Google used its virtual Android Show: I/O Edition on Tuesday to unveil Googlebooks, a new line of Gemini-first laptops built with Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, and launching this fall. The company paired the hardware reveal with a slate of Gemini Intelligence features for Android, including vibe-coded widgets, agentic cross-app tasks, and a late-June rollout of Gemini in Chrome on Android. The event sits ahead of Google's annual developer conference later this month, which is again expected to center on AI.
Googlebooks are positioned as the first laptops designed from the ground up for Gemini Intelligence. They ship with Magic Pointer, a new cursor with Gemini built in, plus compatibility with Android phones that lets users run phone apps directly from the laptop, alongside custom widget creation. Google did not disclose pricing or specific configurations from its five hardware partners.
The headline software feature for phones is Create My Widget, which lets users build Android widgets by describing them in plain language. A query like "suggest three high-protein meal prep recipes every week" generates a resizable home-screen dashboard. The feature lands first on the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, then broadens to other Android devices later this year. Nothing released a similar widget tool last year, so Google is not first to the idea.
Key facts
- 01Google unveiled Googlebooks, a Gemini-first laptop line built with Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, launching this fall.
- 02Create My Widget lets users vibe-code Android widgets via natural language, first on Samsung Galaxy and Pixel this summer.
- 03[Gemini](/gemini) in Chrome rolls out to Android in late June, following earlier iOS and desktop launches.
- 04Android Auto gains 60fps full HD video playback later this year across BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and others.
- 05All 4,000 Android emojis are being refined into more expressive 3D versions launching later this year.
Gemini's agentic features got a meaningful upgrade. The assistant can now chain multistep tasks across apps — copying a grocery list from a notes app into a shopping cart, for example — using on-screen content as context and waiting for user confirmation before checkout. Google first introduced these agentic capabilities at the Samsung Galaxy S26 launch earlier this year, and the auto-browse feature that debuted in January for booking appointments is now coming to Android.
“Googlebooks ship this fall with Magic Pointer, a Gemini-powered cursor, and Android phone app mirroring — Google's first laptops built from scratch around its AI assistant.”— Jaeden Schafer
Gemini in Chrome arrives on Android in late June, after earlier launches on iOS and desktop, enabling page summaries and questions about web content. Google is also adding opt-in form filling that draws on its Personal Intelligence layer, and a new Gboard feature called Rambler that cleans up dictated speech. Rambler strips filler words and resolves self-corrections, turning "Let's meet at 3 PM… um, 2 PM" into "Let's meet at 2 PM."
Android Auto is getting an edge-to-edge refresh with widgets for ultrawide, circular, and irregular dashboard screens. YouTube and other video apps will support 60fps full HD playback later this year in cars from BMW, Ford, Genesis, Hyundai, Kia, Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Škoda, Tata, and Volvo. Gemini is rolling out broadly inside Android Auto for hands-free questions and brainstorming, and DoorDash is the first food-ordering partner accessible from the car.
Google is refining all 4,000 Android emojis into more expressive 3D versions launching later this year. For creators, a Screen Reactions feature that records the user and the screen simultaneously — the format common on TikTok and Instagram Reels — arrives first on Pixel devices this summer. A partnership with Meta brings Ultra HDR, native stabilization, and night mode capture to Instagram on Android, plus smart enhance and sound separation tools in Meta's Edit app exclusive to Android.
Two cross-platform additions stand out. Quick Share's AirDrop compatibility, previously limited to Pixel, expands this year to Samsung, Oppo, OnePlus, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor devices, with a QR-code fallback for unsupported hardware. A new iOS-to-Android transfer tool that imports passwords, photos, messages, apps, contacts, eSIMs, and home-screen layouts also launches this year on Samsung Galaxy and Pixel.
Security and well-being got attention too. Pause Point forces a 10-second break before opening apps users have flagged as distractions, with an optional cutoff timer. Default-on theft protections are expanding globally after earlier tests in Brazil, automatically enabled on all new Android 17 devices and reaching Android 10 and up in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and the UK. Android 12 and higher will let law enforcement read a device's IMEI from the lock screen to verify ownership of stolen hardware.
The open questions are pricing and execution. Google has not said what Googlebooks will cost or how aggressively the five OEM partners will differentiate, and Gemini's agentic cross-app actions remain a category where reliability — not demos — decides adoption. Nothing's earlier widget tool did not move the market, and Google's version will need to clear that bar at scale.
Google's pitch is that Gemini is no longer a chat surface bolted onto Android but the operating layer of a new hardware line and a reworked phone experience. That puts Googlebooks in direct contention with Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs and Apple's Mac lineup, which has yet to ship a comparably ambitious AI-first laptop after John Ternus's elevation to CEO. If the Acer-to-Lenovo coalition can hit volume this fall, Google will have done what neither Microsoft nor Apple has managed: convince five major OEMs to build hardware around a single AI assistant on day one.
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