Google hasn't made its AI-powered Gemini chatbot a major part of its Pixel handsets yet, but the tech giant is clearly working towards that goal. Gemini already has extensions that allow it to access other Android apps, like YouTube and YouTube Music integration, Calendar and Tasks notifications and, more recently, Spotify integration.
A recent APK teardown by Android Authority reveals three new extensions for apps that could make Gemini an indispensable tool on Google-powered phones. If the teardown suggests anything, it's that more features are coming — specifically, new extensions for WhatsApp, Google Messages and Android system notifications.
Apparently the extensions aren't working yet in the beta, but the app does provide official descriptions so we can see what might be on offer. Working our way from least to most impactful, the Messages extensions appears to be fairly simple, apparently allowing you to send or read texts in the Messages app via Gemini.
WhatsApp appears to be getting a more significant Gemini extension. With a Gemini-linked voice command, you could potentially send/read messages and make WhatsApp voice calls.
Google has hyped the possibility of Gemini or its other AI tools to deliver us into a summarization- and categorization-rich future. The Notifications extension found by Android Authority suggests Gemini might soon be able to summarize notifications and list them by importance. It's possible that tools might also become available to execute tasks based on the notification. As an example, a score update might cause a smart home speaker to make a celebration sound. Thhat's purely hypothetical guessing on my part, but it seems like a future possibility given the way Google seems to want things to go.
One wonders if a future of integrated Gemini extensions means a loss of app diversity and a move towards a "one app to rule them all" situation. As Google goes further down the AI assistant path, it'll be interesting to see how Gemini is positioned if Google attempts to make its AI chatbot the default option when using your phone.
As a reminder, APK teardowns take a look at early or beta builds of code or apps like the main Google app. It can give us an idea of what Google is working on, but the features found this way may change significantly or never launch at all. For now, this is conjecture and speculation, but more often than not, the features found in these teardowns do become live.
