Pixelated - The Googlebook Question

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

Welcome to episode 100 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Damien, and Will celebrate the milestone by diving into Google's latest Android Show announcements, including Android Intelligence, user-generated widgets, and, of course, Googlebook. Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription to the company's suite of privacy-friendly services by signing up using our link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring the podcast. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Amazon Music Apple Podcasts Overcast Timecodes 00:00 - Intro and Googlebooks 22:29 - Gemini Intelligence 38:22 - Quick grab bag 42:54 - Android Auto 50:22 - Wrap-up Hosts Abner Li Damien Wilde Will Sattelberg Read more Everything announced at The Android Show: Gemini Intelligence, Googlebooks, and more  Google announces Googlebooks with Gemini Intelligence focus, coming this fall Gemini Intelligence brings gen UI widgets, Gboard ‘Rambler’ to Android, debuting on Pixel & Samsung Android Auto is getting video apps, music updates, and more Gemini smarts Android 17 is getting redesigned emoji, and Google is clearly never bringing back the blobs [Gallery] 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. And for even more Android discussion, dive into the official 9to5Google forums!

Welcome to Pixelated Episode 100. I'm your host, Will Sattelberg. This week, look, you already know what we're talking about. Android show, Google Book, Android Intelligence. Does this one really need an intro? Let's just roll right into it after this word from our sponsor, Proton. Grab your phone and take a look at your app drawer right now. You've probably found yourself relying on these same old apps and services since the Nexus days.

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a dedicated customer support team, and so, so much more. It's what's best for your current phone, not whatever you were using back in 2013. Upgrade to Proton today and save 30% on your annual subscription by heading to Proton. dot me slash nine to five google or by clicking the link in the show notes that's proton dot me slash nine to five google thanks to proton for sponsoring pixel needed so gentlemen episode 100 hopefully this is going to be the show of all shows i guess it's it's it's been a long time coming we have a huge kind of event to talk about android show we're back to our bread and butter the main our main talking point on all things pixelated is android and there's been some really substantial announcements in the last 40 hours.

I'm going to cut you off right there, Damien. Google Book. Google Book. Oh, we're just skipping to the end. Okay, Google Book. Yeah. Google Book is... The name.

Specifically, just the name, honestly. Just the name. Oh, I don't know how I feel. I get it. I get why it's called that. I don't know if I agree with it, but I get it. It feels so lazy. Like, just...

I can't. I have no words. The name or the product? The name. We're still on the name for the foreseeable future. Just making sure. Okay, so I mean, let's get into the Google books again with because I do think this is one of those things where we see a new paradigm, we see something that's going to happen, we've been talking about Android and laptops for what feels like forever.

Let's get into this and we'll talk a little bit about Gemini intelligence later on. How do we feel in terms of what Google showed us? during the Android show because I don't think they really gave us enough of an interest to be like... I don't think the rationale was there from moving on to Chromebooks.

So, like, we've all been excited about desktop Android. There's been a lot of hype around it. There's a lot of teasing around it. And then when it actually announced, I don't feel like we got a complete story on why this exists on...

Okay, so the ChromeOS Chromebooks, my thinking is that they're cutting that off because it has no potential to take over the world. Google likes big market shares. They like products that change the world and Chromebooks, fundamentally. They're not going to beat Windows and not going to even beat MacOS.

So that's why they need to start over. But what they're starting over with, with the basis being Android, even though they're not even mentioning what it runs, which is wild, I just don't think we got a complete story. And that it should have had its own proper event, but instead it got like 10 minutes at the end.

That's what it felt like. My interpretation is, with Android in general, is that it's a easier sell to people than ChromeOS. I agree with that. Most people know Android. I know we talked about at lengthen this on the podcast, Will, about how we feel about potentially getting a new paradigm and potentially having Android across something else.

I think maybe in the back of my mind I was expecting something really to wow me. How do you feel about the, I guess, the shoehorning of Gemini into one of the most important components of a desktop OS and that being the cursor? Well, I mean, we talked on this show and I think on side load several times about what Google was playing. and whether or not Google had how big Google's opportunity was here, I suppose.

And I feel like every single one of those conversations ended with me going. But of course, this is just going to be a Gemini play. And everything we just said is moot. And it was a Gemini play. And everything we said was moot because at least based on what they showed us, and I agree, Abner, this didn't feel like a full presentation. But based on everything they showed us, it's like, okay, you added a second right click to the cursor that is dedicated to Gemini. Except instead of a right click, you shake it.

You can mirror your Android phone, which is a confusing premise on a platform where you'll be running Android apps, so I don't fully understand. Like, you know, it would be one thing if you were like, no, actually, it's stupid. Because there are two examples are, we're ordering DoorDash and-

And Do Oingo. Well, and something about checking a baby monitor. And I was like, well, first of all, install that baby monitor app on your laptop, if it's that important to you. Don't mirror it from your phone. Don't act like that's an inconvenience. What are we doing?

