Even back when Gemini was simply called Bard, we had the notion that Google Assistant was on life support. Now that Google has massaged Gemini into Android’s very core, we know that it will sunset Assistant sooner or later. Well, Android 16 might make Gemini much more of an assistant than Google Assistant.
When Google launched Gemini for Android, we all thought the fantasy of a generative AI assistant on our phones had finally come true. However, Google gave us a half-baked assistant experience that has, thankfully, improved over time. Now, thanks to extensions, Gemini is more than an over-hyped shortcut to the chatbot functionality.
For example, Google recently launched the Google Home extension. This gives Gemini the ability to control your Google home devices. All you’ll have to do is tell Gemini what you want it to do, like turning off your lights, and it will tap the Google home app and perform the action.
Android 16 could make Gemini a much better assistant
We know what you’re thinking, “Android 15 is barely out…. why are people already talking about Android 16?” Well, Google recently released the Android 16 developer preview. That’s right! If you have an eligible device, and you can flash an image file, then you can try out Android 16. You’ll basically be trying out a skeleton, as Google is still developing features.
One of the most important features coming to Android 16 could allow Gemini to be the AI assistant it was born to be. As it stands, there’s not much that Gemini can do inside of apps. It can perform certain limited tasks, but it can’t do anything complex. This isn’t only because of a lack of AI smarts; Gemini most likely has the raw brain power. The main issue is that Gemini can only communicate with apps using APIs. If it wants to communicate with WhatsApp, then WhatsApp will need to make its API accessible to Gemini. With the millions of apps available on the Google Play Store, Google very well can’t make Gemini communicate with all of them.
However, Android 16 could come with a solution. This is early information, so you’ll want to take it with a grain of salt. From the report it seems like Google could reverse the dynamic. Rather than Google making Gemini compatible with different apps to perform functions, app developers may need to make their apps compatible with the feature.
App function APIs
Mishaal Rahman discovered a set of APIs within Android that could facilitate this feature. They refer to what are called “app functions.” The code defines these as “a specific piece of functionality that an app offers to the system.” One example given was a theoretical app function that could have an app order food for you. We’re sure that the app developer would need to implement that app function if it wants Gemini to be able to place an order.
For all we know, Google could introduce more app functions that Gemini can take advantage of. They could allow it to perform much more complicated functions on the users’ behalf.
At this point, details are still scarce. We don’t know how Google will implement this, but we know that it will improve Gemini’s assistant capabilities.
