Everything Announced at Google I/O 2026: Gemini, Search, Smart Glasses

# Everything Announced at Google I/O 2026: Gemini, Search, Smart Glasses Source: [https://www.wired.com/story/everything-google-announced-at-google-io-2026/](https://www.wired.com/story/everything-google-announced-at-google-io-2026/) Google just wrappedits[keynote](https://www.wired.com/live/google-io-2026-live-blog-gemini-android-xr-search/)address at its annual[I/O developer event](https://www.wired.com/tag/io/)\. The company showed off a swath of new[agentic AI](https://www.wired.com/tag/agentic-ai/)features and some demos of its upcoming Android\-powered smart glasses\. As it has in the past few years, the spectacle largely revolved around Google’s perpetual stream of AI efforts\. The company says that 900 million people use its Gemini assistant, and people have generated more that 50 billion images with Gemini\. Google’s goal for 2026 is to put AI agents at the forefront of all its biggest services: Search, Gmail, YouTube, Docs, and the Chrome browser\. In a demo briefing the day before I/O, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the company was in a period of “hyper progress” with its AI efforts, but acknowledged that this is the part of that cycle “where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day\-to\-day basis\.” Here is everything Google announced at I/O 2026\. And if you’re wondering where all the Android 17 news is, Google[told us all about that last week](https://www.wired.com/story/android-17-gemini-top-new-features/)\. ## Search Party Google is going all in on keeping people on Search by trying to integrate it into every part of your life\. The company has[embedded its AI agents directly in Google Search](https://www.wired.com/story/google-search-goes-agentic-and-doesnt-need-you-anymore/)in something it calls the “intelligent search box\.” This new search experience starts rolling out to everyone today\. When you ask the search box questions like, “What is a black hole?” or “Are Google AI Overviews devastating the journalism industry,” it will respond with more contextual answers or use generative AI to create images or short video clips that help explain the concept\. As an example, Google showed a search about black holes, and its AI agent generated a video that visually explains the process, plopping it right into the search results\. Search is also getting a Generative UI feature, which creates different ways of viewing information from search results, so different types of responses—videos, images, news articles—get custom layouts that are generated in the browser on the fly, based on what’s the most relevant\. Generative UI will start showing up in everyone’s Google searches this summer\. Search agents are also being integrated more deeply across Google’s platforms\. In March, Google released[Ask Maps](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/maps/ask-maps-immersive-navigation/), which lets users ask questions on Maps like you would interact with a chatbot\. ## Gemini Everywhere Google has two new major AI model updates\. Gemini 3\.5 is officially being released today, along with Gemini 3\.5 Flash, a pared\-down but more affordable version of 3\.5 Pro\. Both will be available immediately in Google’s Search and the Gemini app\. Google’s core Gemini app is getting a refresh, with a snazzier redesign called Neural Expressive\. It has new colorful backgrounds, a new typeface, and new animations for live voice chats\. It also has many more accent options for your chatbot’s voice, with regional accents in several languages\. Daily Brief is an upcoming personalized digest of your day that Google wants to be the first thing you check in the morning\. Daily Brief pulls info and data from your calendar, email, and other information to summarize and prioritize your plans for the immediate future\. \(Google tested out a similar feature in its experimental[Google Labs](https://labs.google/)in December\.\) The company is also adding new Gemini\-powered features to its other services\. An Ask YouTube feature lets you pose natural search queries in YouTube\. Ask it how to ride a bike or how to grill a steak, and an agent will then be tasked with finding a mix of relevant YouTube videos\. It’ll even snap right to the points within the videos that answer your questions\. Much weirder is voice editing in Google Docs, in a new feature called Docs Live\. By describing with your voice what you want to write, an agent will dictate your words, generate text, pull in citations from the web, and aim to turn your stream\-of\-consciousness wishes into a coherent document\. \(Reminder: All this stuff may[eventually have ads](https://www.wired.com/story/google-nick-fox-advertising-search-ai-gemini/)\.\) For Gemini power users, Google is creating a new subscription tier, the AI Ultra plan, for $100 a month\. It is also dropping the price of its top Gemini AI Ultra from $250 a month to $200\. ## Gemini Omni Google announced Gemini Omni, an AI video generator akin to Sora 2\. That was OpenAI’s generator that let you[deepfake yourself](https://www.wired.com/story/openai-sora-app-ai-deepfakes-entertainment/)but was eventually[killed by the company](https://www.wired.com/story/openai-shuts-down-sora-ipo-ai-superapp/)\. Google’s approach is building out a far more realistic video generator that can incorporate real video and extrapolate all manner of AI\-powered weirdness on top of that\. Google is eager for you to turn Omni’s eye on yourself, putting your face front and center\. As such, selfie videos can be modified to add different backgrounds, styles, or environments, making it appear that you are somewhere other than your actual location\. The feature was demoed onstage with a video of someone recording themselves walking through a metal sculpture\. They then asked Omni to change the structure to look like it was made of bubbles\. You can also add images and video of yourself from your camera roll and generate just about any variety of cinematic style\. Google says