Do you think, yeah? Do you think, though, that that's to try and overcome a limitation in Android in terms of like one device signing type thing? No. Do you think that's probably what that is? I think the team, I mean, if you want my big picture, and I'm going to sound very dismissive,

and it sort of sucks. Well, it doesn't suck we started here, but it's going to make me sound way more negative than I maybe am. I just don't think this team has a great vision on what they're building. And so these examples, I mean, I mean, truly the DoorDash example doesn't make any sense because the segment before was all, and in fact, the entire show right before it was all about the power of agentic Android.

And literally, like, the example in the auto segment right before was about, you know, agentically ordering DoorDash. So I don't even understand why DoorDash is an example of what you can mirror to your, your laptop from your phone. because aren't we supposed to be ordering that agentically? So it doesn't feel like the right hand is talking to the left on this, and they're sort of off, this Google Book team is sort of off in their own land with a direction to build Gemini into whatever is replacing Chrome OS,

but that's it. Let me zoom out for a moment. So we haven't had a new operating system in a long while, and the release of a new OS should be exciting. We should be seeing ideas of the future. We should be seeing the next-gen thing. This decidedly does not feel like a next-gen-OS for all of Google's talks about... This doesn't feel like a current Gen OS to me.

Like, other than Gemini being here. For all of Google's talks about Android moving from an operating system to an intelligent system. Yeah. It... This should be an exciting moment. But again, like, just to hark back to, there is, the story is not clear. I didn't feel like we got anything. I didn't feel like we got anything there.

It should have been, yeah. And I don't know, it's disappointing in that regard. Because there is, I am a bit more bullish on what a next gen. Genitive AI powered OS is. like I thought we were going to see you talking to your laptop to control stuff that would be naturally built in I know yeah that's fair we're not there

but but no I agree with you I mean Google's promise is that we are there I they opened this I wrote it down they opened this sooner opened this this video by saying we're in the engentic AI era and it's like no we're not like just because you want us to be doesn't mean we are if I walked up to anybody on the street and said aren't you excited about agentic AI they'd be

like, what? What do you? What? I know AI. I'm not polling says I'm not excited about it. Um, I, you know, Google wants it's, it's frustrating to see Google sort of do this because I, I felt like of the big AI players right now, they were the ones being very realistic in terms of where we are on, on LLM based AI tools at the moment. Um, and this felt very much in line with the general race to make the future happen, whether or not it's, it's ready. And like, I just don't think any of this felt ready to me. Hmm. I mean, I'm going to, let me get in Google's corner for a second because I think

they come across as very negative. Any of the agentic stuff, to be clear. We can talk about the other stuff. But the agentic stuff, I was just, I didn't see it. For me, I can kind of understand why this play has been made. I think maybe it's a little bit later than we probably should have been. The move away from ChromeOS, I think, ChromeOS has kind of withered in the last few years.

And all of Google's ideas are clearly in the Android side of the fence and the way that Android integrates into Gemini probably may be beneficial for this in the long term. The biggest concern for me is, and we've had a barely a brief look at it, we've only seen a couple of features during the Android show. We need to see how much work is going to go in to truly differentiate the desktop experience versus what you can.

can potentially get on a pixel tablet or an Android tablet in general. From what I can see so far, this is, I mean, it's pretty bare bones, isn't it? There isn't, Google isn't showing off anything drastically. I don't know why they didn't come on and say, okay, here we have a, it should have been its own announcement. It should have been its own announcement. Possibly, yeah, possibly. I think, I think the way that they've done it with Google Book is, why didn't they just show off, okay, we're working on a desktop equivalent version of, um, YouTube music, for instance, or the downside is, I think we've gone down a PWA route for so long in electron applications that it's almost difficult to showcase something that will work in an Android

desktop environment that already doesn't work anywhere else? That's a very good point. They missed the fundamentals. They didn't show off any of the fundamental stuff. And so again, part of my exciting for the next gen OS is I want to see new interface paradigms. I want to see what something that Has it been based on the past 25, 30 years of computing is? And Google's answer is Magic Pointer, which I think that's a whole, like, I think that, like, the UI of that, the experience of, like, wriggling your cursor is going to read through Accent or Activations. So that is a feature right now in Mac OS. So when you wriggle your cursor, it becomes larger.

So that's, like, Apple wants it, so you can find the cursor. but and I accidentally activate that all the time, not intentionally, and it's kind of annoying. So it's, they skip the fundamentals. Like, they should have shown us how this desktop OS works, what it looks like. We own, they did not do that explicitly whatsoever, which is kind of weird. So fundamentals. I have another read as well. Again, I feel like I'm doing Google's defending and I don't know why they didn't just explain this themselves.

then again it is difficult to do in a 40-minute kind of bumper package where you only show off the highlight reel, as it were. I think the opportunity that Google has here with regards to Linux terminal support and potentially some Linux application support is it's a good way for people to have Linux, like a Linux desktop OS almost, and then first-party support for Android applications could potentially be something that they could sell it on. The downside is we haven't seen the fundamentals of this.

