As announced earlier, Google hosted The Android Show I/O Edition 2026 yesterday, where the company revealed new details about Gemini Intelligence, Android platform upgrades, and more.
Here are the details.
Announcements made at The Android Show I/O Edition 2026
Gemini Intelligence on Android
- Automate multi-step tasks across your apps: Gemini will navigate tasks for you and can also turn visual context into instant action. Though the final confirmation will be in your hands.
- Gemini in Chrome: Starting in late June, Gemini in Chrome can help you research, summarise and compare content across the web. Chrome auto browse can take care of more mundane tasks on your behalf.
- Fill out forms in a single tap: By using Gemini’s Personal Intelligence, Android will automatically fill in even more of those tiny text fields across your apps, including Chrome. Connecting Gemini to Autofill with Google is strictly opt-in.
- Rambler: A new Gemini Intelligence feature designed for the way people actually speak. You can speak naturally, and it will take the important parts, then fit them all together into a concise message. It can seamlessly switch between languages in a single message
- Build custom widgets: With Create my widget, you can build entirely custom widgets just by describing what you want using natural language.
- UI designed with Intelligence: Gemini Intelligence comes with an updated design language that builds upon Material 3 Expressive.
These features will be rolled out in waves, starting with the latest Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, and will become available across your Android devices, including your watch, car, glasses, and laptops, later this year.
New AI features in Chrome for Android
- Work smarter with your personal browsing assistant: By clicking the Gemini icon on the top right of your toolbar, Gemini will open at the bottom of your display so you can easily ask questions about the webpage. Gemini in Chrome can be connected with you favourite Google apps.
- Customising images on the go with Nano Banana: With Nano Banana, you can also instantly create highly personalised visuals or customise images you find on the web, directly in Chrome.
- Automating everyday tasks with ease: Auto browse on Android to help you easily handle tedious tasks.
Gemini in Chrome will be rolling out to select devices running Android 12 or higher in the US starting at the end of June. Auto browse will roll out to all AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the US with select devices running Android 12 or higher.
Googlebook designed for Gemini Intelligence
Googlebook is a new category of laptops built with Gemini’s helpfulness at its core. The cursor is changed with Magic Pointer, a feature built with the Google DeepMind team. Just wiggle your cursor and watch it come alive with Gemini, offering quick, contextual suggestions every time you point at something on your screen.
Googlebook will include Create Your Widget and Quick Access features. It allows seamless switching between your laptop and your phone.
Google is working with industry-leading partners like Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo to make the first Googlebooks. Every Googlebook will be built with premium craftsmanship and materials, coming in a variety of shapes and sizes. The company has promised to share more details when devices become available this fall.
Next generation of Android in the car
Android Auto is getting a full refresh that brings personal design touches, widgets you can see at a glance and edge-to-edge Google Maps to your dash. It brings the Material 3 Expressive design from your phone to your car with expressive fonts, smooth animations and wallpapers.
You can customise even further with widgets and add shortcuts to your favourite contacts, a weather overview and more. Immersive Navigation comes as a biggest update to Google Maps.
For the first time in Android Auto, you will be able to sit back, relax and watch videos on apps like YouTube. Look for it in crisp 60fps FHD in supported cars later this year, starting with BMW, Ford, Genesis, Hyundai, Kia, Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Skoda, Tata and Volvo. And when you switch gears from parked to drive, videos don’t abruptly stop.
Android Auto will soon put you at the center of the music with immersive, spatial sound using Dolby Atmos in supported apps and cars, starting with BMW, Genesis, Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Skoda, Tata and Volvo. Media apps, including YouTube Music and Spotify, are getting visual tune-ups.
Apart from this, Gemini is now widely available in Android Auto, and if your phone has Gemini Intelligence, you will be able to access it in Android Auto later this year.
The improved media apps and seamless audio-to-video transition coming to Android Auto are coming to cars with Google built-in, too, plus access to meeting apps, including Zoom, this year.
In eligible cars with Google built in, Immersive Navigation in Google Maps will be even more precise with the help of live lane guidance.
Creative updates coming to Android
- Screen reactions: With Screen reactions, in just a few taps, you can record yourself and your screen at the same time, letting you overlay your authentic response directly onto trending clips, wild comment sections or your latest gift guide. This feature will first roll out on Pixel devices this summer.
