Google reveals how the upcoming Android Auto AI message summaries will work

Google reveals how the upcoming Android Auto AI message summaries will work،

Following Google's announcement – alongside the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S24 – that Android Auto AI summaries were on the way, the company has now released more information on how the feature works. This feature will allow Google Assistant to summarize those long texts and lively group chats for safer driving.

Originally announced as an “Android Auto” feature, Google has clarified that its powerful Google Assistant AI will actually power these helpful summaries. This makes sense since Android Auto relies heavily on Assistant for voice interactions. Additionally, Google support documentation notes that the feature could work on “Assistant-enabled Android devices,” potentially opening the door for this smart messaging tool to work on headphones and other gear in the future – as noted 9to5Google.

While it seems like a feature that would be beneficial for all of your messaging needs, don't expect every message to get the AI treatment. Currently, only messages longer than 40 words and multiple messages sent in rapid succession by the same person or group chat will trigger AI summaries. Anything that does not meet the aforementioned criteria will be read as a normal message, just like it has worked in the past.

How AI Summaries will work on Android Auto | Source: Google

However, it's important to note that your car's AI summaries will not be enabled by default. This is a feature that will need to be enabled manually through your Android Auto settings. You can opt-in by tapping “Read AI message summaries” under “Notifications”. Additionally, Google will ask for your permission the first time a summary is ready, at which point you can approve or decline the AI-summarized or standard version of your post to be read aloud.

With everything moving towards AI these days, it's natural to wonder about the privacy implications. This is probably why Google included a few lines about this in the support documentation, assuring users that their messages and summaries are not saved anywhere and that interactions will not be used to train language models ( LLM) from Google.

Although the initial announcement of this upcoming feature focused heavily on the use of Gemini across the Galaxy's AI feature set, the company did not explicitly state whether Gemini in particular was at work here. However, with Gemini now present as an alternative to Google Assistant on mobile devices, our best guess is that it will power this feature as well. In the meantime, we look forward to this rollout and the promise of less inconvenient travel.