Google I/O 2025: All the news and announcements – The Verge

Android Auto will get Spotify Jam and support for video apps and web browsers

2025-05-25T12:55:38-04:00

Spotify gets new templates for Android Auto.

Android Auto is getting more than just Google's Gemini assistant after the Google I/O developer conference. The company has also announced or otherwise shown off a slew of changes coming to the infotainment operating system, including an updated Spotify app, a light mode, and the introduction of web browsers and video apps.

Let's start with Spotify. Google revealed in a video last week that the Spotify app for Android Auto is getting an overhaul through new media app templates the company is making available to developers. One feature the music service is adding to Android Auto is Spotify Jam, a feature that lets users share control of an a …

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Google’s Veo 3 AI video generator is a slop monger’s dream

2025-05-23T19:50:40-04:00

These boots were not made for walking, but you can use AI to make them do it anyway.

Even at first glance, there's something off about the body on the street. The white sheet it's under is a little too clean, and the officers' movements are totally devoid of purpose. "We need to clear the street," one of them says with a firm hand gesture, though her lips don't move. It's AI, alright. But here's the kicker: my prompt didn't include any dialogue.

Veo 3, Google's new AI video generation model, added that line all on its own. Over the past 24 hours I've created a dozen clips depicting news reports, disasters, and goofy cartoon cats with convincing audio - some of which the model invented all on its own. It's more than a little …

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I/O versus io: Google and OpenAI can’t stop messing with each other

2025-05-23T16:02:44-04:00

The leaders of OpenAI and Google have been living rent-free in each other's heads since ChatGPT caught the world by storm. Heading into this week's I/O, Googlers were on edge about whether Sam Altman would try to upstage their show like last year, when OpenAI held an event the day before to showcase ChatGPT's advanced voice mode.

This time, OpenAI dropped its bombshell the day after.

OpenAI buying the "io" hardware division of Jony Ive's design studio, LoveFrom, is a delightfully petty bit of SEO sabotage, though I'm told the name stands for "input output" and was decided a while ago. Even still, the news of Ive and Altman teaming up quic …

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Google I/O revealed more updates for Wallet, Wear OS, Google Play, and more

2025-05-23T17:47:03-04:00

The Google I/O keynote may have been all about AI, but there were a handful of other meaningful updates that didn't make it to the main stage. In addition to updates coming to Google Wallet, the company's developer sessions also revealed handy features that will roll out to smartwatches, the Google Play Store, and Google TV.

Here are some of the updates Google didn't highlight during the keynote.

Live Updates are coming to your smartwatch

Google is preparing to bring Live Updates - a feature that lets users track the status of certain activities in delivery, rideshare, and navigation apps - to your smartwatch. We already knew about Google …

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Google’s AI product names are confusing as hell

2025-05-22T15:13:21-04:00

I would like to buy a vowel, please.

Google executives took the stage this week at I/O to unveil their latest AI technology: Deep Think. Or was it Deep Search? Then there's the new subscription plan, Google AI Pro, which used to be Gemini Advanced, plus the new AI Ultra plan. Then there's Gemini in Chrome, which is different from AI Mode in search. Project Starline is now Google Beam, there are Gems and Jules, Astra and Aura… you get the idea. The products overlap in confusing ways, the naming conventions are diabolical, and I'm begging Google to return some semblance of sanity to its product line before we all lose our DeepMinds.

In Google's defense, at least we're not callin …

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Android 16 adds AI-powered weather effects that can make it rain on your photos

2025-05-21T12:29:45-04:00

Sorry, Mario.

Google's latest Android 16 beta adds a bunch of new wallpaper and lock screen options for Pixel phones, including live-updating weather animations and a feature that automatically frames subjects of photos within a variety of bubbly shapes.

When you select an image to use as a wallpaper in the beta, you can tap the sparkly collection of starbursts that has become the de facto symbol for AI features to access the new effects. One of them, "Shape," washes your screen in a solid color, with a punchout frame in the middle centered on the subject of your photo, be it a person, animal, or object. You can choose from five different shape options: …

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Google teases an Android desktop mode, made with Samsung’s help

2025-06-10T16:44:01-04:00

Windows in Android’s desktop mode can stretch and move across your screen.

Google is working with Samsung to bring a desktop mode to Android. During Google I/O's developer keynote, engineering manager Florina Muntenescu said the company is "building on the foundation" of Samsung's DeX platform "to bring enhanced windowing capabilities in Android 16," as spotted earlier by 9to5Google.

Samsung first launched DeX in 2017, a feature that automatically adjusts your phone's interface and apps when connected to a larger display, allowing you to use your phone like a desktop device.

A demo during the presentation revealed a Samsung DeX-like layout, with apps like Gmail, Chrome, YouTube, and Google Photos centered in the …

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Google has a big AI advantage: it already knows everything about you

2025-05-21T09:41:29-04:00

Shahram Izadi, Google’s head of Android XR, talking about the advantage of using Gemini.

Google's AI models have a secret ingredient that's giving the company a leg up on competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. That ingredient is your data, and it's only just scratched the surface in terms of how it can use your information to "personalize" Gemini's responses.

Google first started letting users opt in to its "Gemini with personalization" feature earlier this year, which lets the AI model tap into your search history "to provide responses that are uniquely insightful and directly address your needs." But now, Google is taking things a step further by unlocking access to even more of your information - all in the name of providing …

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Google’s future is Google googling

2025-05-23T11:58:05-04:00

Google CEO Sundar Pichai at Google I/O 2025.

Google I/O was, as predicted, an AI show. But now that the keynote is over, we can see that the company's vision is to use AI to eventually do a lot of Googling for you.

A lot of that vision rests on AI Mode in Google Search, which Google is starting to roll out to everyone in the US. AI Mode offers a more chatbot-like interface right inside Search, and behind the scenes, Google is doing a lot of work to pull in information instead of making you scroll through a list of blue links.

Onstage, Google presented an example of someone asking for things to do in Nashville over a weekend with friends who like food, music, and "exploring off the be …

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We tried on Google’s prototype AI smart glasses

2025-05-20T18:31:10-04:00

Proof that there’s a display.

Here in sunny Mountain View, California, I am sequestered in a teeny-tiny box. Outside, there's a long line of tech journalists, and we are all here for one thing: to try out Project Moohan and Google's Android XR smart glasses prototypes. (The Project Mariner booth is maybe 10 feet away and remarkably empty.)

While nothing was going to steal AI's spotlight at this year's keynote - 95 mentions! - Android XR has been generating a lot of buzz on the ground. But the demos we got to see here were notably shorter, with more guardrails, than what I got to see back in December. Probably because, unlike a few months ago, there are cameras everywher …

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