Pixelated - A Blurry Vision of Android

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Welcome to episode 86 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Damien, and Will dig into an early Android 17 build that includes one big visual change: blurred backdrops. Is this a sign of things to come for Google's vision of its OS, or a more minor system-level tweak? The crew also checks out a leaked look at Android's new — albeit really familiar — desktop mode, Google's more affordable AI Plus plan for Gemini, and Chrome's agentic AI tools. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Apple Podcasts Overcast Timecodes 00:00 – Intro and Android 17 first look 18:30 - Android's new desktop UI leaks 31:02 - Google's new AI Plus plan 39:21 - Chrome's "auto browse" agentic AI tools 54:56 - Forums announcement and wrap-up Hosts Abner Li Damien Wilde Will Sattelberg Read more This is Android 17’s blur, new screen recorder, & more in leaked screenshots [Gallery] Google adding blur to Android 17’s system UI on Pixel Android’s full desktop interface leaks: New status bar, Chrome Extensions, more [Video] Google AI Plus comes to US for $7.99, Google One 2 TB upgraded Chrome rolling out Gemini 3-powered ‘auto browse’ with Google AI Pro  Introducing 9to5Google Forums Check out our new forums here! Listen to more 9to5 Podcasts The Sideload 9to5Mac Happy Hour Electrek Space Explored Feedback? Drop us a line at [e-mail], leave a comment on the post, or reach out to our producer.

Welcome to Pixelated Episode 86. I'm your host, Will Saddleberg. This week, we're getting our first look at Android 17 and some of its blurrier elements with a brand new leaked build ahead of some upcoming developer previews. Where does this look land on the liquid glass scale of UI designs? We'll discuss.

Google's new desktop UI for Android also leaked this week, and it has us all wondering just exactly why it's taking so long to roll out to the public. And finally, we talked through Google's new AI Plus plan launching in the U.S. alongside Chrome's new agentic AI tools that could leave a big impact on the future of browsing. It's a packed show, and it all starts right now. So after months, I guess months, we've hoped and waited and prayed for something related to Android 17, and the Lord giveth, the Lord take of their way.

He has given us a bit of an insight into what's happening with Android 17. So Abner, give me the lowdown, because you've covered this extensively on site. I love this. You know I love covering Android in death. So, yeah, whatever time of year it is. Let's get into it. Zooming out, I don't think Android 17 is as major a release as the 16 QPR1 with the Material Tree Expressive redesign. Well, it makes sense.

They just did a big redesign. They aren't going to go in guns brazing and change everything they just did. So I think with this week we're starting to see what the tent poles are and the big visual one to follow M3E is blur by the looks of it. They are any system UI element. So like the volume slider or the power menu, it's going to change from a solid background to a translucent one that is,

continues to be teamed with dynamic color. So that's just like how they updated quick settings and notifications last year, that is going to apply to the the higher system. I got to say, I think people are going to have, and I don't want to say this out loud, I don't want to bring this up, actually. And I'm going to say the words, liquid glass.

What do you think? You have to, right? Like, they already do. Yeah, I mean, you can just scroll through our comments. You can scroll through Reddit. Like, yes, like, everybody is going to compare this to liquid glass, whether or not it deserves it. And I'm curious to know what you guys think, but my knee-jerk reaction is like, this doesn't look

like liquid glass to me. It's nowhere near as extreme. No, it's nowhere that. I think the understated thing with wicked glass is that it's a material that takes on the properties of glass. So when you move it around, there is that effect, like if you take a magnifying glass. Refraction. That is the understated thing in wicked glass that you don't see until you use it, until you move. around the UI until you scroll. It's not captured in screenshots whatsoever. What Google is

doing with 17, it is just a straightforward blurring effect so that you can have some context about what's behind the UI you just interacted with. It's in no way as aggressive or as bigger thing as we could grasp. I'm in two minds about this because it reminds me a little bit of those early days of one UI and what Samsung tried to do, like it does genuinely remind me that a little bit. But at the same time, I think, does it betray what Google have done with Dynamic Color and Material U over the past, say, four or five years?

I'm not sure, I don't think so, but at the same time, kind of like, say, I'm in two minds about this. Basically, I'm just confused how I feel about it. But I would hope that we'll have options like there is in iOS to reduce transparency, that kind of thing. Do you know what I mean? There is. There is. There is today for the quick settings and notifications. It's very straightforward. Again, it's either translucency or a solid background. But to what you're saying about how this fits in the material to express it, that is absolutely my question going into this because in the M3E stuff they released last year, there's absolutely nothing about translucency. So I'm starting to think that transversea.

is just for the system UI. It's just for Android. And that it put for just for system elements. Like again, like quick settings is the canonical example and the volume slider. So it might be that just use of translucency is just really meant to emphasize when you're interacting with the OS and that apps will basically stay the same. I want to, I mean, what do you think will? Because I feel like you're probably on the same side of the fence as me where you're like, I mean, we're both quite hard. like hard down the middle about this but i like that um google with android with its version of

android has uh leaned heavily on like you know straight up like flat colors and like i think it's like a really fun unique vibe especially and i think it stands out really well compared to liquid glass i i'm not like i don't know my reaction to this is like a shrug emoji where i'm like it doesn't like even in this early state it doesn't look bad it just it's like it's like It feels like change for changes sake. I'm not sure what I'm getting out of this either way. Like I look at, you know, the power off menu on my pixel 10 currently, and I hold it up to the example from this Android 17 leak.

