The Google Vs Apple Vs Facebook battle on your smartphone is about to take an exciting new twist; if you’re an Android user, Google has just revealed a huge AI upgrade that could change the way you use your device.
Google’s latest release will be a game-changerGETTY1/24 update below, this article was originally published on 1/22.
The tech giants behind the most popular smartphone OS and app ecosystems have spent years battling for your messaging loyalties. And for good reason. There are no other apps as sticky as WhatsApp or iMessage or Google Messages. They are the center of your social network, to which you return through your day, every day.
And so, just as Samsung starts floating the idea of a paywall for its own smartphone AI offerings, here comes Google with something more game-changing. How about incorporating Bard directly into its core messaging platform? A readymade UI and user base. No new apps to install or complex productivity app extensions to master. This is ChatGPT-like simplicity, pre-installed on every Android smartphone.
Google has spent two-years pushing its Messages app as the default Android alternative to iMessage. This has included end-to-end encryption and RCS by default, and multiple feature releases. Now, with that done, here comes an AI upgrade that connects Messages users with Google, not just with one another.
According to Bard itself, this “promises to be a game-changer for how we communicate. It's an AI assistant that can improve your messaging experience in various ways, from facilitating communication to enhancing creativity and providing information… It will be your personal AI assistant within your messaging app.”
There were hints last year that Google might be looking at bringing Bard into Messages, albeit nothing substantive. But having unpicked the latest pre-release APK, 9to5Google now reports that Bard is indeed “coming to Google Messages to ‘help you write messages, translate languages, identify images, and explore interests’.”
There are a raft of obvious tasks this could simplify—creating a recipe or drafting a text for your boss are two of the examples given. But that just scratches the surface of the real opportunity, which (for Google) is much bigger.
When ChatGPT was released, you’ll remember the Google Search obituaries that came thick and fast. The future of web search was not going to be browser-based. It would be interactive and chatty. Google’s patchy rush to release Bard followed.
To begin, you’ll likely experiment with AI text composition, image recognition, simple information requests—but make no mistake, AI chatbot driven search is the prize (1,2). The AI models need more advanced structuring to turn chat into workable commerce requests, but the end will justify the means/investment.
According to Bard, “it can be your handy shopping sidekick in several ways… It can suggest thoughtful and unique gift ideas… It can compare different models, highlight key features and specs, and find reviews and ratings from real users… It can scour online stores and social media to show you what's hot and where to find it… It can track prices across different retailers to ensure you're getting the best bang for your buck. It can also alert you to price drops and coupons for items you're interested in.”
This looks like delivering on Google Allo’s intent that floundered given its inability to properly combine its assistant and messaging. Google isn’t unique, of course. Telegram has chatbot options, including ChatGPT front-ends. But for most everyday users, that’s a step beyond what’s comfortable. Google is home turf.
The really interesting question is how will Apple and WhatsApp respond. Clearly, there are elements of Siri integration into iMessage, albeit that’s limited to messaging itself. It’s not a direct comparison, but would be easily enough enabled.
WhatsApp is positioned more interestingly within Meta’s stable. It’s clear that Meta will be able to bring something like this to WhatsApp easily enough. Because Google fronts the world’s largest and most valuable search and advertising ecosystem, it’s ready to go. But Facebook has its own network and can do the same. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are also both cross-platform and more widely adopted than Google Messages. This would be bring a new angle to Meta’s monetization.
The issue, of course, is that when your AI chatbot is driven by an advertising giant, you’re risking a limited and far from independent experience—a Google search window without the immediate option to scan beyond the advertiser results.
But the alternative is Samsung- or ChatGPT-like subscription charges for AI features and services. And we know that users will sacrifice a heap of privacy for “free”. AI in messaging will enable the same business model that’s behind search and many other services. Advertisers will pay to reach you, the services will be free.
1/24 update:This challenge in narrowing down search results to chat responses in an AI interface has just been highlighted by Leipzig University; its research specifically looked at the quality of search results for product reviews and recommendations.
The paper, titled “Is Google Getting Worse? A Longitudinal Investigation of SEO Spam in Search Engines,” asks whether SPAM and SEO gamesmanship has a disproportionate impact on the quality of results filtering through.
“Many users of web search engines complain about the supposedly decreasing quality of search results… Evidence for this has always been anecdotal, yet it’s not unreasonable to think that popular online marketing strategies such as affiliate marketing incentivize the mass production of such content to maximize clicks.”
In short, the answer appears to be yes.
“Our findings suggest that all search engines have significant problems with highly optimized (affiliate) content… more than is representative for the entire web.”
This is not specific to Google, of course, and the researchers also examined Bing and DuckDuckGo over the course of twelve months. Ironically, given Google’s focus on integrating generative AI and search, the researchers warn that this is a “situation that will surely worsen in the wake of generative AI.”
We have all become conditioned to judging the likely independence of search results as set out in our browsers, and we have learned to scan such results as today’s shop window equivalents. But in a world when you ask a chatbot “where’s the best place to buy a Samsung TV,” or “what’s the best pizza restaurant in Denver,” the format of your results will be very different. We all need to remember, it’s not really a chat.
The AI update coming to Google Messages is part of a trend, of course, and you can expect multiple such AI add-ons to come thick and fast, especially with Google driving much of the momentum. This should be good news for Android users.
We have just seen an official Chrome announcement on the introduction of three new helpful AI releases making their way into beta. Automated tab management and theme creation sound good, but it’s the Help me Write feature within Chrome that’s likely to be the most useful, especially on an Android mobile device.
We have also seen GMail’s own Help Me Write feature adapted to combine AI and voice, as spotted by TheSPAndroid, “Gmail's ‘Help Me Write’ can help you draft emails with ease and definitely can save you some time. Currently the functionality is available on both web and apps, but you have to write the email prompt yourself using the keyboard. On the Gmail app for Android, Google is working on a feature which will let you draft emails with voice [prompts].”
And there was the earlier news that Android Auto will use AI to intelligently filter information in and out of the system, while you keep your hands on the steering wheel and your eyes on the road.
Many positives, clearly, but that core risk in narrowing search results isn’t the only word of warning here. Google Messages chats with Bard are not secured by end-to-end encryption, and Google (being Google) will store your data and use it to improve its algorithms. Just as with other such models, be careful what you ask.
No news yet on the timing, but in all likelihood it isn’t far away. According to Bard, “Google has not yet announced an official release date for Bard in Google Messages, but it is expected to be available sometime in 2024.”
source
