Over the last couple of years, Google – much like of most of Silicon Valley – has shown a single minded focus in developing new AI models and implementing it more closely with its existing offerings. The tech giant has already brought Gemini to most of its suite of apps like Gmail and Google Photos and has announced plans to replace Google Assistant with AI voice assistant by the end of this year.
While some reports had suggested that Google is planning on bringing Gemini to smartwatches, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has confirmed those speculations during the company’s Q1 earnings call saying, “We’re upgrading Google Assistant on mobile devices to Gemini, and later this year we’ll upgrade tablets, cars and devices that connect to your phone, such as headphones and watches.”
While Google’s Wear OS may not be the most advanced (or even useful) watch interface out there, it is still the preffered choice for premium smartwatches like Samung’s Galaxy Watch or even OnePlus Watch.
The addition of Gemini in smartwatches comes as a welcome step by two prominent questions arise after Pichai’s announcement. One, What exactly does ‘later this year’ mean? Will Google make that announcement during its I/O conference in May or during a new Pixel watch launch in second half of year, we don’t know.
Second, Gemini certainly won’t be able to run the tasks on device with the limited storage and processors in smartwatches but how much of your health data would you want to give an AI assistant (that could be further used for its training). Moreover, it also remains to be seen what kind of upgrade exactly will Gemini be over the Google Assistant and what model/models Google brings.
Currently, Gemini app on Android comes with option to choose a number of large language models starting with 2.0 Flash and going all the way up to the company’s latest 2.5 Pro and 2.5 Flash experimental models.
