The new Gemini Live became available in English to Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android phones on Tuesday (Aug. 13) and will be expanded to iOS devices and more languages in the coming weeks, the company said in a Tuesday blog post.

“Gemini Live is a mobile conversational experience that lets you have free-flowing conversations with Gemini,” Sissie Hsaio, vice president and general manager, Gemini experiences and Google Assistant, said in the post.

With this AI assistant, users can interrupt in mid-sentence to ask for additional details, pause a conversation and come back to it later, and keep talking with it in the background or when the phone is locked, Hsaio added.

Google will also make Gemini connect with more Google apps and tools, according to the post. The company will launch extensions for Keep, Tasks, Utilities, Calendar and expanded features on YouTube Music in the coming weeks.

Because Gemini is fully integrated into Android, users can access it at any time, no matter what else they’re doing on their phone, per the post. It can also read the screen and interact with apps like Gmail and Google Messages.

With the user’s permission, Gemini can access their relevant personal data and add it to its own knowledge in order to provide the help the user needs, Google said in another Tuesday blog post.

“For example, Gemini can help create a daily workout routine based on your personal trainer’s email, or use your resume in Google Drive to write a work bio,” Sameer Samat, president, Android Ecosystem, said in the post. “Only Gemini can do all of this with a secure, all-in-one approach that doesn’t require hand-off to a third-party AI provider you may not know or trust.”

It was reported Monday (Aug. 12) that generative AI features have created an opportunity for tech companies to boost consumer interest in smartphones and encourage them to update their devices more frequently.

In addition, with its latest Pixel smartphones, Google is making a more aggressive push into the consumer device market, Bloomberg reported.

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The company signaled this effort by moving up the launch of the phone from October to August, scheduling it before the debut of the next iPhone from its rival, Apple, Bloomberg reported Monday (Aug. 12).

Google will unveil its latest phones Tuesday (Aug. 13) at its hardware launch event, according to the report.

The company is doing so at a time when generative artificial intelligence (AI) features have created an opportunity to boost consumer interest in smartphones and encourage them to update their devices more frequently, according to the report.

Apple and Samsung have made similar moves, with Apple promoting a new suite of features it calls “Apple Intelligence” and Samsung positioning its Galaxy smartphones as being “AI-first” offerings, the report said.

Google has embraced AI in the camera software for its Pixel lineup and has developed a mobile chip called Tensor that it uses to differentiate its smartphones from others, per the report.

The company has also worked to speed the movement of its AI to its Android partners, the report said.

Android President Sameer Samat told Bloomberg: “It allows us to take some of our AI innovation and actually bring it to more of the ecosystem more quickly. It’s all been about trying to move faster around our AI endeavor and improving the consumer experience.”

When Google introduced its Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro smartphones in October, the company emphasized new features powered by AI and said the new devices were engineered to offer a more helpful and personal experience for users.

These AI-powered features enabled users to summarize web pages, measure their body temperature and process more data directly on the device itself and in the cloud.

Apple unveiled its Apple Intelligence suite of AI features in June, saying they would revolutionize the iPhone, Mac and iPad experience — all while keeping the user’s data secure.

With Apple Intelligence, the company said, generative AI is combined with a user’s context to deliver “truly helpful intelligence.”

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But the multi-hour disruption was merely the latest — and potentially the smallest — of a series of developments this week that have cast a shadow over Google’s operations along with its titanic position within the tech industry.

It was on Monday (Aug. 5) that, in a landmark ruling, Alphabet’s Google was found to have illegally monopolized web search.

“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” said Google global affairs President Kent Walker in a statement sent to PYMNTS.

There are more antitrust cases alive and ongoing in the tech sector as well, involving Meta and Amazon, among others.

Adding fuel to the tech sector fire, on Thursday (Aug. 8), news broke that Google and Meta made a “secret deal” to target teenagers with ads for Meta’s Instagram platform. Google’s project for Meta was designed to show ads for Instagram to 13- to 17-year-olds and disregarded many of Google’s own internal rules.

The rulings have put Google in a precarious position, challenging the foundation of its dominance in the digital space and leaving the tech giant grappling with significant legal and ethical challenges.

Read more: Tech Industry Braces for Fallout From Google Antitrust Verdict

Making Sense of Google’s Mounting Court Cases

From antitrust rulings that threaten to dismantle its business model to allegations of targeting minors with ads, Google’s path forward appears fraught with hurdles.

