On the early morning of August 14th Beijing time, at the 9th Made by Google event held in the United States, Google released a new Pixel 9 series phone equipped with an AI big model, as well as a series of more intelligent Pixel Watch 3 watches and Pixel Buds Pro 2 headphones.
Android is redefining your phone with Gemini, "Google said, completely restructuring Gemini's assistant experience on hardware such as mobile phones, so users can speak to the assistant naturally like they do with a person. It can understand intentions, follow the user's thoughts, and complete complex tasks. Through deep integration with the operating system, Gemini on Android is even more powerful.
Specifically, Google has released a total of four AI smartphones, including Pixel 9, two sizes of Pro models Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and foldable phone Pixel 9 Pro Fold. The starting prices of the four phones are $799, $999, $1099, and $1799, respectively.
All new phones are equipped with Google's self-developed Tensor G4 chip, which is Google's most efficient chip to date and can open applications or browse web pages faster. It is reported that Tensor G4 was designed in collaboration with Google DeepMind and has been optimized to run the most advanced AI models.
At the same time, in order to support the operation of the large model, all three Pro devices are equipped with 16GB of memory, and the basic Pixel 9 is also equipped with 12GB of memory. When you are trying to run artificial intelligence on a device, this is important. The Pixel 9 series is equipped with an updated Gemini Nano model that adds multimodality, so it can analyze images, speech, and text Google stated.
In its official blog, Google specifically introduced the new AI driven features of the Pixel 9 series, including the built-in artificial intelligence assistant Gemini Live, enhanced photo processing tools, image generators, customized weather forecasts, screenshot information recall, and saving call records and details.
Gemini Live has previously demonstrated a voice chat mode similar to GPT-4o at the Google I/O conference, where users can naturally chat with it, ask questions and ideas, and also call system applications through this assistant. Users can interrupt the assistant during the answering process, delve deeper into a certain point, or pause the conversation and come back later. Just like having a companion in your pocket, you can communicate with them anytime.
For many years, we have relied on digital assistants to set timers, play music, or control smart homes. This technology makes it easier for us to complete tasks and saves valuable time every day. Now, with generative artificial intelligence, we can provide a whole new way of assistance for complex tasks. "Google introduced that Gemini has been fully integrated into the Android user experience, providing more context aware features that only Android can achieve.
As long as you press and hold the power button or say "Hey Google", Gemini Live will appear, and users can click on the "Ask this screen" suggestion to get help on the screen. If users are using YouTube, they can ask questions about the content they are watching. For example, if you are planning to travel abroad and have just watched a travel video, click on "Ask for Video" to request a list of all the restaurants mentioned in the video, and then ask Gemini Assistant to add them to Google Maps.
It is reported that Gemini Live will be open to all Gemini Advanced subscribers, and users who purchase Pro devices will receive one year of Gemini Advanced. Starting today, Gemini Live will launch an English version for Gemini Advanced users on Android phones and expand to more languages in the coming weeks.
Because Gemini has already built deep integration into Android, the phone can not only read the screen, but also interact with many applications that users are already using. For example, users can directly drag and drop Gemini generated images into applications such as Gmail and Google Messages.
Assuming you are hosting a dinner party, you can ask Gemini to find the recipe Jenny sent you in your Gmail and ask it to add these ingredients to your shopping list. When gathering with college friends, you can ask Gemini to 'create a playlist of songs that remind me of the late 1990s' without too much detail, and Gemini will know what you want Google has announced that it will launch new extensions in the coming weeks, including additional features for tasks, programs, and music.
In addition to the smart assistant, the Pixel 9 series phones also have some features, including enhanced photo processing tools, such as how to involve photographers in taking group photos without a third person, which has always been a challenge. Now based on real-time augmented reality technology, the "Add Me" function can "generate" group photos.
The new AI feature of Pixel 9 series also includes Pixel Studio image generator, which uses generative artificial intelligence to convert users' text prompts into illustrations, which can be shared with friends and family through messages. Pixel Studio is a combination of device side diffusion models running on Tensor G4 and cloud based Imagen 3 models, providing fast text and image generation capabilities on mobile phones.
In addition, Google AI phones also support a new feature similar to Microsoft recall, which can classify and retrieve information from screenshots. Unlike Microsoft's method, it is only applicable to manually captured screenshots.
The experience that most users have had is taking screenshots of something they want to remember on their phone, but cannot find it when they need it. Therefore, Google has developed the exclusive Pixel Screenshots application, which can help users save, organize, and recall important information they want to remember. For example, if you have a screenshot of the door code for an upcoming holiday accommodation but don't remember it when you arrive, you can simply ask Pixel Screenshots to quickly and easily find it for you.
AI has also restructured weather forecasting, and Google uses artificial intelligence to make this experience more accurate and helpful. Through Gemini Nano, a customized AI weather report can be generated, allowing users to understand the weather for the day.
There is also a new feature called Call Notes3, which allows users to save private conversations after making a call. If you need information such as appointment time, important address or phone number, open the call log, and all details and call logs will be displayed in the call log. To protect privacy, Call Notes runs entirely on the device, and if this feature is activated, everyone in the call will receive notifications.
In addition to Google's Pixel phones, the large Gemini model can also be used on hundreds of phones from dozens of device manufacturers. Google stated that it can be experienced on Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Motorola razr+. In China, Google has previously mentioned to the public that Xiaomi and OPPO phones have also had some cooperation.
Today, we have reached a turning point where we believe the help of AI assistants far exceeds its challenges. Currently, Google believes that we are still in the early stages of exploring AI assistants, and the future AI experience will become better and better.
The latest data from market research firm IDC shows that Pixel phones will have a market share of about 4.6% in the US market in 2023, which is higher than the company's 3.6% share in 2022 and much better than its 1% share in 2021. However, compared to the two giants Apple and Samsung, Google's market share is still at a relatively low level. There is currently no consensus on how much AI can bring to Google Pixel phones and whether it can challenge its dominant position.