And I'm like, this is the, like, I don't feel different. I feel the same about these. Like they don't, it doesn't give me a different emotional reaction, which I know is a silly thing to say about operating systems. but I felt like, you know, material three expressive gave me an emotional reaction, a positive emotional reaction when it rolled out last year. And this one, I just, I don't know.

Like, it feels a little bit like to bring back at, our liquid glass conversation. It's like, I don't think this is anywhere like close visually to liquid glass, but I wonder if this is just kind of a like, well, blur, blur is in the water right now. So let's just do some blur. Like, I don't know. I'm sort of intrigued to see what happens elsewhere, though,

because we see a little bit of this league that there are elements that don't seem to have changed drastically yet. I mean, I'm guessing they'll paint over some things and change some things there that we don't necessarily see here. But we get to see that new screen recording option and some of the floating windows. They don't seem to have any sort of blur effect. So maybe this is like you say, I mean, I don't know. It could just be related to system level toggles, like not just every aspect. to the OS, so it makes it a bit more clear, maybe just improves like that user interoperability. Sorry, no, it's not just user interoperability, it's user-based toggles, I think.

But does that make sense? I'm not, I mean, it's making it clear that the, put it intended, there's a bit of transparency or clarity to those system-level toggles versus the usability toggles that you're kind of having for screen recording, or you click, well, that kind of stuff. I think the underlying reward this does seem like a more stylistic modernization rather than any big design statement

like record grass was this is just updating it for the times and I think that's perfectly fine that's a good way to do that. That's a perfectly fine refresh. Let's get into this screen recorder then because obviously we haven't seen a huge element of what Android 17

is really going to bring to the table I'll probably going to bring to the table I do agree that I don't think we're going to see massive huge changes because as we've alluded to Android 16 in those previous QPR releases is well it's massive isn't it and it is that big visual change you want it but do you think Google is just going to kind of get into the nitty gritty here and improving enhanced experiences like underlying those like we're kind of seeing here like system level tools or is that just something that happened to need a refresh from what we've seen with these again we can't it's it's

it's it's a weak build and internal build it's we don't know how far along everything is. But from this, it does look like a lighter UI than what you're dealing with today, which is basically when you start screen recording, your options appear and the pop up menu at the center, the screen takes up everything. This new approach is a floating pill at the center at the top of the screen that you can tap for drop down many of more options. It's, it's, I mean, if good Google wanted to tell a story with blur and with this, it would be something along the lines of minimizing system UI, making everything feel lighter and whatnot. Is there pressing need for it?

Not necessarily, but modernization, it happens, it's fine. It feels like it's trying to get out the way if that makes sense, and I will give credit to Google here. They've done that pretty down well over the past few years, because initially in material UNAWN0012, it felt like such a big paradigm shift. And in some ways, things did start to get in your way a little bit. I'm not being disrespectful there. I think it did compared to previous things,

things like the quick settings toggles. They were smaller. Then you have those big pill-shaped toggles, which some people took a while to get used to, and it took double taps to access certain things that were a single tap. So this, to me, feels like a step in that direction. And I know it could be reading this wrong,

but that's what these tools feel like to me, if that makes sense. No, yeah. I think that a bigger change, which we're still expecting to happen, is the idea of splitting notifications and quick settings into its separate thing. So if you swipe down from the top right corner where the status bar icons are today, you open quick settings anywhere else, you get notifications. It's a very iOS thing, which...

Actually, what do we feel about that? Do we prefer the combined panel? Do you think some of us are going to, what would you use the classic option, which is going to remain, or this new split option that we're seeing? Always and forever combined to me. I have tried it on every other, because every other Android phone now offers this. Yeah. And I always, I have tried it. Like, I have given a split a fair shake. And obviously, anytime I pick up an iPhone, you're trapped in that world. But there really is something about the iPhone, like, the iPhone have. you know, initially a notch and now a, now the dynamic island, that that works with my brain where it's like a very definitive split between the two that is not on like any other Android phone because they all have like small little whole punch cutouts. It just, it doesn't split the screen in the same way. And so I just, I can never wrap my head around when I'm trying, like

where my thumb should land. So I inevitably end up just recombining them. Yeah, personally, I would like option and the reason why I like the option is because if you've used it on one UI, like one you I think it's seven it started with, one UI has that really nice option which gives you the ability to say, okay, I'd like one switch for toggles and then I know Google is intent on switches, but with pixel over the past few years, it does look like it makes sense to have a tool and a toggle that you can turn on and off to switch between them, which logically, I mean, thinking of the lock screen, for instance, you won't want to access just toggles, you want to access toggle there, sorry, for instance, because you can see notifications anyway, so maybe it's

a bit redundant. But in the system, I think it does make sense to have two options for the notification shade. I don't know, it kind of consolidates it. And maybe we've just reached that stage anyway where everyone's copying everybody's homeworked, basically to the point that we have the same experience regardless of what phone you happen to pick up, even though they look visually different. I mean, I know I've given you a bit of a mealy-mouth response there. So, yeah, I'm going to stick to traditional, so I'm going to stick to traditional solo one style notification shade with toggles as well. Yeah, same. So I think my big, well, we all know how iOS works. My biggest issue with their control center is that when you open it, it's a full screen

in the place, you can have tiles that look like widgets. It just looks like a second home screen. And I never like how it's so, it feels like its own experience with, third-party apps can add their own control center stuff. Again, this is all possible in Android notifications, and it's been for years, but I feel like there's so much more subtle about it. It doesn't feel like you're going, it doesn't feel like you're accessing a second home screen,

