After all, Google will introduce Gemini to the Pixel 8 smartphone. The phone will be powered by the Gemini Nano, a version of the model designed to run natively on personal devices. This follows a successful launch in January.
Pixel 8 is equipped with the same proprietary Tensor G3 chip as Pro, designed to accelerate AI performance. Therefore, the overall experience on both devices should be similar. It will launch in the next Pixel Feature Drop, but is currently only available as a developer preview. Google wants to collect feedback and make sure everything works smoothly on phones with lower specs.
This is a fairly sudden change for Google. The company initially said that even though the Pixel 8 had the same chip as the Pro model, it couldn’t handle Gemini on the device due to “hardware limitations.” The main difference between the two phones is RAM allocation, which doesn’t seem to be a big issue when running on-device artificial intelligence. It looks like Google is starting to consider the idea as well.
So what can you do with this thing? The company is expanding two capabilities that leverage LLM, and both tools are already available to Pro users. Recorder applications will receive improved Gemini-supported digest functionality that runs locally on the device. Similar tools already exist, but require an Internet connection. Once Gemini Nano comes online, data will no longer need to be sent to the server. As one might guess, this feature builds a summary of the recorded conversation.
Gemini Nano will also provide support for Gboard’s suite of smart response tools. The software suggests responses to messages and can even understand the context of conversations. It was originally a WhatsApp exclusive service but has recently expanded to Line and KakaoTalk. Google promises that More Messages Apps will add support in the coming months. Oddly enough, Google Messages wasn’t one of the platform’s early adopters. Gemini Nano is used to power on-device Magic Compose on the Pixel 8 Pro and Samsung S24, but Google has not yet announced whether this particular tool will be coming to the standard Pixel 8.
It’s a big week for Gemini, as Apple is reportedly working on… It’s like Coca-Cola and Pepsi suddenly opening a soda shop together. However, Gemini has recently been out of control for its creation. The image-generating feature remains on hold as the company continues to work out these issues.