And if Google isn't willing to, to sell the fundamentals of a desktop OS, then who's your end buyer? At the same time, I do wonder if this is a Gen Z type play. I've spoken about it kind of to you guys off air, but I do wonder if Google is looking at this from the position of, while I understand that in the US, it's predominantly young people are using iOS devices, iPad, that kind of stuff. Most people are phone first. And if you can make somebody who make that leap from, oh, this desktop OS is very much like a big version of my phone. I can do a tiny bit more. I have a mouse and cursor and I can do certain things here. I genuinely think that might be what may have gone behind the

scenes. I don't know for certain. We never will know unless I can ask somebody about it. But I do wonder if Gen Z would look at this and be thinking, okay, there is some opportunities for me to make the migration away from my phone to something that is a little bit more in air quotes professional. And there's a whole group of people that are going to slowly be coming into the workforce in the next three to four years who've only ever grown up using their phone. So if you're looking at giving enterprise devices out to younger people who maybe don't know how to do all of the technical things that we maybe do and don't work in the applications that we do, i.e. Adobe packages, which I do still think Google needs to push to Google Books and Android OS. There may be a big play there. There may be a

big, like almost lag in what we think and what we see and what actually happens. So I don't know. I'm trying to put a positive spin on it because I do think there are, there could be some redeeming factors here. But again, it all comes down to why didn't Google show off the true fundamentals of this. For all intents and purposes, this could just be the exact same as what's currently on pixel phones with desktop mode. And that in and of itself could be quite disappointing. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to, I just, I hate being some negative about this. And that's not, Damien, that's like a really good pitch.

I just like, to me it's like, okay, if you are entering a job, a career where you're using Adobe apps, I have to imagine you've used a computer before. Like you are not, you are not stepping foot on day one into the office and being like, by the way, I know you hired me to edit videos, but I've never opened premiere. Like I, I'm, you know, so it's like, okay, maybe you're talking about like, I'm trying to, Let's use like an HR job. Like, like, yeah. Right.

So like an HR job involves a lot of like, um, desktop applications, right? Like like payroll management, um, you know, uh, invoicing, so on and so on and so on. New hiring, putting out job applications, all of this stuff, right? There's a lot that goes into HR that involves something more powerful than your phone. I still feel like most of those people, you know, that you're describing like, yes, maybe they've only had a phone, but they, they, they wrote an essay somewhere, you know, in college or in high school or middle school. They wrote an essay. They, they have, they have used a

desktop computer before. And even, even if it was only at school, and they, they've never had their own laptop. I still feel like those, it is so much easier for those people to go, oh, I need a laptop. Well, I have an iPhone. I know, you know, Google, Google, somehow they know this. Google made it really easier, has made it easier for me to switch to Android. But do you know what's even easier than that is if I just go buy the MacBook Neo that already works with my iPhone? Like, you know, I just, I guess I'm like, I don't, I do. The fundamentals were not there. And if you can't walk in and be like, here's our big pitch.

You know the cursor? That thing hasn't changed in 20 years. We added a shake to it that that does generic, kind of unspecified AI stuff. We kept it unspecified because we don't know what it's going to be yet, totally. Like that was my read on it. Like that's, I did not, I did not walk away from that demo being like, wow, I can't wait to use this. I walked away from that demo being like, I feel like that's all the cursor does at this moment

is that is the images thing that they were talking about. And they used it as an example to save time by not having to save images and they re-upload them into a chat bot. And that's fine and all, but that's 30 seconds of work. I'm not buying a new laptop for that. Yeah, I can completely see that all the arguments in a lot of ways. I think for a lot of people who maybe are potentially looking at an Android tablet, I suppose one positive is that Android tablets could get exponentially better off the back

of this if Google is very, very full force and is willing to kind of bolster their desktop options. I also do wonder what's going to happen with developers. A developer's going to have to now kind of target three potential options because a tablet application in and of itself isn't the same as a desktop application. There are limitations there. The way that you interact with it is very, very different. It didn't seem to me like it was, it feels like a touchscreen interface

and then a cursor shoehorned into it. I do wonder if they've created there are an iPad moment. I don't mean iPad moment. It's an amazing product that everyone's going to be, oh, wow, it's changed the world. I think this now could be a very confusing third, like third option that is very, very difficult to sell to people unless they're truly, truly invested. Like iPad had languished in Apple's lineup for a while in terms of like the software

experience, even though people were buying them on mass and it probably is the world's most popular tablet, I think people were using it as a second screen, Netflix, YouTube, whatever it is. And then maybe people were using specific applications like Procreate and certain things that they have professional tools. But even I've used, I don't know if anybody out there who's listening, there's used Photoshop and Lightroom on iPad, it isn't, to me, isn't a great experience because I know that there's things missing

from it. And it's like a halfway step. I may as well make that full step and get a Macbook and do all of the things on the go. So I do wonder if Google, how they're going to address that, have they created this without realizing that potentially there's going to be no level of migration there. Right. But, yeah, it could work in their favor.

the favor and we could have ridiculously powerful Android tablets that can do everything, finally, which is what people, I guess, have kind of wanted. Yeah. I just, I, I, you know, I'm a doomer. I'm a dumer. I, I mean, there's a lot of doom and gloom in. Let me ask, let me ask you both this and maybe, maybe we can move on from this because, because I mean, unless there's more on on Google book you guys want to talk about, we can talk about the name again. We can make fun of of the name for five minutes. But, um, you know, it. Putting aside our careers, did you two see anything yesterday? So let's pretend you do not work in this industry.