especially since they have multiple pages, et cetera, et cetera. So it feels like a toolbox. So yeah, it's supposed to be quick, isn't it? It's supposed to dive in, dive out, turn the thing off that you want to turn off and turn the thing on that you want to turn on, whatever you want to do, like disable something,

then ditch it quickly, and then maybe have some notifications in there while you're there. I think that's, personally, I think that's fine. I think for most people, maybe they're going to be a bit overwhelmed with the new pixel layout on,

sorry, the layout on pixel, but it has been like that for a little bit of a while now. So I can kind of understand why you want to have notifications or you just want to have notifications. So I'm not going to criticize anyone too heavily

because I don't really think it's a problem. I think it's just having an extra solution is good. but I do hope like both of you really that I think we can just stay where it is now which I don't mind I don't have a problem with but yeah we'll see what Google does so yeah in terms of other features that we've briefly seen it is the idea of app lock where you'll be able to add an additional confirmation before you open any apps and the other things you can bubble use chat bubble interface for basically not a chat app we've only seen those in brief but you

Again, I think it goes back to the idea that I don't think Android 17 is a major release, or at least not this initial one. And it is, I mean, the story of Android, the past few generations, has been adding common features that are found from other OEMs from iOS. Again, like everybody, it's a virtuous cycle. So it's just adding more options. And yeah, that's until we hear otherwise, Android 17 is shaping up to be, not the biggest update, but we just had the big update.

Yeah, I wonder about the notification bubbles as well. Like, do we think they've tried this already? We've been going at this for like a decade now. So if it hasn't previously taken off, it's not going to take off again. Like, do you use it? I mean, I see people using it for chat notifications. I don't, but I see people using it for chat notifications. I do think, again, to go back to that Facebook phone made by HDC,

however long ago, with that nice locks. screen that showed your photos and everybody posted images on Facebook. I think there was a novel idea at the time, interaction idea at the time, but I feel like it just might be feel too cluttered today. That's why I don't really use bubbles. I just want, if I want to interact with that stuff, I go to notifications. But I don't know, I see people use it. So maybe there's something there. I'm also guessing in this context, it's for multitasking though as well. Like you bubble an application to then access it super quick without having to go to the recent menu. Maybe. I mean, that's my outside take on it. But it could be the way that they're thinking of it. I don't know.

I mean, have you ever used a chat bubble yourself? I think I've used it maybe once or twice. Occasionally, like, recently, like two or three weeks ago, I somehow like enabled, I accidentally enabled it in Telegram. I truly do not know how I did this. It was just like, I must have hit something when I was trying to read a DM or like a group chat message that that moved that conversation into a chat bubble and I was like well I guess like I haven't tried these in like years and I I never liked them I remember you know yeah I guess Facebook was the thing that I remember them the most of but like I I had not used them in years and I was like I'll give it another shot I guess like maybe maybe they've gotten good enough and I just find them so finicky like I I I

find that they are never really where I want them to be or doing what I want them to do. And I'll dismiss them and they'll inevitably just like, you know, somebody else in a group chat like sends a message. It's like, you wanted this back, right? I know you just dismissed it. But you wanted this back on your screen. And like, I don't know, keep that stuff in the notifications. I don't need it on my home screen or on in apps while I'm trying to like do anything.

Even if it's just scrolling through social media, it's like that can live in the status bar. So for for me, I've, I always end up turning them off. Yeah, I mean, it's probably one of those things. It definitely feels like an ADHD edition where you can just slide this little bubble around. And I do wonder if there is really a theory out there. I wonder if this is a symptom or potentially a feature as where, I don't know why I said symptom there,

something that could potentially be used in tandem with maybe a little bit more interaction in and around the control notch. Maybe Google's thinking about some sort of implementation there when dismissing this feature a little bit like that. I know there's something that could be done that's cool there, and I'm sure they could do it, but I guess we don't really need the design make island on Android. I'm not a big fan of it anyway.

There's a lot of implementations out there that are terrible anyway, but I prefer the chip style status bar option, so maybe it is feeling a little bit redundant to me. I guess some people might find it useful, but yeah, that basically is all we have to say about Android so far. I'm excited. I'm always excited about these updates. I like to see all of these times,

tiny little changes that mean quality of life additions, I think between all three of us were kind of a bit. I guess maybe we'll build this enthusiasm at some point in time, but it will be there very, very soon. Like, there are only very, very minor things so far. And I know that this isn't tangently related. It's not Android 17, but this week we also saw something that I would argue is a lot,

lot bigger. It was the first leak of Android's full desktop interface. And this looks potentially exactly what we were kind of hoping for, but yeah, I'll give you some more details on this happening because, sorry, let Abner detail this because you covered this very much in depth as well. So if you've used Android tablets, which in fairness, most people haven't, more than Android tablets, or if you've connected your pixel to an external display, which again, I think most people probably haven't since that feature is still technically in beta.

desktop Android looks so familiar in the way that I was like, oh, this is it. The biggest change that Google made is a proper status bar. It's compared to when you're using desktop Android with a mouse or, yeah, with a mouse or a trackpad or an external keyboard. It's just a little bit taller. You get the full time. the status bar icons are a bit larger for you to click with a mouse cursor, etc., etc. But that really does look like the big desktop UI change. The taskbar looks the same.

