Here’s everything about the Gemini Nano, and the phones that support it

For several years, Google has positioned its Pixel phones as the system of choice for AI features. But the recent rise of AI tools like ChatGPT has led other mobile brands to follow suit. The recent release of Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16 series represents a threat to Google’s ambitions to lead the AI ​​space. The search giant still has a numbers advantage, however, with the entire Android ecosystem at its disposal. Unsurprisingly, we’re now starting to see Google’s version of Gemini Nano AI on more devices, including Samsung and Xiaomi phones.

So what does the Gemini Nano get on Android and should your next phone support it? Here’s everything you need to know.

What is Gemini Nano and why is it important?

Gemini Nano is the smallest version of Google’s AI designed to run directly on smartphones like the Pixel 9 series. In particular, it’s a great language that excels in text – it can provide answers in chats, send messages, and more. The latest releases of the Gemini Nano are also multimodal, meaning they can understand images and audio. However, it’s not complete as a full language – you can’t talk directly to Gemini Nano like you can with ChatGPT or Gemini’s standalone software. The last one is Google’s AI chatbot which is available on any device.

The advantage of Gemini Nano is that it runs on devices, which means that it does not send data to Google servers for processing. In fact, Gemini Nano will work offline even if you don’t have an active internet connection. This means faster response times and better privacy, as many online AI platforms use your data to train future users.

Gemini Nano is designed for mobile phones, but it still remembers because it has to run in the background. That’s why the Pixel 9 series comes with 16GB of RAM – a big chunk is reserved for AI models like the Gemini Nano. Modern chipsets such as the Tensor G4 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 also have neural processing units (NPUs) to efficiently run such types of AI.

With the Gemini Nano’s support continuing beyond the Pixel, Google’s goal is to make AI technology a more important part of the Android experience. However, we can only see the version supported on high-end phones based on the control requirements. You can find a list of all features supported by Gemini Nano below.

Gemini Nano Features: What do you get?

The Gemini Nano’s list of features will vary depending on your device, but here’s a breakdown of what the model can do. We’re starting to see more and more features on other devices, but chances are you’ll need a smartphone with powerful enough hardware to see Gemini Nano support.

Although mobile keyboards have provided a following for more than a decade, Google added Gemini Nano support to Gboard for “intelligent responses” and “conversation awareness”. In simple words, the keyboard now uses AI to provide answers based on your interactions. This feature works within WhatsApp, Line, and KakaoTalk, but is limited to US English at the moment.

The Pixel Recorder app relies on Gemini Nano to provide a summary of AI-recorded audio. On the Pixel 8 series, the model can summarize about fifteen minutes of audio. However, Google’s latest Pixel 9 series includes a new version of the model that allows short videos to be recorded for more than half an hour.

The Galaxy AI team also includes a short AI section in the Samsung Voice Recorder app. However, it relies on Google’s larger version of Gemini Pro which can run on the cloud. Interestingly, Samsung’s competing models can record hours of footage regardless of privacy and speed.

Magic Compose is part of Google’s Messages app that uses the Gemini Nano to generate thoughtful responses based on the last 20 messages in a conversation. It has different writing styles such as Formal, Excited, Chill, and even Shakespearean, allowing you to change the tone of the AI-generated answers.

Introduced with the Pixel 9 series, the Pixel Screenshots app uses Gemini Nano to extract and identify important features from old screenshots. The app gives you a search page so you can ask for information like a route you’ve saved or an address from your friends’ chats in plain English instead of looking at a list of unedited images.

Since all AI processing is done offline, you get the latest results even with a large number of images in your photos.

5. TalkBack

TalkBack, the Android accessibility feature, is growing thanks to Gemini Nano’s multimodal capabilities. It provides rich and detailed descriptions of images, allowing blind or partially sighted users to understand what is on their screen.

Unlike the previous version of TalkBack, which only provides simple explanations, Gemini Nano can recognize locations or information. You can think of it as an AI photo editor, which means it can provide great results like “Sydney Opera House at night.”

As you might guess from the name, this is an integration of AI within the dedicated Google Weather app. Before the Pixel 9 was released, just checking the weather would take you to the Google app. However, the Pixel Weather app offers more features, better widgets, a smoother UI, and Gemini Nano support.

Why would you need on-device AI to determine the weather? The idea is that the Gemini Nano creates a summary of the upcoming weather at the top of the app, saving you the trouble of reading rainfall, temperature, and other forecast numbers. It can also take into account other factors such as UV index and air quality index, giving you more detailed information.

Call Notes is another Pixel-only feature that appeared alongside the Pixel 9 series. However, you need to activate the feature on each phone that you want to record and summarize. The other party will hear an audible message that says “Google Call Notes has been turned on. The call has been recorded.” Galaxy AI also offers a similar feature, which also converts recordings offline.

Gemini Nano made its debut on the Pixel 8 Pro, but has slowly made its way to more devices, including several non-Google ones. Here is a list of devices that support Gemini Nano:

We hope that future smartphones will include Gemini Nano support especially since the built-in apps on your phone will soon take advantage of the AI ​​technology. Google has changed the way to download and update the Gemini Nano version via AICore, which also provides features to third-party developers. At the beginning of 2024, Google said that it gave the first preview to companies like Adobe and Grammarly to integrate the mobile version within their programs. This would allow a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat to create AI abstracts offline.