You both have different jobs on, but you like Android. Did either of you see anything yesterday that made you want, like, looking for, you're like, oh, I can't wait to buy that later this year. And I know we didn't get a full presentation, but just based on what they showed their first look at this new platform, would either of you, if you were not in this industry, be thinking about picking one of these up? I mean, look at the heart,

I guess it's concept hardware that is shown off. I think the hardware looked very good. But do you think you're going to want to spend several hundreds of dollars on it based on what was shown yesterday? No, because they didn't answer my primary concern of what kind of Chrome is it. I can only assume it's full desktop Chrome just like it's on Chrome OS. But they didn't talk about that. Back to the fundamentals.

Back to not addressing the fundamentals. that should have been explicitly stated. It wasn't. So that adds a question mark in my mind. Like Damien said, the hardware was cool. The glow bar is cool, but they didn't actually explain what it does. They just said it's beautiful as it is functional and explain any of the functions. It's, does this even have a touchscreen that since Damien mentioned it?

I guess it's going to depend on which model you pick up. I assume they will kind of have touchscreen. Two and ones or two in ones? Yeah, I just, this just feels like if you told me this was just like this is our next evolution of ChromeOS

and we're keeping the ChromeOS branding, like I wouldn't blink. I just, I don't, this doesn't feel new in the way they were trying to make it feel new. They didn't explain why, what the Android, again,

again, they didn't mention Android. The extent of that during the start of the announcement was the best of Android, that they were combining that. But they didn't say what the Android parts were, really. No.

It's, it is, it is, I mean, let's look at it from a ChromeOS user perspective. It's a tough time, isn't it? Because you may, you may be very comfortable with ChromeOS and the limitations you can live within. And then you now potentially have to migrate over to Android with the future purchase. And you may even be more shoehorned in to the limitations of Android. I mean, without any information on the full desktop version of Chrome, does that now mean that when we have a foldable phone,

is a foldable phone going to have access to the full desktop Chrome now? They shouldn't talk about it. This is, yeah, so it creates a confusing situation where, and my biggest concern is for Android, the mobile OS, I do wonder how this affects a mobile OS, because if it is one unified platform now, it's got to be scalable. And we've tried that.

They've tried that with Android 12L initially and laid the foundations to have applications that work on tablet form factor and phone form factor, obviously preparing for foldable phones and foldable phones are more commonplace now. And now we have this new kind of extra option on top of foldable phones. It's going to create this really strange dichotomy now where we have functionality that may be limited to one particular device, even though it's the same framework. I don't know how you can come, come out and be truly positive about that in lots of respects. But again, I mean, you shouldn't stick this as a six minute.

I'm sorry, the first impression of whatever you want this to be, if this really is such a massive pivot that it involves, it means replacing ChromeOS and Chromebook branding. Like, you can't stick this as a six minute ending to what I would say was already a rushed presentation. you can't you can't do it this this should this should have its own this should be its own 45 minute presentation in like july separate you know like me like you could tease it at i.O and then be like we have so much more to talk about later this year like this is the immediate like so many people are going to write this off me included apparently like if you're listening to what i'm saying like i just you can't start out a platform like trying to pitch a brand new platform to people

with what they're showing here. I mean, the lack of information and for a desktop operating system. It's just confounding. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Absolutely. So yeah. So next, Gemini Intelligence, which is what started off the show.

So this is their branding for AI features on Android. It is for premium devices, which we think that that rationale is that it needs to run on the highest possible chips for on-device AI experiences. That's straightforward enough. But yeah, so Gemini Intelligence, what really stuck out to you guys? What was your favorite Gemini Intelligence feature they announced?

I like the look. I like the look of it. I think it's kind of cool. Do I think it is going to be something that really changes my life. I mean, does Rambler count as part of Gemini intelligence? Yes, it does. Okay, well, I can get behind Rambra.

I think it's really good. I like the fact that he will work on the fly. I like the animation. I think it's good that Dita was on demo in it because it's someone who has, I guess they've been around the scene for a long time and they kind of know what they're talking about and the way that he demoed it was very, very good.

Yeah. I think having, already the best dictation get even better is amazing. I mean, maybe I feel like an old person who uses dictation, doesn't want to type. I don't know. Do you guys use voice typing as much as I do?

Not in public. Just in the car. I want this in the car, which I assume it will eventually arrive in the car, but I have a feeling I'm going to be waiting a couple of years for this level of, of polish to arrive at, you know, with Gemini and Android Auto. But, but I agree that this was, this was the standout to me too of, of the intelligence section.