I guess we can go into... I guess it makes sense that Google is going to keep the taskbar method... Sorry, the status bar that's on Android phones and under tabulate... and they're containing it on the desktop so it's familiar with the users, but they're not doing anything in the bottom, light corner, like Chrome OS or Windows. I guess it's, you can say,

it's most closely aligned with what Apple does, but again, this is what Android phones and tablets have been doing for ages. Do you think this is going to, I mean, we obviously expect this to replace our fully usurp Chrome OS as kind of de facto method in which we get a desktop experience from Google? Like, do you think this is something

that is going to fully integrate into all of our phones or we're going to get like this halfway house on the experience we have on the phone right now or is this literally it? Because I'd say, I mean, Android is technically built for phones in that respect. So I don't know where, is there going to be a lot of work with the Samsung decks

and an equivalent of decks and that has a lot of these features already? How do you feel about that? They all have to be the same thing. They can't offer three different experiences based on whether you're using a proper Android laptop you're using a tablet

or you're using Dex mode from your pixel it has to be unified but it's I know it could be worse I guess it's fine

we see windowing we see multitasking it's it's fine it's so familiar it works it absolutely works

and I do I will admit that a part of me wishes that Google introduces something totally novel in terms of UI, a new idea. But if it works, it works. I get the impression that with regards to the UI, they can't really do anything too drastic because people are kind of used to what they used to, if that makes sense. I mean, if you differ too drastically, that could effectively just kill your entire potential market share, couldn't it? Or kill the market share you already have, because I see Cromorass is out there in the wild. I'm kind of interested to see

if we get the opportunity when Android 17 does drop or if as it knows actually it's based on under 16 if we get a beta at some point to try and test it and this is made available as soon as you plug in your pixel just how that gets on and how it performs because I mean it seems to run pretty well I don't know if there's any details on the device which this was running or not just an existing Chromebook

Yeah it's an old 20, a 2021-22 Chromebook it is running 12th gen Intel. It's, I mean, Dax runs fine on the pixel phone to Google's credit. So I don't, I don't think this is as power hungry or anything.

Or rather, the base sign of chips, they are all good enough to be pretty, I, performance cannot be an issue in this day and age. Yeah, I mean, it does look run pretty nice from the demo if you've seen.

I'm obviously hoping that we get to see some more. killer features as well in the future. It doesn't seem to be any at this point in time. I don't seem to any major ones. But yeah, I think we've talked about this at length. Does it necessarily feel a bit underwhelming to you? I mean, we've seen this now and yeah, it's kind of what we expected. No, it is. It's honestly, I thought they were the launch by now. I definitely thought this was going to be a 25, something that happens in 25. But this has to happened by 26 because it is seemingly that straightforward. Yeah, I guess the weight was making me think this would be more of a visual redesign than it is compared to, you know, like current

desktop mode, right? Like, I just, I don't know. Like, I, I, I guess it doesn't really matter. And I guess, I guess Google kind of had to routes that they could have followed, right? And it was like, do something completely out of left field, like, you know, reinvent the desktop interface or mirror existing interfaces from Android and, you know, in ChromeOS fairly closely in order to make whatever transition they're doing more comfortable for existing users and, and or even just people who have maybe had a Chromebook before and are going to look at an Android powered laptop and be like, oh, like, I vaguely know what this looks like. It looks like the Chromebook I used to have combined with MacOS or whatever, right?

Like, nobody is going to buy this based on the UI, though. So I think it's smart to probably leave comfort overall. And it's what we've said for months now, which is that the success of this is going to completely depend on app support, not what the visual UI looks like. As long as the UI is fine. And this is fine. This will work.

This is exactly what modern UI looks like. I think whenever we mention Google and desktop stuff, what comes to mind is future, where they were really trying to rethink what an OS will have. how a desktop OS works from the user, from the underlying architecture, to the system UI. That was the original plan for future.

That was in the air for so long. But I think what's happening now is something that's an extension of the Android phonyer familiar with, with the biggest similarities probably coming from Chrome OS. Yeah. I mean, I've got a bit of a left field prediction here. All I think this needs to do is usurp the experience on low-level Windows 11 laptops. And I think genuinely for a lot of people, there is a growing discontent of Windows at the moment.

So, I mean, we talked about it previously, haven't we, on a podcast episode. So I genuinely get the impression that all this thing needs to do, or all Android on desktop needs to do, is run the kind of applications that most people are going to be able to run basically fine, like either from a professional standpoint or a hobbyist standpoint, or it could really do Google wonders in terms of general Android market share as well because obviously you have all these potential Chromebooks out there that are running Android right now and then Android is already the dominant force anyway.

So practically this would dominate huge swathes as a market. But I can see this being a really, really big move for them. And I kind of hope that they just put in the time and effort to really ensure that I believe, I mean, the build number for this is LOS or Aluminium OS, which is, I mean, in and of itself is an interesting concept, but with the codename and stuff like that. But I'm hopeful people, I'm hopeful that this is a kind of move that people are looking for and seeing the comments online from this about this league, it's kind of given me a bit more food for thought. Yeah, there's a lot of people potentially excited by this more so than I

expected. So yeah, as I say, there isn't really much to get into. I guess it's the experience we kind of expected at this stage. There's a little bit of redundancy, like you say, with the two status bar approach, but I'm sure that will probably change your time. But yeah, let's hope we some more information in the coming months with regards to potential beta phases, that kind of stuff. I'm personally banking on the fact that when the Android 17 beta arrives, we'll get a better look at this. Yeah. I hope this speeds up because there is something, and we've talked about this, but there's something in the air right now to like specifically move away from Windows. People feel very frustrated by Microsoft as a company in like eight different ways, to be honest with

you. I think you could you could find two people who are annoyed at Microsoft right now, and they would have completely different reasons. But, but, you know, like, just today, I mean, like, like, Nvidia is bringing G-Force now to Linux, they announced, and, and there's some kind of, like, open gaming collective, you know, with developers trying to aim for Linux. So, like, there is an opening, as we've talked about, for some kind of new, like, desktop OS platform. And I, Google needs to strike, like, faster.

