Google wants you to use its phones less and its AI more - but who's buying it?
Google is leveraging our poor relationship to technology to sell its new phones - the same relationship it had a hand in creating.
Google aims to reduce your reliance on smartphones and increase your use of its AI-driven services. At a Made by Google event, the company's VP, Rick Osterloh, addressed concerns about phone addiction, stating that his own device is often too distracting. Osterloh introduced HiLight, a feature on Pixel 11 Pro models that glows to alert users to important incoming calls, reducing the need to constantly check their phones.
However, the company's push for minimalism appears to be more about promoting its AI capabilities than encouraging healthier technology habits. Instead of users manually handling tasks, Google wants its AI, Gemini, to take care of them, such as finding details in emails to send via text or creating event invitations. While Google's new AI-driven features may offer convenience, they may also contribute to increased screen time as users rely more on voice commands and less on direct interaction with touchscreens.
The company is banking on this transition to wearable devices, like smart glasses and rings, which will further integrate users with Google's AI ecosystem, collecting more data in the process. Despite these advancements, the report questions whether Google's efforts will genuinely decrease screen time or merely shift it to new forms of interaction with technology.
Written by urgent.news from ZDNet's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
