Quick Summary
Google is giving Gemini an Android upgrade, and it could help you order your shopping or takeaways more easily.
Newly discovered code in Android 16 includes hooks that would enable Gemini to control third-party apps.
For all its joys, Google's Gemini AI assistant is currently limited in what it can do. Thankfully though, it looks like that's about to change.
Newly discovered code inside Android 16 suggests that Gemini is going to integrate much more tightly not just with Google services, but with third-party apps too – and that means it could finally be the really useful personal assistant that AI has long promised. Fancy a Pixel phone that can order you a pizza automatically? That's what this code could deliver.
The key here is what Google currently calls "app functions". As Android Authority reports, those are a little vague in Google's descriptions, but they do give examples: a restaurant app could integrate with Gemini so that you could get Gemini to order your dinner, or a hotel app could integrate with Gemini to provide effortless bookings of rooms.
This goes way beyond anything Gemini can currently do, and it's quite exciting.
If you're API and you know it clap your hands
These app functions are APIs, short for Application Programming Interfaces. APIs are the hooks that enable an operating system – or its digital assistant – to communicate with applications.
At the moment, Gemini hooks into apps using code called Gemini Extensions. They connect Gemini with things like Google Hotels and Google Maps, YouTube, Google Workspace and so on, transmitting data from the service to the chatbot. But the problem with those extensions is that they're app-specific, and there are a lot of Android apps out there.
By creating APIs in Android, Google is laying the foundations for something much bigger. As Android Authority explains, they would enable something Google teased five years ago: a version of Google Assistant that can orchestrate tasks across apps. Examples include "replying to an incoming text via voice and then following up by sending a photo."
It's fascinating stuff, but the key to its success lies outside Google: in order for app functions to be useful, developers have to build them into their apps.