It was kind of the one where I was like, um, this, this is what LLMs are made for. This is what LLMs are should be used for first and foremost, more so than automation, more so than than even image generating or whatever. Like it is for, it is a, it is a large language model doing a better job at processing language than previous versions of Android. It was exactly what I want out of LLM-based AI, and it looked like it worked really well. I thought Dieter's segment in general

was the strongest of the show, in part because I agree he's just got the... I mean, I have watched a couple old Dieter videos recently for a project that the three of us are working on that will remain unspecified, and he still got it. it's it was exactly delivery from it from his the videos he was making at the verge a decade ago and

and I think that that you can feel that confidence in his stuff and it makes it easier for me to buy into what some of the examples Google is selling versus you know there are other moments in this the last note my thing is I'm begging Google to talk to someone who has never been to California because some of the examples in this entire 40 minute presentation were I head scratching to say the least. But, but the, all of, you know, being able to remember, I mean, I mean, like the, the passport stuff, right? Like, I do that. I, I, I want 100% have a photo in Google photos somewhere that has my, my password or my passport number. Not my password, not my passport. My passport number. So, you know, so that when I'm booking a flight, I can go, same with my,

my, my, um, driver's license. Uh, my, my license plate for my car. Like, all of that stuff is somewhere in photos so that when I'm, you know, paying for public parking. or booking a flight or whatever, I can pull that stuff up right away and not have to go get my wallet or go back to the car or whatever, right? And it's smart to have Gemini intelligence there to pull that stuff together.

Like this is what AI should be. Yeah, doing the legwork that you don't want to do yourself. I mean, personally, I think that this feels like that breach to pixel screenshots, hopefully that I've wanted for a while. Like, pixel screenshots is probably one of my most used pixel applications, period, that is like exclusive because the amount of times I I mean I get a guest pass

to my partner's gym I get so many visits a month and I have a PIN code and I can never remember the PIN so I always have to keep referring to it and if I could I mean depending on how Google didn't show this but if I could ask something like that

oh can you get me the gym PIN code pin pin code is redundant as it so it's PIN then I could log in I could just ask and it could just read it out to me. I could, boom, boom, it goes into the machine and I'm in, I'm in the gym. I think you can do that with Gemini already. Well, I'm much sure if you have personal intelligence yet, but or ask photos yet in the UK, but you should be able to do that.

Well, even so, if this goes above and beyond that and I can literally just, like, it makes sense if I could do it with everything and have the filling in it, filling in the forms and stuff. Like, it is ridiculous. as Google's auto fill, it can be good, but at the same time, tying it with all those things that make it truly unique to you and the kind of things that are maybe really deep integrated into your life,

like you say your passport number and all that kind of stuff is really, really useful, your car license plate. I don't know if Chrome saves that right now. I think it can save, like, the model of your vehicle and stuff like that, but I don't know if it saves your license plate. But I like that. I think that's the kind of thing that Google should be doing more of and kind of showcasing that

because it goes deeper. In comparison, the other big tempo of Gemini Intelligence was more app automation, task automation. And I don't see how that it was different from what's announced of what we already have on the Pixel 10 on the Galaxy S-26. Yeah.

I haven't been using that in the US. No, I haven't used it to order an app or order a car. would you be confident enough to do it? I personally feel like with task automation like that, I think if I'm being completely honest, that's the kind of thing you see in science fiction movies and the people of kind of, how would I describe it? They've craved it, but don't realize that I still think there needs to be an element

of I need to make that final step through the checkout because as good as AI potentially could be and time saving. I could never imagine myself asking to order something on Uberit and trusting that it's done it perfectly. That's what we're doing next week. Okay, so we're going to test that in person next week, I.O. And if I get the wrong order, I'm going to cry because I know that if I went in manually, I can make all the little adjustments to myself and be like, right, this has to be meticulously done. I couldn't imagine using Gemini to order a pair of shoes or a t-shirt or anything like that,

because I just have a feeling. Stop putting more stuff on my credit card, Damien. I will hand you my phone next week. This Sunday, I'll hand you my phone. We'll talk about it in the next episode. And then Damien, I'm going to send you a list of stuff I need you to buy on Abner's credit card. A brand new pixel 10 Pro XL for a will, please. How do we feel about this other stuff then?

Because I mean, that's all well and good. And I think Google's been pushing that for a long long time. I think some of the generative AI, generative UI stuff is where I see the true value. And I know I, and I hope that somebody out there from Google was listening to me last year when I pitched this, I mean, Abdo talks at length about potentially using Gemini to build out UI portions. The idea that you can build your own widget is, oh, why didn't they do this from day one? This could be an easy sell. It is a simplest starting point. And I'm very bullish on generative AI. And I think just further down the load, I think that's the main thing we're interacting

with but in the meantime widgets it is custom widgets and it addresses Android's widget problem of most apps not doing widgets these days yeah so this is this will be people's first

interaction with generative UI on the meaningful scale so you can ask whatever you want and Gemini will build it for you it's already good at that it can call it can type code for apps, it can certainly handle a widget. So this will be, I'm really excited that

this is people's first interaction and it should be a pretty solid thing. I am intrigued to see what kind of things people will come up with because I imagine with a really long prompt and set of instructions, you could genuinely make some phenomenal widgets. And I do think to be quite honest with, Google's widgets are very, very good in general. I like the style of them. I like Google's design chops. So I hope that they kind of stick to the material three expressive and material design principles that they have.