Like, they need to get this. like up and running for people like soon I think I I agree with that with you Abner like this should have launched last year and I'm not seeing I'm not I'm not trying to pretend this this isn't like difficult in the background on a technical level like I'm not I'm not going to pretend I even know what's happening in the background but just purely visually I don't see what we're waiting for here at least in terms of like launching a beta and getting this in people's hands so I don't know I I kind of don't think there's a

for this. Maybe, not in the Android sensor. I'm thinking of, be it decks or Android tablets. Maybe there's something where you convert your Chromebook, but that's just for devs, as to give devs a wider dev device. But I do kind of think that this launch is just somebody announced the first thing you can buy. Dev builds might be a better way to put it. Like get this in the hands of people who can start building. like apps specifically tailored for Android desktop in laptop computers.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, my first thought is how long are Google going to support this? We know that obviously ChromeRS is supported quite easily because it's effectively just a browser. And we've seen lots of developers, sorry, OEMs in terms of Android, try and update their own update plans their support windows of the last few years. So I'm wondering how this is going to potentially affect those devices as well, because if this is built on Android, then this effect.

effectively means that brands, at least in theory, they should be supporting the devices for longer, shouldn't they? And we've seen that that onus has kind of fallen on Google to support Chromebooks. So a Google going to be the one who support third-party devices that run Android as a desktop operating system. I'm kind of intrigued to see how that all plays out, because, I mean, this could be a net benefit for us, consumers in general, because potentially your next laptop that you go out and buy or your tablet that has this Android desktop interface, I mean, it's a strange one to think about, but as you say, Will, there's more of a clamour for this.

And as I mentioned with Windows, I mean, he's definitely not on the slide, but there's definitely growing discontent and striking while the iron hot is, while the iron is hot, is something that Google doesn't necessarily do that often or as often as they should. I mean, let's take Stadia, for example,

it's a good one in that respect, because Stadia felt like it was made for this kind of environment that we have now, especially now that obviously we all the components are so expensive that people aren't going to go up and go and upgrade their PC and cloud gaming starting to become a more feasible option. But yeah, I guess we see how this all plays out.

Again, I think it's another thing I'm just excited for. It's that one thing that we've had in previous years that maybe hasn't felt all that great at the start of the year. And I'm just excited for products to come out. And I guess that's all that good work that Google's done in the last few years is kind of culminating in hopefully this really, really cohesive ecosystem. But yeah, that's the desktop OS. AndroidOS desktop, whatever you call it.

Android's full desktop interface is how we've described it. Hopefully we'll learn more in the next few months, but let's get on to some other things. We can't have a podcast without talking about Gemini because, well, that's on Vogue, isn't it? So Google AI Plus is now available in the US $7.99. So tell me about that, Abner. Yeah, it is...

So the pricing is currently, it's I think what most people are on a $9.99 plan with 2 terabytes of storage. That's a legacy Google One thing. And the next thing up is the Google AI Pro at $20 per month. The same storage with all the AI features unlocked. So Google is going cheaper at $7.99 with AI Plus. This was something they launched around the world originally, but they've now brought it to the U.S.

other markets, major markets. So I'm sure there's an audience. I think, yes, $7.99 is attractive, but I think the way most people experience that this is from the upgraded $999 plan. I mean, it's weird the number of markets, or how many number of markets they seem relevant because it's really, really random nations, isn't it? Guinea-Bissau, Turkmenistan, Seychelles and places like that. But I'm kind of, I mean, that's strange.

Why does Google decide that this is one of the key markets? Maybe there's a very heavy component of people that use Gemini in those regions. Yeah, AI Plus was originally designed for emerging markets, and they were going very hard. But I think that this maybe, I assume this is always the plan to bring it everywhere, but that distinction doesn't matter anymore. So they're just bringing it to every country out there. It hasn't really hit Europe just yet. So that's interesting.

I also just like, I mean, the elephant in the room is like, I just don't. We are at a certain level of peak subscription just in general. And I just don't know how much appetite exists for any $20 a month AI subscription for most people. And so like, I don't know. like if you are, you know, a fairly active Gemini user and, and even if you're not on the two terabyte plan already, but like, let's just say you do like using Gemini, I, this is a much more attractive deal that gets you a bunch of the stuff you would probably want out of the AI pro plan without necessarily having to overpay for like more of the dev focus stuff. Do you know what I

mean? Like, I, it's smart to do this because, yeah, I probably, like, I don't know if I would pay specifically for for AI plans in general at this current point, but certainly eight dollars a month is a lot more attractive than than 20. I'm sure you can ask Netflix who have had massive success with their $8 a month ad supported plan as opposed to their 4K plan. You know, I see the, I think it's a smart move, but like in terms of like focusing this on emerging markets first, like I, I just like this is probably more realistic for what people. would be willing to pay for AI if they want to pay for AI.

I mean, you do get 200 gigabytes of Google One storage, which I think to be honest, I mean, I think it should be more than that nowadays. 200 gigabytes just doesn't go as far as it used to, does it? Yeah, that's the, is that the dollar 99 plan on its own per month, I think? I believe that's, yeah, that's what you pay in the US. I think it's about one £1.59 here in the UK. I mean, I guess you probably get, do get a further, for a further $6 or $7, five pounds here in the UK of actual added value to it.