Omni is capable of advanced animations and fun typography\. Google’s approach is focusing Omni on video creation first, though it says still\-image and text capabilities will be coming later\. Eventually, Google says it wants to let Omni create any output with any input\. [Read more about Omni](https://www.wired.com/story/google-makes-it-easy-to-make-a-deepfake-of-yourself/)in Reece Rogers’ story on WIRED\. OmniFlash, a starter version of Omni, is available starting today for Google AI\+ Pro and Ultra subscribers\. ## Gemini Spark Gemini Spark is Google’s answer to OpenClaw, the viral AI\-powered helper bot that could be used to help with real life needs like buying groceries or researching vacation options \(and occasionally causing you to[wind up in a scam](https://www.wired.com/story/malevolent-ai-agent-openclaw-clawdbot/)\)\. Spark can write emails or plan a block party and pull information from files in your Google Drive\. It is meant to be a personal agent just for you, keeping up with your schedule so it knows the rhythms of your life, learns what major events are coming up, and can help manage long\-term or recurring tasks for you\. Spark runs entirely on Google Cloud, which Google says means it can process background requests without having to leave your device on\. For now Spark just works with other Google software, though not with the Chrome browser quite yet\. Google says that is coming, along with third\-party support, later this summer\. WIRED’s Reece Rogers has a[deeper dive into Spark](https://www.wired.com/story/googles-response-to-openclaws-24-7-ai-agent/)\. ## Agents Love Shopping To help you manage all of your online shopping, Google will start deploying an agentic\-powered shopping experience\. As you search for products, Google will show you listings that it hosts for products for sale at various retailers\. You can also shop the old\-fashioned way, by going to various websites and perusing the listings there\. The big difference is that now, Google will offer a universal shopping cart\. Just add the products you’re interested in as you surf, and Google’s agent will keep your wish list organized\. It can alert you to price changes and tell you when there’s a newer version or a new color option available\. While products are sitting in your cart, you can engage Gemini to ask for more details about your potential purchases, add other products to the cart, or try to find better deals at other retailers\. When you want to pull the trigger on a purchase, you can do that within the universal shopping cart using Google’s secure payment system\. The agent can buy everything in your cart for you, even if the things you want are scattered across various stores around the web\. You also get the option to go buy those things at the original retailer’s sites if you want\. ## Go With the Flow Last year,[Google showed off its Flow tool set](https://www.wired.com/story/everything-google-announced-at-io-2025/)for creating videos, images, and music\. This year,[Flow gets some new capabilities](https://www.wired.com/story/google-makes-it-easy-to-make-a-deepfake-of-yourself/)that will make it easier for people to create promo videos, party invitations, music videos, and short films\. Flow’s tools are made for people who have an idea of some creative project they want to put out into the world, but they don’t have the camera equipment, musical talent, editing expertise, professional software, or studied knowledge of the medium to pull it off\. We’ve all been there—and now we all get a piece of software to bridge that gap\. For example, you can upload a single photograph to Flow, then it will generate 16 unique video clips that bring that image to life, preserving the people in the photo, the setting, and any kind of narrative the photo seems to be conveying\. If you can barely play the piano or guitar, you can upload a short sketch of a melody, then ask Flow to build that up into a song that sounds slickly produced and aligns with a particular genre, like country or R&B or reggae\. \(Please do not choose reggae\.\) ## Google’s “Intelligent Eyewear” Is Here Don’t call them smart glasses\! There are two types of Google “intelligent eyewear,” one set of products with audio\-only features, and another product type that has a small display window incorporated into the lenses\. The company is creating these in partnership with Samsung \(for the tech\) and a small group of eyewear companies \(for the style\) to build out its Android XR platform\. Google’s first audio glasses will arrive this fall, the company says\. They serve as an interface to Gemini voice chat\. They have speakers in the temples that can whisper directly into your ear, and they have cameras on them so Gemini can see what you’re looking at, which enables you to ask questions about the real world\. The frames are made in collaboration with glasses brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster\. We’ll get pricing details later this year\. The versions with the built\-in display are still in development, and Google will only say they are coming after the audio\-only glasses\. Those will be able to show you text messages, live directions, and image results from search\. Also, both types of glasses can do live translation across languages, but the glasses with a display will allow you to see the translated text superimposed in your field of view\. The glasses can also be used to access Nano Banana, Google’s AI image\-generation tool\. So for example, you can point the cameras at a scene, ask Gemini to take a picture, and then use Nano Banana to add AI effects or objects that aren’t really there\. If you have a version of the glasses without the display, you can see those images on your phone or your Android\-powered smartwatch\. WIRED’s Julian Chokkattu got to demo all of the new glasses—even the unfinished ones—and has a more[in\-depth look](https://www.wired.com/story/hands-on-with-all-of-google-new-upcoming-android-xr-smart-glasses/)at what’s headed for your face this year and beyond\.