What I am interested, and I'm going to ask you guys is, what do you think the first widget that you're going to try and make? Is this going to replicate something that you may have seen on iOS? So is this going to be something that you want bespoke because you need it to be bespoke and it doesn't already exist? Event countdowns because I'm too easy to download any app from the price or to do it. Yeah, I have no.

I mean, I'm pretty light on widgets as it is. I usually have a weather widget, and that's about it. That's my go-to. Sometimes a calendar widget, but honestly, the calendar widget is frequently there to just kind of take up empty space on my home screen. So maybe this is a lack of imagination on my part, but I will have to have it in my hand before I can even tell you what I would do with this. Yeah.

don't know what I would do. I think mine would be an enhanced weather widget like time countdown to rain would kind of be cool because it rains a hell of a lot in this country. You both want different types of count counts. That's very interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like that. And maybe maybe a maybe a quick widget for specific like kind of loyalty cards with Google wallet would be useful. Yeah. I could see that sign in. I have I don't have a new Google wallet UI yet. So that would be really useful to me. I do want to see Google, though, implement this for quick sentence toggles. Being able to create your own quick settings toggle would be phenomenal. It would probably address a lot of the issues certain people have with certain limited quick settings toggles. I would like to see that. But I'm excited.

I'm excited for this one. This one feels like a step in the direction that we've discussed at length on pixel 80 before, probably episode 30 or 40, I think we were talking about it, that we would want to see generative components within Android. I think it was 16. We're talking about Android 16 at the time, if Abner can remember correctly. And I pitched this as like, oh,

we would like to see throwing a prompt and you create a UI that fits you and puts the real you in material, you. And this feels like the first step towards that. I like the fact that it was going to work across my watch as well, even though I don't know where my watch is currently, as I talked to when it's on charge somewhere in my office.

But yeah, this feels like a really, really sensible step in the right direction. And I do think that Gemini intelligence probably is going to be a bigger component in general. I think I'd like to see what Google has up the sleeve for the next few waves of updates, because I imagine they'll just do Gemini Intelligence platform updates. So what we're thinking in terms of like headline, what is the biggest thing that an average in Airquots person should be caring about then? Just Gemini intelligence? Or Or is Google Books even on anybody's radar?

It's, it's, I mean, I feel like this is always frequently true, but it is, it's the little stuff. It's, it's the Dieter stuff that we already kind of talked about, right? Like the, with, with some of those, some of the best parts of Gemini intelligence. It's, um, I thought the digital well-being improvements were good. I, I need to try them. Yes, no, I forgot about that. That's very good. Yeah, I, I want to try them. I felt, my, like, knee-jerk. reaction was to be cynical, but then I, you know, wrote the news post about it. And I was,

I was, like, looking at the images a little bit more. And I was like, you know, I hadn't thought, like, I wrote about, and Damien, you and I on sideload talked about digital well-being and, you know, back in, I think February, and I wrote an editorial alongside it. And I had not thought of some of the ideas that they had here. And then some of them we were kind of dancing around. And so it certainly is, like, a very good step in the right. direction. They teased more coming to digital, more improvements coming to digital well-being later this year. And I'm fascinated to see what those are. But I think it's good they're thinking about this. And I think this is such an improvement on, pause point is the name of it. And it's

such an improvement on how generic app timers work. I think they completely pinpointed the proper problem with app timers, which is you can set them ahead of time. But in the moment, it is very, very easy to be like screw this. I'm moving on. Like I'm just saying, no, thank you. And I think having a full like 10 second countdown, having alternative activities, having the ability, you know,

needing to restart the phone to turn it off. Like I think those are all improvements and stronger ways to, to stop your, your willpower from breaking. Yeah, I think digital well-being needs to a bigger component of, it's almost like holistic phone usage and I think the way that if Google's thinking

about that that's a good sign yeah and I like the same time I liked the example they gave of like but sometimes you're in a waiting room you're you know you're waiting for a doctor or something and you do have 20 minutes to goof off and you can be like no no I'm I'm good to go on Twitter or whatever like I was just it was smart

yeah yeah I want to touch quickly on Android Auto before we kind of roll out as it were we kind of speed off sorry about that this is a terrible pun I recall at that book. Oh, wait, wait, real quick, real quick, because I feel like Auto's going to kind of end us. So I just, I just going down my list of notes, I want to say, the emoji, look fine. I don't understand what people are upset about. I don't think they look like iOS. I, sorry to

Ben Shone, who is very upset about them, but I, they, the, what they look like to me, and I don't know if you guys have seen this meme, but the, the, like, cartoons on TV versus the, the theatrical adaptation of the cartoon. And it's the same, it's Peter Griffin, but now we've got like shadows. That's what this looks like to me. They just added 3D shadows to what was already there. Some of them have, so it's depth. Noto 3D is what it's called. There's a depth to it. There's a physicality to it. I think some of them border on uncanny valley when there's too much detail, but it looks fake to you. That's my heart take on it. I'm disappointed that we're going moving away from flat emoji because I think this is going to sound so lame.

A long time ago when I was a Nexus user and they had the blobs, I was very much, I was very much like pro blob and I wanted to use the blobs for everything. They were my favorite emoji. They moved away from them and I was very sad. And I think that we've gone so far away from that. And that's part of the character. I really fell in love with the Android back in the day. And it's almost like we're going, we're losing a little bit of the character. But they're better than the iOS emoji.