At the heart of the antitrust cases is Google’s relationship with Apple and the allegations that Google paid billions to remain the default search engine on Apple devices. This arrangement, critics argue, stifled competition and cemented Google’s monopoly in the search engine market. The recent ruling demands that Google cease these payments, a move that could open the door for competitors like Microsoft’s Bing to gain market share.

As PYMNTS reported, the case, formally known as United States of America et al. v. Google LLC, centered on Google’s extensive and complex business practices that, according to the plaintiffs, stifled competition and innovation. The ruling, detailed in a comprehensive 286-page opinion by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, outlines how Google’s practices created barriers to entry for competitors, thereby maintaining what he called its monopolistic status.

Moreover, the antitrust scrutiny extends beyond the United States. Google faces similar challenges globally, with regulatory bodies in Europe and other regions taking a closer look at its business practices. The cumulative effect of these rulings and investigations poses a significant threat to Google’s traditional revenue streams and its position as a tech behemoth.

As Google navigates these turbulent waters, the tech giant must reassess its strategies and operations. The antitrust rulings demand a restructuring of its business model, particularly in how it dominates the search engine market. Meanwhile, the allegations of targeting minors with ads call for a more ethical approach to advertising.

Read more: Google Vows to Appeal Antitrust Ruling as Tech Industry Speculates on Implications

The challenges facing Google are emblematic of the broader issues within the tech industry, where regulatory scrutiny and ethical considerations are becoming increasingly paramount.

Elsewhere in the tech landscape, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has initiated an investigation into Amazon’s recent partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, a probe that follows closely on the heels of a similar inquiry launched by the CMA into Alphabet’s own partnership with Anthropic.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS reported that two private law firms that played a pivotal role in Texas securing a $1.4 billion biometric privacy settlement with Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company, could collectively earn over $300 million in legal fees for their efforts.

But there was some good news this week, too. On Tuesday (Aug. 6) news broke that Web Monetization is coming to Google Chrome, allowing website owners to receive embedded micro-payments as an additional way to generate revenue. PYMNTS unpacked the implications the rise of embedded payments could have for online B2B commerce and marketplace platforms, as well as the opportunity for small- to medium-sized businesses.

On Wednesday (Aug. 7), financial education-focused FinTech Greenlight launched a collaboration with Google. The partnership connects Greenlight’s debit card to Google’s Fitbit Ace LTE, a smartwatch designed for kids, letting them learn to “spend wisely” and tap to pay with their watches.

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“Over the last decade, Wix augmented their website building solution with the best online tools from Google — search, advertising, maps and productivity,”  Yuval Dvir, senior director of online channels and partnerships at Google, said in a Monday (Aug. 5) news release.

“Today, with our new agreement and the launch of Gemini for Workspace, they’ve become the first partner to offer Gemini, offering the best generative AI solution in the market that can orchestrate across the apps and turbo charge their customer’s productivity,” Dvir added.

According to the release, Gemini integrates with Google Workspace apps such as Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Meet, letting users do things like write documents, design slideshows, write and summarize emails, and organize projects.

“This collaboration further deepens the strategic partnership between Wix and Google, highlighting a shared commitment to innovation and providing our users with latest tools to help them streamline their work,” said Itay Shmool, Wix’s chairman for premium and payments. “By integrating Gemini Workspace into the Wix platform, we are enabling our users to achieve new levels of productivity and creativity.”

The partnership comes soon after Google launched significant upgrades to Gemini, enhancing its capabilities and expanding its reach. The tech giant is rolling out Gemini 1.5 Flash, a faster and more capable version, to users of the free tier in more than 230 countries and territories.

“This update quadruples the context window to 32,000 tokens, allowing for longer conversations and more complex queries,” PYMNTS wrote last week. “Additionally, Google is introducing a new feature to combat AI hallucinations by displaying related content links within Gemini’s responses.”

Google is also aiming to make Gemini more accessible, expanding to the European Economic Area, U.K. and Switzerland. In a move to engage younger users, it is extending Gemini access to teenagers globally in over 40 languages.

Wix last month said it was adding a series of AI-powered tools for building and managing websites, part of a series of similar recent offerings being developed to help merchants reach their customers.

