May 14, 2025
By Bob O'Donnell
Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. In the latest updated versions of Google’s Android 16 and Wear 6 operating systems, for many, undoubtedly, the beauty will be found in the new Material 3 Expressive design language. It is, after all, a dramatic and attractive change versus previous user interface designs from Google. Plus, the level of detail on things, like how well the elements of the screen automatically adjust to your interactions in an intuitive and intelligent way, is definitely impressive.
However, the true inner beauty of the new OS stems from the under-the-hood changes that Google has integrated into the Android experience—some of which will be arriving very shortly. In particular, Google has integrated the intelligence of its generative AI-powered Gemini assistant throughout all its latest Android iterations, and it has incorporated an extensive range of security and privacy-related features into Android 16 as well.
To be fair, the Gemini integration had already started with Android 15 on a few select devices, but Android 16 expands that to all Android phones and tablets—without a subscription—and it extends the experience to smart watches running Wear OS 6, the latest version of Android Auto, and even Google smart TVs running Android.
On all these devices, you’ll soon be able to have the kind of voice-based natural language interactions that LLM-powered chatbots have started to get us all accustomed to. In environments like the car or in active situations when you’re wearing a smart watch, that can make a big difference in improving the usability of the overall Android experience. The addition of support for Gemini Live also means you can engage in lengthy conversations on virtually any topic while in those settings. Furthermore, few people who watch TV simultaneously have access to a keyboard, so accurate responses to voice-based queries are important in these situations as well.
The latest version of Gemini in Android 16 is bringing in visual capabilities, meaning Gemini can see and react to what’s on your device’s screen or what it sees through the camera. Most people have just begun to experiment with these kinds of multi-modal interactions, and they’re bound to be blown away by what the latest AI-powered assistant technology can do. Google even briefly hinted at bringing these capabilities to Android XR mixed reality devices, which it’s going to be talking about in more detail at next week’s Google I/O event.
On top of the intelligence features—which stand in stark contrast to where Apple currently finds itself with Siri and Apple Intelligence—Google also made a surprisingly broad range of announcements related to privacy and security for Android 16. From scam detection and personal identity authentication to mobile theft protection and other anti-fraud capabilities, the latest version of Android has an impressive array of new tools designed to keep people and their devices safer.
While they’re certainly not as pretty as a new user interface, these kinds of features offer a compelling set of deterrents that the huge number of people whose lives have become utterly dependent on their devices should find very attractive. The unfortunate truth is that the type, number and sophistication levels of scamming and other privacy-related attacks targeting people’s smartphones has grown extensively over the last few years. As a result, these types of privacy and security capabilities have quickly migrated from a nice-to-have to an absolute essential, and it’s great to see Google stepping up here.
For example, Google can now identify potential fraud in text messages and even during live phone calls to prevent bad actors from being able to surreptitiously take over a device or steal data. These features can also save people from unwittingly changing settings or sharing data that could let their devices or information be compromised. Real-time app scanning can also stop certain threats from being started from sideloading or remote loading of applications. A new Identity Check feature, first available for Google Pixel and Samsung devices, offers stronger protection even in the event a PIN or password is compromised along with the phone being lost or stolen.
Google also expanded its little-known Advanced Protection capabilities in Android 16, which are designed for the most at-risk or security-conscious individuals including public figures, journalists, and others who want to be shielded from today’s most sophisticated digital threats. New features including automatic intrusion logging of potential security events for further analysis, disabling auto-reconnect to insecure networks, securing USB ports from physical attacks, and more. All of these are on top of the existing protections in Advanced Protection, which offers an inter-connected group of security settings that can be easily turned on at once.
Finally, Google upgraded its my Find My Device service to what it’s calling Find Hub. In addition to the traditional capabilities for tracking lost devices and smart tags, Find Hub adds the ability to track the location of friends and family (with their consent and with the appropriate privacy-related settings to avoid unrecognized tracking). The company also announced upcoming support for smart tags with Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology, satellite-based tracking and new types of embedded tags in things like skis, luggage and more.
All told, it’s a comprehensive set of updates that demonstrates Google’s continued moves to step outside the shadow of Apple and iOS, particularly here in the US market. After years of being seen as a laggard in many types of technologies and user interface as well as thought of as more prone to security-related concerns, the realization of announcements like these will make Android a clearly viable and arguably even more advanced alternative to the Apple hegemony. The new capabilities of Gemini, in particular, bring a level of AI-powered intelligence that can really make the modern Android experience an impressive one. Toss in the ability to consistently use Gemini across a huge range of devices, and the story becomes even more compelling.
Here's a link to the original column: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/google-ups-privacy-intelligence-ante-latest-android-bob-o-donnell-tyzgc
Bob O’Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC a market research firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. You can follow him on LinkedIn at Bob O’Donnell or on Twitter @bobodtech.
| 
