Last month, the Gemini app got a new leader, and Josh Woodward today laid out Google’s strategy to build the “most personal, proactive, and powerful assistant.” This follows Google’s previous I/O 2025 tease.
Noting how the “best assistant gets you,” the personal tentpole starts with “knowing your past chats.” Google announced the ability for Gemini to reference your past conversations in February for Gemini Advanced. Today’s “launching soon” tease does suggest it will come to free users as well, just like Saved info.
Looking ahead, the future is “personalized context” from the Google services you use: “Gmail, Photos, Calendar, Search, YouTube, etc.” Google started testing this in March with the “Personalization (experimental)” model. Right now Gemini looks at your past Search history when considering a prompt to see if it can “make the answer better.” Example queries that might benefit from personalized recommendations include: “Where should I go on vacation this summer?” and “What would you suggest I learn as a new hobby / job?”
Beyond Search, Google at the time teased YouTube and Photos, with the company uniquely positioned to already have this information.
On the team, we call it “pcontext” (personalized context) and we’re testing it internally with our own info already.
Top comment by Lee Woods
The proactive assistant is definitely something I have wanted from Google since they began discussing AI investments and advancements.
I was hoping Google Assistant would get that capability not long after launch but it obviously didn't have the processing power behind it.
Looking forward to have that true smartphone that knows what I need because it has access to all of my data with Google.
On the proactive front, Google wants an assistant that anticipates your needs. Gemini will “offer insights and actions before you ask, freeing your mind and time for what truly matters,” or “Less prompting, more flow.”
In terms of powerful, Google says the “best assistant turns your ideas into action.” This is talking about Gemini 2.5 Pro. Notably, Woodward says this “new era of models” will lead to a “new era of user experiences.” A recent example of that is something like Canvas.
Meanwhile, the Gemini app lead credits Google’s infrastructure, especially TPUs, as making all this possible.
It’s the kind of infra people dream about, but it actually exists here — and it’s going to let us make all this FREE for everyone to try, especially students.
Finally, Google says to “keep your feedback coming” and that there is more to come at I/O 2025.
More on Gemini:
- Google rolling out native AI image editing in the Gemini app
- Gemini app rolling out Material You widget on Android
- Gemini is adding a GitHub app for coders
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