Google I/O 2024: Android will get support to detect scam calls, Circle to search for pets using Gemini AI on the device

Google I/O kicked off on Tuesday, the first day of the company’s annual developer conference. During the keynote, company executives also unveiled notable new features coming to Android smartphones in the coming months — however, the company didn’t reveal Android 15’s features during the keynote. These announcements came ahead of the company’s next major smartphone operating update, which is expected to arrive in the second half of 2024. As expected, Google is set to introduce new AI-powered features, building on the path it has taken with Android 14 last year.

Dave Burke, VP of Engineering at Google emphasized new AI-powered features coming to Android smartphones in the coming months at the Google I/O keynote event. One of the most impressive features demonstrated is an upgrade to Circle to Search — the company’s visual search feature currently exclusive to select Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones — that will allow students to request homework help. Google says it is LearnLM the technology will allow users to circle a prompt to solve “problems involving symbolic formulas, charts, graphs and more” — the feature is expected to arrive later this year.

Gemini, the company’s AI model that can also run on Android smartphones, is also getting upgrades. The company says Gemini on Android will soon be able to provide information about YouTube videos, while AI-generated images can be quickly added to Gmail and Messages. Meanwhile, users will be able to use Gemini Advanced to get answers from PDF documents — without digging through multiple pages — with a new “Ask this PDF” option, according to the company.

Google Pixel smartphones will also get support for Gemini Nano with Multimodality, the company’s latest AI processing model on the device. In addition to the existing ability to process text input, Pixel phones will be able to process contextual information such as visual, audio and even spoken information.

AI is also making its way into Google’s most basic smartphone app, the dialer. In a demo shown at the Google I/O 2024 keynote event, the company demonstrated the ability to detect a potentially fraudulent call that asks the user to transfer banking information or reveal banking information over the phone. The feature was shown to work in real time and work on the device to protect user privacy. There’s no word from Google on when these features will reach users or which (presumably Pixel) smartphones will be supported.

Google TalkBack, the accessibility feature of Android smartphones will be further enhanced with the Gemini Nano’s multimodal features, according to the company. The service will allow visually impaired users to get more detailed information about images by filling in information about untagged images. Google says these new features will work on the device, meaning users will be able to take advantage of the improved functionality even when they don’t have internet access. There’s no specific launch date for the enhanced Google TalkBack service powered by the Gemini Nano with multimodality, but the company says it’s arriving “later this year.”