Apple complete failure early on with Apple Intelligence was really the best business move ever. I’m so, so glad my device has no agentic stuff.
They learned their mistake, didn’t double down, let the others spend their money and energy trying to figure out what that whole AI thing is about. Just a perfect timing
Although I think these features were in whatever pixel I had before.
Adding events to calendar is my most common use case.
I also have AI look at the screen and do stuff. My biggest complaint here, it doesn't go far enough. If I take a picture of contact info, I want it to be added, I don't want to go through the extra step of downloading a contact card.
I have a 10 and find the AI to be more annoying than anything else. Mostly I see it when I accidentally hit something and it pops up since they want it to be quick to access but I essentially never want to use it. The fact that they are going to be replacing the perfectly fine Google Assistant with the Gemini which when I tried it out was so much worse at doing the simple things I actually use it for has me regretting buying a Pixel.
I despise small tasks like this, so I never really do them until forced.
Having a full time human personal assistant would be best, but this sort of thing is an alright middle ground for me until I make my first billion.
Good point re: the privacy concerns though. Ideally this sort of basic virtual assistant stuff will be on-device at some point.
I really do hope we get to the point of Star Trek style “computer, do task X” and it mostly Just Works. As I get older the less and less I want to futz around with building things computers should just be good at already.
Google is entrenched with career opportunists who are self serving, and are, excuse the lack of a better word, shitting out work to move stupid KPIs and continue the bureaucracy. A bloated Product org that advocates that something must be done, and is not focused.
I was tired of waiting for Google to make something as powerful as Openclaw on my Android and so I did it myself.
I have Gmail & calendar control, web search, alarms, maps, contacts & phone, scheduled tasks & tasks triggered by things like notifications (I'm planning reacting to geofences & other events). You can create scripts to execute all these tools in a deterministic way & custom skills you can create to mix & match all these tools. For example I created a script that handles sending a message using Telegram reading the screen and tapping things using the accessibility service, it feels like magic.
Right now I'm using models from Gemini API & Openrouter (deepseek flash v4 0731 is cheap & good enough).
All data is in my phone
This is not to brag is just to show how relatively easy you can do this on your Android phone. With an agenting loop, skills with tools (loaded on demand), and things like device control via accessibility service can do almost anything.
> For example I created a script that handles sending a message using Telegram reading the screen and tapping things using the accessibility service, it feels like magic.
Are you disclosing to people that they are interacting with an agent? If I learned a friend is using an agent to communicate with me they would get blocked right away. It’s really rude.
Also, you can do that via telegram API, no? no need for such an overcomplicated system
No, I just use it to write message via telegram dictating by voice.
Of course I can do it by API but the nice thing here is that with with a script + accessibility service I can automate any app on my phone, no need for them to provide an API.
The only gotcha is that you cannot use this when your phone is blocked, but seeing the phone do things "on its own" with a voice command seems like magic.
A common way of thinking at Google and other big tech companies is that you're not building for your current users. Your current users will hate it if you move or change the color of a single button in Gmail. Also cue the "faster horse" aphorism. You're building for the next billion (or five).
But of course, the problem with Google is that they already have basically every person on the planet as their customer, and their ideas for how the future should look like aren't exactly transformative. The Gmail UX in 2026 is not radically different / better than in 2016. The same goes for Chrome. Android phones have better cameras and displays compared to ten years ago, but the software functionality is mostly the same.
So I guess they're in the same spot as Microsoft, trying to innovate in a mildly user-hostile way, looking for an audience that doesn't exist?
Flashy features often seem more targeted at tech reviewers and impressive demos than actual day-to-day use. Like movies having some scenes purely because they look good in a trailer.
Apple complete failure early on with Apple Intelligence was really the best business move ever. I’m so, so glad my device has no agentic stuff.
They learned their mistake, didn’t double down, let the others spend their money and energy trying to figure out what that whole AI thing is about. Just a perfect timing
Not sure if I have a 10 or 11 but I disagree.
Although I think these features were in whatever pixel I had before.
Adding events to calendar is my most common use case.
I also have AI look at the screen and do stuff. My biggest complaint here, it doesn't go far enough. If I take a picture of contact info, I want it to be added, I don't want to go through the extra step of downloading a contact card.
I really want an OpenClaw-like AI for my phone.
