Much like Microsoft’s Build keynote, Google’s kickoff of its annual developer event was a sort of AI-palooza. Unless you’re done with AI, in which case it was probably a snoozefest, and I suggest you skip over to the next post. I’m not sure it’s a good long-term plan, though.
From flashy moonshots to real, actionable, useful features that customers will be able to take advantage of almost immediately, there was a little bit of everything. Including things that Apple users will also greatly benefit from.
Long-time watchers of Google I/O know that the event marks Google’s annual ritual of cramming as many projects as possible within the boundaries of what an average human bladder can withstand in one sitting. (To be fair, it’s gotten way better over the last few years.)
This time around, over the course of about two hours, 139 mentions of AI and 30 mentions of agents (or “agentic”), Google offered a glimpse of how things could have looked if Apple hadn’t missed multiple boats on this technology.
Of course, many of Google’s offerings wouldn’t make sense if they came from Cupertino. As interesting as Google Beam might be, it probably wouldn’t work as a FaceTime Ultra device. But then again, some of these announcements, had they been made by Apple, would have been pretty fantastic:
1) Gemini in Chrome
This was probably the lowest-hanging fruit of all of Google’s offerings, considering all the other AI products it already had available. But it’s possibly one that will be the most impactful over time.
By embedding Gemini directly into the browser, Google is turning it into an easily-accessible smart assistant that understands both the page’s content and the user’s context (Calendar, etc.). Voice support is a welcome plus, especially for users who rely on accessibility features.
I know it sounds cliché, but this will probably unlock an interesting new way of browsing the web. At least until the DOJ tells Google to spin off Chrome.
2) Project Astra update
Last year we introduced Project Astra, our research prototype of a universal AI assistant. Since then we’ve improved memory, added computer control and enhanced voice output, and are working to bring these new capabilities to Gemini Live and other products.
Honestly, the comparison between this video and the entirety of the decades-long Siri blunder speaks for itself. Last year, Siri seemed hopelessly behind. Given recent reports, it seems even further behind the competition, since the competition actually moved forward over the previous twelve months.
It is very fair to mention that Project Astra is still considered an experiment. It will probably be a while before it becomes an official, widely accessible feature. But still, I mean… just… yeah.
3) Stitch
As with Microsoft’s dev-centric announcements I commented on here, Google I/O also had its share of tools and quality-of-life improvements for developers.
One of them was Stitch, a Gemini 2.5 Pro-powered platform that supposedly builds complex UIs, complete with frontend code (which will obviously need human tweaking), from image inputs and user prompts.
This is significant because consistently creating beautiful yet practical user interfaces has never been a strong suit of LLMs. If Google actually delivers on this promise, this could yet again advance Apple’s long-stated goal of using Swift, Xcode, and its entire development platform: reducing the entry barriers so more people can express themselves through code.
How about you? Did anything catch your eye at Google I/O? Let us know in the comments.
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