Google

It’s combining Google Home APIs with Gemini smart home features, so ISPs, security companies, and carriers can “build monetizable, proactive services” for your homes. In other words, Google wants other companies to put Google Home’s AI in their products — and charge you a Google Home Premium subscription. With manufacturers now able to build Gemini-powered speakers and cameras, it seems entirely possible that Google may never make another Nest device again.

While the Google Home Speaker was nowhere to be seen at I/O, the company did announce it’s getting back into the third-party smart speaker game. A new Speaker Reference Design will let manufacturers build Gemini-powered smart speakers, and rumors point to a Walmart Onn speaker being the first.

CapCut announced on X that users will “soon” be able to edit images and videos directly within the Gemini app using CapCut’s editing capabilities.

It’s already available on iOS, and coming to Android soon. Google is also adding granular editing tools for changing portions of an AI-generated song, tweaking beat drops, or rewriting lyrics. It’s also adding the ability to generate “covers” and music videos, so you can countrify that punk song you prompted.

Yesterday Emma Roth wrote that Google’s pitch for AI at I/O demands both your trust and your personal data. Going by the comment section, that’s a trade many of you are no longer willing to make.

The Find Hub app on Android has been updated, allowing you to create notifications for when someone arrives or leaves a set location, like home or work. The person you’re tracking will be alerted to the notifications, and can disable them at any time.

The app, which you can pre-register for on Google Play, will let you use AI and prompts to starting building other apps.

Google TV developers can add motion-controlled input support for navigation on the home page and within apps. LG TVs have included its magic remote for years, but those TVs run webOS and not Google TV, so this could be a sign new Google TV pointer remotes are coming.

Details are scant, but if you want to read about some of the capabilities, here’s my Android XR hands-on!

When making an interactive experience with Project Genie, you can now pick a place in the US and Genie can use Street View data from that place for grounding. You can also prompt a style to change what that place looks like in your interactive AI-generated world.

It’s still expensive, though: Google AI Ultra plan, which used to cost $249.99 per month, now starts at $100 per month. There’s also a $200 per month option that includes access to Google’s Project Genie world model.