I don't like iOS emoji. They have no character whatsoever. So at least there's a little bit, they retained a little bit of that. There's one iOS emoji. Apple is the only company that ever got the salute emoji right. Everybody else has it wrong. It should be half a face with a full hand, not a full face with like a weird laid out. It's the, I don't understand why it's the only company that got it right.

It's stumped me for ages. I don't get it. Well, they should be available, I believe later this year when Android 17 is officially available. I'm excited to see what they look like in person, rather than just these kind of mockups that we're seen online. I know that they're a real deal, but sometimes when you see them on the phone, it's a very different experience. But everything does look very, very similar. It's not exactly the only other note is we didn't talk about some of the social media, photography, ultra-HDR stuff. We don't have to spend a lot of time on it. The only thing I wrote down was that this is the seventh time

Google. I wrote down, Sheen, this is the seventh time you've shown off, improved social. media posting on Android. This is Ultra Lord. Sheen, this is the seventh week in a row you've shown Ultralord in class. And I wrote down, shut up about HDR, shut up about HDR. Shut up about the sun. Shut up about the sun. Because I thought the enhanced example they showed looked worse than the non-enhanced version.

It reminded me of video boost, which I also don't like. So I find I find it odd that there is still still such a play to to kind of cater towards the people who are never Deep down are never going to use an Android phone for this the kind of people that they the kind of people that they keep trying to advertise to and the creators It was a very cringe segment I think the lady lady was an Indian influencer. Yes. Which was like that's that's great for I know there's a huge Android audience in India but for a global audience it doesn't make a great deal sense. Yeah. I think at the same time.

how we've countless times seen brand's, Android brands partner with celebrities and two weeks later they're using their iPhone. It makes no sense. Just, just, I get it. I get why they have to do it. Probably an internal,

Oh, you weren't sold by Perry Silton? No. Oh, Parasolitan was, to be fair, that was quite funny. Yeah, it was, but I will say, still going to be using an iPhone three weeks time.

The reaction I saw to that was like, because Motorola has also partnered with Perry Sultan before it. And it's like, okay, guys, like, I don't know, if Parasota is particularly relevant in 2026, despite her, you know, I guess fairly successful DJ career.

I've seen her DJ. But it is, it was very funny to announce this the same day. And I don't think this will have it. This will mean anything. But it was very funny that like, this happens hours after nothing is like, our new spokesperson is Charlie XX. And like, say what you will. One of those,

is more relevant. One of those celebrities is more relevant today than the other. I just thought it was funny. Okay, let's, we should talk about it. I mean, that's a great segue because she did showcase some of the Android Auto features and Android Auto. I'm always going to call it Android Automotive. You can call it Google built in all you want. It's Android Automotive. I like that Google is bolstering what I think is still the premier, the top tier in car entertainment experience that's tied to your phone. I've tried CarPlay. It's just not very good. I quite like the way that Google silos away their Android Auto experience

so that when you get in your vehicle, it is a completely different experience to how you use your phone before you get into the vehicle, i.e. podcast continue. And on that, I really think it's fantastic that Google's actually listened, probably to criticism and to advice and made YouTube playable in the car. It knows when you're driving. Fantastic. I like the fact that I can now pull up into my, I don't have to go into my Android automotive experience to use YouTube. I can just continue where I left off on my phone. And the fact that it will continue playing video podcasts. like there is a whole wealth of entertainment out there on YouTube that you can listen to while you're driving

you don't need to have the visual element and it's really good that Google's understanding that and they own two products as well so tying their both together is just a fantastic option it makes a lot of sense these UI changes probably should have come a few years ago widgets and things like that are kind of not sure how useful those are going to be

but it's nice to see me zero three expressive getting a more prominent role in the car. I mean, do we genuinely think that this makes much difference to the grand scheme of things? Do people care about this stuff or that they just want Android Auto to work? Because I think that's one of the biggest complaints we get from a lot of people is that it just doesn't work like it should. I mean, I swear to God, I feel like my fail rate on connecting to Android Auto properly, like when I get in the car these days, it's like, it's like 30%. I swear to God, I have to like, one out of three times I get in my truck. I swear to God, whatever phone.

I have in my pocket does not connect properly. And it will tell me like, I'll hit the Android auto icon and it'll just say like connect Android Auto. And I'm like, Bluetooth's on on the phone. It's wireless. I have wireless Android Auto. This should just be working. Like I don't, it didn't used to be this inconsistent, even wirelessly.

I do like, I, I hope, you know, and that's not something I expect them to say in a presentation, but I hope that alongside these new features, they are working a little bit on reliability. Because I agree with you, Damien. I think auto is a better platform. but I can't say I've had the same connection issues I've had on CarPlay that I have on Android Auto. And that's frustrating. And then I feel like the Gemini in Auto Response has been fairly lackluster from users as well. I feel like it wasn't quite as it's not quite as good as we were maybe hoping for.

