Google’s latest Android Show showed new Gemini features that, for the first time, have me excited about having AI on my phone — and none of it involves generating soulless images or summarizing things (seriously, can we stop summarizing everything).
The new Android 17 features prioritize personalization and mindful design. They recognize that phone usage differs from person to person. That’s why seeing Google show off features for speeding up a few useful things and prioritizing how I take breaks from my phone is great to see.
These three Android 17 features are my favorite announcements, and here’s why I think they will transform how I use my Android phones.
Watch this: Android’s Biggest AI Update: Everything to Know About Gemini Intelligence
1. Rambler for personalized speech-to-text
Speech-to-text has existed for several years, and the new Rambler feature uses AI to improve it. Instead of my having to tap the microphone and dictate verbatim what I want to say, the feature will use Gemini to take the important parts of what I’m saying to create a concise message. But that’s not the best part; Google is using its lead in translation and language understanding to build this for multilingual people.
As someone who speaks English and Hindi in daily life, much of my personal communication is a mix of both languages. Rambler can seamlessly switch between languages within a single message, Google says. It uses Gemini’s advanced multilingual model, which allows it to understand context and nuance. So, when you’re blending two languages in speech (English and Hindi, in my case), it can easily convert your message to text in the way you intended.
The app Wispr Flow can do the same to some extent, too. But Google’s version is more promising because it has all my data, which can be used for more personalized recommendations. Hopefully, that means it can create sentences that sound like how I speak and messages that remain natural and personal to me.
Personalization is important to me because I don’t want to sound robotic in any of my written communication. I currently don’t use AI speech-to-text services because I want my texts to continue to convey my personality. I hope that Rambler can keep the enthusiastic, excited, emotional and messiness of my texts. If it can, this might be the first speech-to-text feature I’d use in daily life.
Rambler should make it easier to tell your phone what to write, since it will use AI to make a concise message.
2. Pause Point to quit autopilot app use
Google’s new Pause Point feature doesn’t use any AI, but it could be even more helpful for stopping myself from doomscrolling. Picking up my phone, seeing a notification and then getting trapped in social media happens to me more frequently than I realize, and it’s made me become more mindful of my phone usage.
Pause Point will give you a 10-second breather whenever you open a distracting app. (I’m going to set it up for Instagram and X.) During that time, you can do a short breathing exercise or set a timer to avoid scrolling too long. You can also use this 10-second pause to look at some favorite photos or jump to alternative app suggestions. I’d love to be suggested my favorite playlists whenever I tap on Instagram out of habit.
Since our willpower isn’t enough to stop us (I know mine isn’t), Google is making it harder to disable Pause Point once it’s set up. If you want to turn off the feature, you’ll be required to restart your phone. This is going to be frustrating, but I’m all in for anything that helps me quit my autopilot app use.
Now you can ask Gemini to create a widget for your home screen with just a prompt.
3. Create My Widget for more personalized widgets
Whenever I switch from a Samsung Galaxy phone, I miss having a transparent Calendar widget alongside a multi-city clock on my home screen. I need it on all my phones, regardless of the Android skin I’m using. And Android 17 will finally allow me to create custom widgets the way I like.
Create My Widget is another Gemini Intelligence-based feature that can help personalize your phone more than ever. You can build custom widgets by describing what you want using natural language. Google’s example includes a meal prepper who can ask Create My Widget to “Suggest three high-protein meal prep recipes every week,” and it will build a custom dashboard that they can add to their home screen.
I can see myself creating a dashboard that consists of a multi-timezone clock, travel information and (maybe) sleep data from my Oura Ring 4, all in one place. I hope it can connect through multiple apps to create such widgets. Google will roll out Create My Widget feature across its different platforms, including Wear OS and Googlebooks.
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Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