I have a 10 and find the AI to be more annoying than anything else. Mostly I see it when I accidentally hit something and it pops up since they want it to be quick to access but I essentially never want to use it. The fact that they are going to be replacing the perfectly fine Google Assistant with the Gemini which when I tried it out was so much worse at doing the simple things I actually use it for has me regretting buying a Pixel.
I agree, I've run into that too. Is it a gesture or something? They already hijacked the power button, how is it turning on again.
But otherwise the calendar setting alone is pretty amazing. I just take a bunch of pictures of events and they get in my calendar.
How long does it take you to add a calendar event manually? Takes me like 30 seconds
I feel like companies are pushing AI for stuff that saves a minute of your time in exchange for huge privacy red flags and sloppy updates
I despise small tasks like this, so I never really do them until forced.
Having a full time human personal assistant would be best, but this sort of thing is an alright middle ground for me until I make my first billion.
Good point re: the privacy concerns though. Ideally this sort of basic virtual assistant stuff will be on-device at some point.
I really do hope we get to the point of Star Trek style “computer, do task X” and it mostly Just Works. As I get older the less and less I want to futz around with building things computers should just be good at already.
11 was only just announced...
Google is entrenched with career opportunists who are self serving, and are, excuse the lack of a better word, shitting out work to move stupid KPIs and continue the bureaucracy. A bloated Product org that advocates that something must be done, and is not focused.
I'm glad that my 9a has little enough RAM to be spared the worst of Google's on-device LLM features.
I was tired of waiting for Google to make something as powerful as Openclaw on my Android and so I did it myself.
I have Gmail & calendar control, web search, alarms, maps, contacts & phone, scheduled tasks & tasks triggered by things like notifications (I'm planning reacting to geofences & other events). You can create scripts to execute all these tools in a deterministic way & custom skills you can create to mix & match all these tools. For example I created a script that handles sending a message using Telegram reading the screen and tapping things using the accessibility service, it feels like magic.
Right now I'm using models from Gemini API & Openrouter (deepseek flash v4 0731 is cheap & good enough).
All data is in my phone
This is not to brag is just to show how relatively easy you can do this on your Android phone. With an agenting loop, skills with tools (loaded on demand), and things like device control via accessibility service can do almost anything.
> For example I created a script that handles sending a message using Telegram reading the screen and tapping things using the accessibility service, it feels like magic.
Are you disclosing to people that they are interacting with an agent? If I learned a friend is using an agent to communicate with me they would get blocked right away. It’s really rude.
Also, you can do that via telegram API, no? no need for such an overcomplicated system
No, I just use it to write message via telegram dictating by voice.
Of course I can do it by API but the nice thing here is that with with a script + accessibility service I can automate any app on my phone, no need for them to provide an API.
The only gotcha is that you cannot use this when your phone is blocked, but seeing the phone do things "on its own" with a voice command seems like magic.
An ironic comment, considering the article says "nobody wants this AI stuff", meanwhile you are asking for maximal AI.
Do you have a specific use case where this setup is useful? Or is it just an experiment for fun?
> All data is in my phone
It's stored in your phone but it's still going to the LLM when working on it, right?
Unless you invented a system of magic placeholders?
There are days when I suspect Google does not believe in doing user research.
A common way of thinking at Google and other big tech companies is that you're not building for your current users. Your current users will hate it if you move or change the color of a single button in Gmail. Also cue the "faster horse" aphorism. You're building for the next billion (or five).
But of course, the problem with Google is that they already have basically every person on the planet as their customer, and their ideas for how the future should look like aren't exactly transformative. The Gmail UX in 2026 is not radically different / better than in 2016. The same goes for Chrome. Android phones have better cameras and displays compared to ten years ago, but the software functionality is mostly the same.
So I guess they're in the same spot as Microsoft, trying to innovate in a mildly user-hostile way, looking for an audience that doesn't exist?
Flashy features often seem more targeted at tech reviewers and impressive demos than actual day-to-day use. Like movies having some scenes purely because they look good in a trailer.
It's just a rehash of the good Google+ days. This time instead of get your money for stamping social on everything, it's AI
https://archive.ph/wip/BhUIH (queued)
Has anyone been asking for these features? It would appear not.
But hey it let some product manager check the “we got some of that AI” box.
Google is like Microsoft a year ago. Talk about being late to a trend...
Unserviceable phones + features people don't want = Endless price increases and shareholder value!