So in that respect, it probably isn't really a bad price at all, is it? And I don't know, that obviously does potentially undercut some of the other competitors. So, I mean, Open AI can't offer that with chat GPT because they don't offer that deeper integration with other Google services. So yeah, maybe this is a play to really put Gemini and Google Storage specifically at a bigger forefront of people's minds in these emerging markets. Like you say, it's a bit more affordable. I guess it is technically still expensive in some regions. but it probably feels like a cheaper on the wallet way of doing this, like especially it makes sense to offer on these lower tiers.

I'm hopefully, I'm sure that Google will improve that and have more functionality, but maybe we'll get that other tier in between, which I would be more enticed to, and I think a lot of people would be enticed to out there as well. And just, again, to reiterate, like the stuff you're missing, I, you know, I'll throw to you guys, I guess, actually, but like just comparing these two plans together, and let's take the $7.99 out of it.

let's say you're on that $10 a month two terabyte plan versus the $20 a month AI Pro plan, which also includes two terabytes. Like, do you guys see anything on this list on the AI pro plan that you would really miss instead of just signing up for AI Plus? Because, like, I'm not, I've never vibe coded to like, that's out the window for me. Like, I just, I don't see a lot of stuff here where I'm like, as a generally regular consumer. I'm like, yeah, I really need to go up to the AI pro plan. I think this always had to happen because AI Pro feels destined for developers and AI diehard vibe coders.

Well, yeah, I will admit that I've recently coded a few little... You have. You're talking about this. I'm in the process of doing something as well for a wallpaper location just to try to get one up and running and see how it works. But, and to be honest, to be quite honestly, I mean, I do, I mean, a lot of people don't realize that I actually have a computer science degree. So I did a little bit of program a long time ago. and I will admit I'm not a great programmer and I don't enjoy doing it

and this kind of understanding the concepts I do understand I'm just not great at programming so for me I think it's a really nice way to be able to utilize some of those older skills and the skills that might elapsed and not well I've let them lapse and it's not done in any favour so I do think it's cool for that would I miss them?

That's a very good question I mean I'm going to say that I have to say no I don't really utilize it enough but it's been nice to have those functions available to me while I'm playing around and trying to make some I mean I made some Chrome extensions that have been really useful to me specifically but yeah I don't really know

have you have you used I mean have you delved into things like flow and whisk as well before I don't think I have at all but I don't think I've ever used those or even opened them no I don't my primary uses to Gemini app which I would say I am a pretty increasingly a heavy user of but and for that from a model perspective

if I'm paying for something I want to pay for the best so the Gemini 3 Pro model so that's what's probably keeping me on and the usage limit the usage limits between the AI press and the AI pro they are noticeable like I think if you get the $20 AI pro you won't encounter the vast vast majority of people

who won't encounter the limits in any meaningful way, but I think the AI Plus you still will if you're trying to use the, again, the most powerful model. I mean, I think one of the big things with the AI Pro plan

is that I think normies in air quotes will be enticed enough by the fact that you do get a Google Home Premium plan with it. So in that respect, yeah, there is one thing that is major added value as well. So, I mean, as I say,

I do wonder if Google will try and keep that in there. I'm sure that they will for a long period of time as a sales tactic. But I'm a bit disappointed that the plus doesn't even have, say, like, a 15-day version of that or a light version of the home premium plan. I mean, they call it the standard plan. So maybe they could have a light version. But I guess it is what it is.

I don't even have that here in the UK. So I've been left high and dry anyway, even though I do have that AI Pro plan regardless. But, yeah, as I say, it is what it is. It is good to see Google doing this. I mean, it's good to see Google trying to at least very, very much lower the entry point for people across the globe. I guess Gemini is a premium product now for Google. Most people probably say, yeah, I don't know if you guys agree with me. It kind of has to be now, right?

And they've made incredible gains over the last 18 months or so. So, yeah, but on that, Chrome is now having some extremely new Gemini features added to it, also browse with this AI propan that we are alluding to. So yeah, Gem 9 Chrome got a big update this week and Gem 9 Chrome launched last year. Honestly, with this update, I'm more inclined to use it. So from a fundamental level, there's a new UI instead of this pop-up floating pop-up window, it is now a side panel. It's a side panel with your browsing window shrinking a bit.

and it's such a minor change in the grand scheme, but I am using it more now that it's a side panel, that it's part of the Chrome interface rather than a floating window. Again, it's a minor change, but I think this is the UI that makes more sense than what originally launched. And there's some cool stuff

where you can compose a Gmail message in line and just send it immediately. There's like this card that appears, is that's basically the Gmail Composed window. And another thing is with the nano-banana integration here makes quite a bit of a sense in terms of if you want to edit, if you want something edited, you don't have to download it and upload it. You can just open the side panel and tell Gemini

what you want to change with the image and it automatically grabs the image for you. But yeah, so those are very nice Gemini in Chrome quality of wire improvements that are rolling out now, you probably already have it. But again, the big thing is autobrouse. It is a true agenetic feature in that you can tell Chrome the task that you want, whether it's like booking something, buying something, planning something, filling out forms, etc., etc. And it'll do it for you. I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet in terms of finding a use case that's like not serious, but something super light that I can test it to start with. And I think that might be the case of most people too.

But it is a lot of power. And it's coming to a lot of people with AI pro in the US immediately. I'm got to say, I'm quite scared, as you alluded to the power aspect. I mean, I would be very, very wary of handing over control to Gemini to kind of do my browsing for me and do these little things. But I know there's a couple of demos that they've shown where you can kind of like fill in a form instantly like you said. I can kind of understand that, like using it to shop Etsy to put potential things into my basket. I would be worried. But there was obviously in that demo.

