Let’s be frank: Some of Google’s recent Android feature Drops have been duds, offering little more than an expansion of Gemini summaries and chat functions. The new September Drop does have some Gemini flavor, but there are non-AI goodies, too. Your messaging threads are getting prettier and more useful, and those nifty Motion Assist dots that began appearing last week are rolling out widely. And even the Gemini expansion is not without utility.
Since this is an Android Drop rather than a Pixel Drop, these features are coming to a wider range of devices. The OS version does matter, though. If you’re on Android 16 or higher, you can now tell Gemini to log the location of items that don’t have a tracker tag attached. Just tell the AI where you put something, and include a photo if you like.
This information will be logged in Find Hub, which has thus far been used for locating phones, earbuds, and tracker tags. You can ask Gemini to recall that information or simply check Find Hub yourself the next time you forget where you put that item.
Gemini Live is also getting a new feature called Guided Vision that could be a boon for accessibility. Guided Vision can help you locate objects in the camera frame or extract information that you can’t make out, like the text on a menu in a dimly lit restaurant. Gemini interprets the camera feed to help you find things, and it can even tell you how far away your hand is from whatever you’re trying to find.
Guided Vision will be available in the system Accessibility shortcuts and can also be activated from the TalkBack menu. This feature will work on virtually all Android phones, from Android 9 Pie onward.