Google has revealed more details about its upcoming Android Auto AI summaries feature, which it announced along with the Samsung Galaxy S24 launch. This feature will enable Google Assistant to provide concise summaries of long texts and active group chats, allowing drivers to focus more on the road.
The feature was initially presented as an ‘Android Auto’ feature, but Google has since clarified that it will be powered by its advanced Google Assistant AI. This is logical, as Android Auto depends heavily on Assistant for voice commands. Moreover, Google’s support page indicates that the feature could also work on other “assistant-enabled Android devices,” such as headphones and smartwatches, in the future, as reported by 9to5Google.
The feature may seem useful for all kinds of messaging, but not every message will qualify for the AI summaries. According to Google, only messages that are longer than 40 words, or multiple messages that are sent in a short span of time from the same person or group chat, will be eligible for the AI summaries. Messages that do not meet these criteria will be read as usual, as they have been in the past. Another important thing to note is that the AI summaries feature will not be activated by default in your car. You will have to manually enable it through your Android Auto Settings. You can do so by selecting “Play AI message summaries” under “Notifications.” Furthermore, Google will ask for your consent the first time it has a summary ready, and you can choose to accept or reject hearing either the AI-summarized version or the regular version of your message. With the increasing role of AI in various domains, privacy concerns are inevitable. This is why Google has added some information about this on its support page, reassuring users that their messages and summaries will not be stored anywhere and that the interactions will not be used to improve Google’s language models (LLMs).
The original announcement of this feature emphasized the use of Gemini, Google’s new AI system, in the Galaxy’s AI features, but the company did not specify if Gemini is also involved in this feature. However, since Gemini is now available as an alternative to Google Assistant on mobile devices, we can assume that it is also behind this feature. In the meantime, we look forward to this feature and the prospect of a safer driving experience.