detailed sleep insights, proactive insights for fitness, a library of workouts, and a few other items. We have a full write-up on whether or not its worth subscribing to.

Again, the rollout begins today and will take a week to finish. Feel free to hit those links below and check for updates. If you don’t see it right away, you will soon enough.

Fitbit to Google Health Updates: Google Play | App Store

Read the original post: Fitbit Becomes Google Health Today