And so I hope I continue working on that as well. But but you know, I mean, I mean, I agree with you. The YouTube stuff is, as somebody who has on multiple occasions watched Uber, drivers cycle through their YouTube feed on a secondary phone. Terrifying. Great. Awesome. Please.

I hope this downplays that because it's, it's like, genuinely it's terrifying to, to be in the car and have, like, essentially no say on, like, like, if you're on the highway, like, what are you going to do? You're going to tell the Uber driver to stop scrolling through their phone. You can. I, I, I have, but it's not always going to end well. I think, I think that kind of is a good, is a good advertisement for. for Magic Q as well.

Like, I think the way that Magic Q is integrated into the vehicle is, I probably think that could have been the original pitch. Like Magic Q on your phone and then Android Auto in the vehicle. Like that is perfect. That is the perfect way to make sure that you're safe while you're driving. All of the information is pulled from your phone and is given to the contact that needs it. And you don't have to worry. You don't have to worry because you're like say, both hands on the steering wheel.

and you're not having any issues with having to search, dig through all text messages or whatever happens to be. I think anything that can use generative AI like that and just AI in general to make your drive safer is a great thing. And I think that it kind of ties into the last thing we'll kind of talk about is Google Maps. Like the Google Maps UI changes also make a big difference. I think it does look a little bit cartoony and a little bit childish. but at the end of the day, if you still get that visual feedback,

it makes a lot of sense and keeps you safe on the road. It's a benefit. I just wish Google would showcase more portrait orientation, Android Auto, for those of us who have portrait in car head units, because we always see landscape. And I never know what it's going to look like

when it hits my car. But yeah, that's, there's a lot to talk about. Can I say one thing on the odds? So earlier I said the last note I wrote down was I'm begging Google to talk to someone who has never been to California. Yeah. So they showed off being able to watch videos now on Android Auto when you're like cars charging or whatever, right?

Like when the car's parked. And their demo for all of this stuff kind of coming together was like, oh, we're going on a hike. You know, me and my friend are going on a hike. And then after the hike, we're going to, we used agentic AI to order fish tacos. And don't judge us if we're going to, if we sit and, you know, we pick up the fish tacos. And instead of going home, we sit in the car in the parking lot and watch a video on Android. Auto while eating her fish tacos. And I understand that this is a demo trying to put everything together to paint a picture for everybody. Guys, you just went on a three-hour hike and you're eating fish tacos in an enclosed small space. I know it smell crazy in there. That's all I'm saying. I know it's smell crazy in there. That was my main takeaway was like, did you guys not think about

how gross that is? I just, it was all I couldn't get over it. I spent the entire rest of the presentation. We're going on a three-mile hike this Sunday and we're going to order fish tacos afterwards. You guys tell me what it smells like, you know, you get, you have to get a neutral third party after you finish your meal to get in the car and tell me what it smells like. Yeah, we'll get away. We'll get away more and ask Waymo if it smells in the car. I'm just like, it's, it's one of, you know, I'm poking fun. I've not being serious. But it was one of those things from like, you guys got to think through your, your examples a little bit clear because I immediately I was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, hike sweat and fish tacos in a small vehicle. Okay. it ain't me, but you do what you want.

Yeah. Aside from that, I'm very excited to get these updates on my on my in-car head unit. Well, my phone first and then in-car head unit. I think that the Gemini integrations with things like your boot, aka your trunk for you Americans out there, being able to tell you if a TV will fit in the cars. Is it in the UK? I actually don't.

We call it the boot. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I don't. James Peckham was my boss for. three years. And we learned that so many times we were in meetings where he would, he would say a Britishism, a UKism, and we would just kind of all like, you could see her eyes glaze over, and he'd be like, that's not a term in the US. Is it? And we never, I don't think we ever got

boot. That's crazy. Well, yeah. So if you can fit your TV and your boot, you're happy. I think that is another good, another great usage of real world Gemini integrations. Whether people use it and whether it's reliable, I don't know, I will have to test that myself. But I'm excited to see that because Android Auto is one of those, kind of those key products that I think Google doesn't shout about enough. And I'm glad to see it getting some time here in the Android show. But yeah, that's kind of wrapping up what we think. So if there's a fair amount of stuff to dive into in the next few weeks, we will be hopefully seeing a little bit more of this, maybe some IRL experiences with these at I.O. next week. Stay tuned for our

coverage there. We will hopefully have some special podcasts for you off the back of that. Hopefully you've enjoyed this 100th episode of Pixelated. It's been a little bit of a deep dive, like I say, into three or four big things that have come out of the Android show. But I'm hopeful that after I.O. We'll have even more cool stuff to share with you. But thanks for listening. And remember to like, rate, share, whatever you need to do

to get the podcast out of that to people that may be interested in Android ecosystem, pixel and everything between. And thanks guys for joining me. Participate in the Fish Taco Car Challenge, the Hike Fish Taco Challenge that were starting. Yeah, yeah, definitely get back to us if that goes. Please do. Email me if you do this. Let me know what it was like. Thanks, guys, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.

Bye. Thanks for listening to Pixelated, a 9 to 5 Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice and help spread the word by sharing the show with friends or on social media.