Google held a virtual "Android Show: I/O Edition" event on Tuesday, unveiling a slate of AI-focused hardware and software updates set to arrive before its annual developer conference later this month.
The marquee announcement: Googlebooks, a new line of AI-first laptops launching this fall. Built with Gemini at their core, Googlebooks are the first laptops "designed from the ground up for Gemini Intelligence to offer personal and proactive help," according to Google. The company is manufacturing them with Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo in various form factors. The laptops ship with "Magic Pointer," a Gemini-integrated cursor; Android phone compatibility allowing users to run phone apps directly from the Googlebook; and custom widget creation.
On Android itself, Google introduced "Create My Widget," a natural-language feature for building custom widgets. Rolling out first on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, the tool lets users describe what they want—for instance, "suggest three high-protein meal prep recipes every week"—and generate a resizable home screen dashboard automatically.
Android Auto received its largest refresh in years. The refreshed interface offers personalization, widgets, and edge-to-edge displays that adapt to any screen shape, from ultrawide to circular. YouTube Music and Spotify are getting redesigned in-car interfaces. Starting later this year, supported vehicles (BMW, Ford, Genesis, Hyundai, Kia, Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Škoda, Tata, Volvo) will support YouTube video playback in 60fps full HD. Gemini is rolling out broadly on Android Auto, enabling hands-free assistance while driving, and users can place food orders via DoorDash from the car.
Gemini itself is gaining agentic capabilities—the ability to perform multistep functions across apps. Users can photograph an event flyer and ask Gemini to locate that event on Expedia, or present a grocery list for Gemini to build a shopping cart in a chosen retail app. Chrome on Android now includes Gemini for summarizing web content and answering page-specific questions, plus an experimental auto-browse feature that can navigate websites and complete tasks like ticket bookings on a user's behalf. Gemini will also fill out complex mobile forms using data from Personal Intelligence, through an opt-in setting.
Gboard's new "Rambler" feature transcribes speech into cleaned-up text, removing filler words like "ums" and "ahs" and correcting spontaneous corrections (e.g., "Let's meet at 3 PM… um, 2 PM" becomes "Let's meet at 2 PM").
Google is expanding Cross-device file sharing: Quick Share, which previously linked Pixel and iPhone, will now work with Samsung, Oppo, OnePlus, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor. Non-compatible devices can generate QR codes for cloud-based file sharing to iPhone. Quick Share is also coming to apps like WhatsApp. A new iOS-to-Android transfer tool will import passwords, photos, messages, apps, contacts, eSIM, and home screen layout from iPhone to Android devices.
All 4,000 Android emojis are being refined for a less flat, more expressive appearance, launching later this year.
On the creator side, Android is launching "Screen Reactions," a TikTok/Instagram Reels-style feature that records both user and screen simultaneously, rolling out on Pixel devices this summer. Google partnered with Meta to bring Ultra HDR, native stabilization, and night mode to Instagram on Android, plus new Edit app tools including "smart enhance" photo upscaling and "sound separation" for audio adjustment.