Google's new family of generative artificial intelligence (AI) models, Gemini, will soon be able to access events scheduled in Google Calendar on Android phones.
According to 9to5Google, Calendar events were on Google senior director of product management for Gemini Experiences Jack Krawczyk's list of “things to fix ASAP,” which Google would be working to add to Gemini and make it a Better equipped digital assistant.
Users who have the Gemini app on an Android device can now expect Gemini to respond to voice or text prompts such as “Show me my calendar” and “Do I have any upcoming events on my calendar?” When 9to5Google tried this the previous week, Gemini responded that it couldn't fulfill those types of requests and queries, which was particularly notable since those types of requests are quite common with rival (non-AI) digital assistants like Siri or Google Assistant . . However, when those same prompts were attempted this week, Gemini opened the Google Calendar app and complied with the requests. It seems that if users want to enter a new event using Gemini, they must tell it something like “Add an event to my calendar,” to which they must then be prompted to fill in the details manually using voice commands.
Betting everything on Gemini
Clearly, Google is moving to set up Gemini as its proprietary all-in-one AI offering (including as a digital assistant, which will replace Google Assistant in the future). There are quite a few steps before you achieve this, with users requesting features like the ability to play music or edit their shopping lists through Gemini. Another major hurdle that Gemini must overcome if it wants to become popular is that it is only available in the United States for now.
The race to become the best AI assistant has gotten a little more intense recently between Microsoft with Copilot, Google with Gemini, and Amazon with Alexa. Recently, Google made great strides in its ability to compress larger Gemini models so they could run on mobile devices. It seems that the capabilities of these more complex models can give a big boost to Gemini's capabilities. Google Assistant is widely recognized and this is another feather in Google's cap. I'm hesitant to bet on any of these AI digital assistants, but if Google continues at this pace with Gemini, I think its chances are pretty good.
