Google I/O 2025 Liveblog: Android, Gemini AI, XR and More
At last week's Android Show, Google unveiled that Wear OS 6 will include Gemini, which sounds like a natural extension of the AI features available on Android phones. But the relationship between watch and phone could be tighter than it first sounds.
AI features are processor-intensive -- that's why the latest generation of phones from the major manufacturers all tout their models as being designed for AI. To get better performance, a phone will do all or most of the computation locally; whenever it needs to pass along some of that work to the cloud for processing, it's introducing some lag into the operation.
But watches don't include that kind of computational horsepower. They're even more sensitive about reducing battery-draining features -- such as AI processing. So where's the tradeoff? In her article about Wear OS 6, Vanessa Hand Orellana breaks down how the interaction will work when Wear OS 6 is released later in the year: "Gemini on Wear OS processes requests in the cloud, which means it still relies on an internet connection (via phone, Wi-Fi or LTE), but the idea is that you'll be able to get more done without pulling out your phone."
From what we know so far, it sounds like the watch will be more of a Gemini interface, sort of like ordering fast food from a drive-through menu with a speaker versus at the take-out window itself; you'll make a request and get the result when it's ready. As wearable processors improve, perhaps that balance will shift more to on-device processing.
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