Google released the first Android 16 developer preview earlier this week and keen-eyed observers are already uncovering interesting tidbits, including one that hints about a much more useful future for Google’s AI assistant. In Android Authority, Mishaal Rahman writes about a mysterious new API in Android 16 called “app functions,” which appears to give Gemini Assistant agentic-like abilities to take action in apps. It sounds awfully similar to the upgraded “app intents” Apple supports in iOS 18, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that could make AI assistants much more useful than they are in their current state.

A page on Google’s developer site describes an app function as “a specific piece of functionality that an app offers to the...

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