They've shown that they've given guardrails like a spending limit. But at the same time, I feel like I don't know, I'm probably not the person who'd want to do this. this, I'm probably the person who'd want to do full, no, like full control, no autonomy at all. I want to do it myself. No autonomy for the browser. Yeah, it's, I honestly, I probably, we probably started out the same way with Gemini. Like, oh yeah. For example, in the works, the work context I use Gemini for is like text manipulation in terms of like, let's say you have a list and you want to convert to a table or vice versa or whatever. Like, that stuff, I was initially, when this even last year

I was hesitant to do it because I didn't think it was smart enough or powerful enough or I would heavily recheck everything but I think there's a point where you're these this utility that is Gemini

the Gemini app and now Gemini and Chrome I think there's a point where it's provably in your experience it gets it right and it's more convenient than you doing your I wouldn't trust it for banking stuff, but to the opposite of what you're saying, like in shopping,

I probably trusted to do shopping. That being said, I do all my shopping on the phone app these days. It's not really on desktop. But yeah, I think something like shopping is actually the use case. I trust it's low risk enough. If something goes wrong on Amazon, they're usually pretty good about correcting it. again like you have to make the fine you always have to make the final authorize the final purchase on the buy button it's always you doing that it the safeguards today it'll never automatically

just buy it for you you have to take the final step i feel like we have been in this phase of like you know being told that agentic ai is the next big step for these tools and obviously we are as hell didn't happen last year so maybe not that you know it's fine right right how many i feel like this is the third year of agentic ai but what like this is the third time it's been the year of agentic ai but you know setting that aside you know i've learned to look at google's examples when they when they roll out new ai demos is like it's it's not just these are some of the things you can do but these are like very specifically the best things we have found for this tool like this is going to show you the best example of and sometimes not always but

sometimes kind of the only things it can do. I'm not saying that's this case here, but like a lot of times, if you push against the walls, you start to, we've seen this a lot on pixel with pixel AIA features where you're like, oh, the examples they showed on stage were actually kind of the things it can do,

not some of the things it can do. So I'm sort of looking at these videos with, through that lens, just because that's sort of how Google has trained me to look at their demos. You know, the one that seems the most appealing to me is the, is the one where it's filling out a Google form with, I think it's like kickball team rosters, right?

And it's like using your team roster and then just like taking information from it. And filling in this form, which to me, I think, brushes up against your high risk versus low risk thing, Abner, where I'm like, you know, obviously a kickball tournament is not necessarily high risk in the grand scheme of things,

but if you care about your kickball tournament or you're not the team captain and you find out the team captain use this AI tool and something got screwed up and now you don't get to play in the kickball tournament, you'd be pretty pissed off. So I struggle with that. And then, you know, we, I'm going to set aside the travel stuff because just every AI demo is like, use it to book your flights. Whatever, guys.

Like, I'm so tired of it. Yeah, book a hotel. Yeah. So the other thing here, as we talked about, is shopping. And specifically, the example here is like, oh, we're throwing a Y2K themed party. And I guess I struggled to see what, what, to what end am I doing this? is not part of the fun of planning a Y2K themed party would be like finding the stuff for your party. I don't like I I sometimes wish when we get agentic AI things like I want the developers

behind it or even just like PR teams and I'm not just talking about Google but just any agentic AI company in general to come out and say like what do you expect me to do with the time that I'm supposedly getting back from this tool doing the stuff itself like if I'm if I'm just letting Gemini plan my party for me. What am I doing while that's happening? I know that's going to be different for everybody. You just start waiting for the agents to get out and run through the process so you can click. Wait, because it's, yeah, it's actively doing it on your desk. Like you watch it happen. You can pause and take over at any time. But it's, am I sitting in front of the computer? Am I getting up in like, is the dream that I'm getting up and going? Where am I going?

Is this all just to like? You can do something else. You can't keep browsing the web. I, to me, it's like, what's even, what, what is on the web that I should go do now anymore? Like, the web feels so vacant and empty in comparison to 10 or, 10 or 15 years ago, I would have loved this. Great, you know, research my college paper while I spend time on these forums that no longer exist or, you know, websites that are, were sold four times over and are no longer, like, publishing anything I want to read anymore. Like, I just, I guess I just don't see where we are building to. that Chrome can plan a party for me. I know that is like a boring negative take, but like I've been pretty cold on agentic AI specifically

since they started talking, since, you know, the industry started talking about this. And really in 2024, I feel like was when you really started hearing it a lot. And I have not been like convinced, like, we've had two years of various,

two plus years of various demos and nothing has sold me on any of this, really. I don't know. Okay, I have one example. I have one example that I think will be good. So say, for instance, you're in a line for a queue for gig tickets or whatever it is. I can understand that in that instance. I don't know why Google doesn't show that off.

I mean, maybe ticket master doesn't want us to know that. It might not work. It's like a hack or something like that that kind of gets past their horrendous queuing system, whatever they use, so I can kind of understand that. But, well, this is the ultimate bot, isn't it? It's the bot of all bots. I guess it creates the user agent. Sorry, it tricks it into things.

thinking the user age, it's still a normal human being. So I feel like that in this example, that's what I'd use it for. The amount of times I've been in line queuing for gig tickets, and it takes too long to type things out manually, or you'd use the auto-complete and it gets something wrong, you could just provide all those details to begin with and have it do the things, have it do all of that for you. I mean, it is effectively that kickball tournament example, Google thing.