- More vibrant Instagram experience: Ultra HDR capture and playback, built-in video stabilisation, night sight integrations and optimised capture-to-upload pipeline
- Edits app: New features are introduced for Instagram’s Edits app, like Smart Enhance and Sound separation
- Instagram is now fully optimised for Android tablets. The Adobe Premiere app is coming to Android soon. With Premiere, you will get access to exclusive templates and effects to create and post YouTube Shorts from the app. Advanced Professional Video format is available on Galaxy S26 Ultra and Vivo X300 Ultra, with more flagships rolling out later this year.
Share files and switch devices on Android
Quick Share is compatible with AirDrop for supported Android phones starting with Pixel and is being expanded to more partners, including Samsung, Oppo, OnePlus, Vivo, Xiaomi and Honor this year. You can also use Quick Share on any Android phone to generate a QR code, which will let you instantly share with iOS devices via the cloud. This feature starts rolling out to all Android phones and will be fully available within the next month. Quick Share will also be made available inside some of your favourite apps, including WhatsApp.
Google worked with Apple to overhaul the iOS-to-Android transfer process to ensure your data moves with you. This upgraded process, which also supports eSIM transfer, will launch first on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel devices this year.
Meanwhile, end-to-end encryption for RCS messages across Android and iOS is also being rolled out.
Pause Point
When you open a distracting app, Pause Point gives you a 10-second breather to ask, “Why am I here?” During that pause, you can do a short breathing exercise or set a timer so you don’t spend too much time scrolling. You can also look at some favourite photos or jump to alternative app suggestions, like an audiobook.
Pause Point ensures you stop and think before disabling the feature too, by requiring a phone restart to turn it off.
New 3D emoji
Google has announced the new 3D emoji collection that brings a touch of physicality to your moments and helps you overcome the digital divide. Noto 3D will be available across Google, starting with Pixel phones, later this year.
Gemini Intelligence on a foundation of security and privacy
Gemini Intelligence on Android is grounded in three core principles:
- Explicit user control- Granular controls, security guardrails, explicit intent
- Comprehensive Data Protection- cutting-edge technologies, proven architecture, advanced defences
- Operational Transparency- Visibility when working, AI assistant activity history and auditable code
Announcement for developers
Google has announced various Gemini Intelligence features that developers can use for their apps to work across Android devices:
- Task Automation with Gemini- Initially launched with selected food and ridesharing partners to build a grocery order or request a ride, this capability is expanding across more verticals and form factors, including foldables, watches, cars and XR glasses.
- Increase Engagement with AppFunctions- For more control over how agents interact with your app, you can use Android AppFunctions.
- Enhanced user experience with Widgets- Jetpack Glance makes it easy to build high-quality widgets, and it is now getting powerful new capabilities like new richer premium interactions, built-in backward compatibility.
- Building adaptively beyond the phone with features like Jetpack Navigation 3, JetPack Compose and design guidance
For device-differentiated experiences, developers can take advantage of the latest updates, like Car App Library expansion and Android XR SDK, for building deeply differentiated, custom experiences for XR devices.
New in Android security and privacy in 2026
Google is enhancing its protections for banking scam calls. It is working with select banks and financial institutions to help protect their customers with a new phone call spoofing protection feature. It protects users by automatically ending phone calls from spoofed numbers. The feature will be rolled out on Android+ devices with Revolut, Itau, and Nubank in the coming weeks.
Google is also expanding Live Threat Detection, Chrome app safety and Advanced Protection. Dynamic Signal Monitoring will be enabled on Android 17 devices with protections rolling out in the second half of the year.
The company is enhancing Find Hub’s Mark as lost feature in Android 17 with the ability to lock a phone with biometric authentication. Triggering Mark as lost also enables additional protections like hiding Quick Settings and disabling new WiFi and Bluetooth connections. The theft protections will now be enabled by default on all new Android 17 devices, as well as those freshly upgraded to the latest OS.
In markets with high demand, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and the UK, theft protection is extended to all devices running Android 10 or higher. The company has also reduced the number of times someone can guess the PIN or password, and added longer wait times between failed attempts.
A device’s IMEI can now be accessed via the lock screen on devices running Android 12 or higher. This feature can be disabled at any time.
Google has introduced a new location button that allows users to share their precise location temporarily for specific tasks while a specific app is open. This updated location indicator will appear at the top of your screen when location is accessed. Users are given more privacy and control when providing contact access to other apps with the new contact picker.
Android OS verification is also introduced on Android 17. Launching initially on Pixel devices, this new feature helps you verify that your device is running an official, widely distributed build of the Android OS.
Android now automatically hides sensitive security codes for 3 hours from most apps, ensuring your OTPs stay protected from unauthorised access. Android 17 is introducing a new capability for the disable 2G toggle