But hopefully we'll shorten the link notes as well to this post, if you don't understand what I'm talking about. But I think the idea of using hotels, I mean, I'd maybe use it for search. That would come in handy and it probably will come in handy later this year if we can get this feature in the UK. I mean, or when I'm in the US again, I can maybe use a VPN to actually get this working. But like you could give it specific details like finding a hotel in a certain radius.

I mean, I'm set to go back to Japan, hopefully this year. So maybe I can try it then and see how we get on and come back on this podcast and tell you how good or bad it's been. Yeah, I think though, as you say, Will, it feels like as you're, allude into a little bit, it kind of takes away a component of purchase, like, the purchase experience. Like, if you were planning a party, I mean, I don't know why you want to use Chrome to

auto purchase stuff. It kind of doesn't make sense, does it? It's the one example. And there's always, there's always an example in Google's examples where I go, like, but that, like, doing the thing is like part of the fun. To me, like, I just don't see the vision of, like, I'm so excited to have my friends over for this Y2K party. let me put no effort naturally putting it together myself. I just don't get it.

Yes, at a high level, nobody markets AI well. This is not a Google problem. This is an industry problem. And Google's the best at it. So when I'm critiquing them, it does come from a place of like, I think they have done the best job. And certainly I've seen plenty of AI ads

over the last six months of football. So like they are doing the best job, but I, you know, I still have my critique. especially around agentic. And this is a broader discussion for another day. But at the end, the fundamentally underlying all this is the idea that the vast majority of people do not have personal assistance.

They have never had a human assistant. They've never, that's the vast majority of people have never had one. And that is the fundamental idea about what AI can do is giving you help, giving you an assistant and I I don't know maybe yeah it's it's again this is such a broad discussion it's but the idea that we've never experienced it and offloading things is a skill let me say that maybe once you're in a more managerial positions in companies or what if you manage people it's this what this discussion evokes me it's the idea of like knowing when to delegate and it's not an easy it's not an easy thing to do let me tell

you um and i again most people have not have experience with it but i think there's a point when you use this AI tools where you'll try when it gets it right so many times in the low you'll feel like you'll be able to delegate tasks the the tasks that i mean everybody has tasks that they don't we want to be doing. Like if you, if the bill payments that are frustratingly not auto, can't auto pay itself or you have to do research about something you're really just not interested in, those examples exist.

And, but the idea, I think the issue here is the actions involved. They are so much, there's a risk. It's, admittedly, it's, you don't, what if it screws up your, you're renewing your driver's license and it screws it up, that is such a high hurdle. So I think everybody will be,

once this becomes widely available, once it becomes a free feature, or maybe it takes these agentic features coming to your phone first before you trust it. But I think you, once it gets it right so many times in a row, you'll eventually trust it, which is, yeah, a broad history of,

technology. Yeah, I think it's a really good point. It kind of reminds me a little bit of, you know, like how it works with Hold for me. It's one of those features that it is powerful in that, and I know this is a tenuous link, you're using this, but again, on your browser, I know that it's been using a much more powerful Gemini model probably, but this is even more exponentially powerful in what it utilizes. So I think that's probably how I would describe it.

Like you said as well, and I can 100% see me doing this for online. shopping in terms of like grocery shopping, doing the supermarket shop. It's like, okay, here's the menu for the week, here are the things I don't like, and I don't spend more than this, and it could potentially do that for me. It would, it saved me a lot of time rather than having to, like, physically drive to the supermarket or having to go through an application on my phone or the website, and you just instantly, yeah, you're out, you're out, it's in the car, and even if the price is, like, incorrect, you can make those changes in the car. So yeah, I could probably trusted to do that. I mean, yeah, I think I'd risk it for one or two visits to the supermarket to

save me some time. I think it would be a cool test of the system. Maybe that's, maybe that's, and then we can wrap up here, but maybe that's my problem is to just like when I try to think of the things in my life that I don't want to do, they all involve some kind of like human in-person interaction. Like, I can't have an agentic AI clean my house. Not yet. So maybe, you know, once it's, once it's not planning my Y2K party for me, but it's it's vacuuming before the party. That's when I will be on board. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Perfect. So Google, if you're listening, we want a nest powered vacuum that will do everything,

maybe dust everywhere, pixel robot, yeah. But before we head off, I just want to say, if you've enjoyed us rambling and talking rubbish for the better part of 45 minutes or so, then definitely go check out our brand new online forums. We've just launched some over the last few weeks, so there is discussion ongoing there. It's been on the ground for a couple of days, but we're hoping to build something out for you to enjoy. It's definitely a community effort. We need the community to be involved.

There's a lot of discussion going on, going on about all sides of Android, Chrome, Gemini, you name it. It's all on there, and we'll leave a link down in the show knows. I just mentioned the vacant internet. We're bringing forums back. I didn't even mean to do that, but we are doing it single-handedly. So there we go. Yeah.

Yeah, we love the comments that we get on our posts. We read them. We love that you read us and that you read feedback and we have very interesting discussions on posts. And the forums are an opportunity for you to start your own discussion. And we are very much interested in seeing how you like it, how it grows. So yeah, definitely leave your feedback and more to come. Yes, and as always, thanks guys for listening. It's always a blast talking. I say talking rubbish. That's diminishing, I think, a bit what we do. We do talk around the big subjects, but maybe I'm talking for my own respective here, my own perspective.

I do talk a lot of rubbish. So yes, thanks guys for joining me. I love spending time with you, and we will speak to you, and you'll hear from us in the next episode. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

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