For example, eCommerce platform Shopify said in July it will soon launch an AI-powered chatbot assistant called Sidekick, designed to help merchants with any questions related to their stores, such as sales and order trends.

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The change should happen by September, the tech giant wrote on its blog Wednesday (July 24), giving merchants “plenty of time to get acclimated and start benefiting from the updates before the holiday shopping season.”

“We’ve brought over key features, including ones like supplemental data sources and rules that help brands work at scale,” the blog post continued.

Google updated the Merchant Center in May, announcing several new features, including the introduction of visual brand profiles on Google Search, designed to highlight information provided by retailers with engaging product and brand imagery, videos, customer reviews, and current deals and promotions.

To help retailers create better, on-brand content, Google has enhanced its Product Studio, an AI-powered content creation platform, the post said.

Merchants can now generate new product images that align with their company’s style by just uploading an image and adding a prompt describing the scene. Product Studio also allows the generation of videos from just one photo, letting retailers create short videos or GIFs for social media.

According to Wednesday’s blog post, Google is upgrading Product Studio even further, letting users animate still images or tweak existing images to match their brand’s style.

“Google is leveraging its generative AI technology to bring shopping ads to life with three new ad formats,” PYMNTS wrote at the time. “These formats include the ability to connect short-form product videos or videos from creators to ads, allowing shoppers to engage with these videos directly from Search. Additionally, AI summaries will be displayed below the video highlights, providing key details about the product.”

Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote earlier this year about the way eCommerce merchants were using AI to get a better idea of what their customers wanted. The technology lets them analyze vast quantities of data and use the information to offer better search results.

“For example, AI algorithms can analyze engagement rates, trends, and hashtag performance, enabling retailers to optimize their posts for better visibility and engagement,” Damian Rollison, director of market insights at the online marketing platform SOCi, told PYMNTS in March.

“Additionally, some are leveraging AI to create personalized shopping experiences directly within these social platforms, such as virtual try-ons or AI-driven chatbots that provide product recommendations based on user interactions,” he added.

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Third-party cookies are small data files that track users across various websites, and have been a cornerstone of digital marketing campaigns and inbound and outbound sales. These cookies have enabled businesses to gather detailed user information and serve personalized ads, as well as measure their impact.

But with the news Monday (July 22) that Google is pulling a U-turn entirely and will no longer be phasing out third-party tracking cookies in Chrome, the continuity of marketing plans is back on the agenda for businesses, particularly those in the B2B space.

“On third-party cookies, given the implications across the ecosystems and considerations and feedback across so many stakeholders, we now believe user choice is the best path forward there,” said Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on his company’s Tuesday’s (July 23) earnings call.

Google’s unexpected pivot ensures that, for the foreseeable future, marketers can continue to utilize the Chrome-native tools they are comfortable and familiar with. The reversal on this policy underscores the difficulties in balancing user privacy with the economic realities of the digital advertising ecosystem, which relies heavily on data-driven insights.

This is particularly crucial for B2B marketers who have been bracing for a shift toward a more privacy-focused advertising model that would have necessitated significant adjustments in strategy and potentially increased costs associated with reaching their target audiences.

Read more: The Power of Precision: Driving Revenue From B2B Customer Data

The Impact on B2B Marketing Strategies and Campaign Measurement

For years, Google has been navigating the complex waters of privacy concerns and regulatory pressures. The tech giant’s initial plan to phase out third-party cookies was aimed at enhancing user privacy and aligning with stringent regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States.

“Throughout this process, we’ve received feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders, including regulators like the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), publishers, web developers and standards groups, civil society, and participants in the advertising industry. This feedback has helped us craft solutions that aim to support a competitive and thriving marketplace that works for publishers and advertisers, and encourage the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies,” said Anthony Chavez, vice president of privacy sandbox at Alphabet, in a statement.

For B2B marketers, the availability of third-party cookies has been crucial for obtaining granular insights into potential customers’ behaviors and interests. These cookies enable marketers to track business professionals across different websites, thereby creating detailed profiles that inform targeted advertising efforts. The decision to retain third-party cookies means that B2B marketers will continue to have access to rich data sets, allowing for precise segmentation and personalized messaging.

“The moment you slice the world through the lens of historical transactional behavior, you can then leverage a predictive GenAI framework and say something about the likelihood of those future transactions,” Pecan CEO and Co-founder Zohar Bronfman told PYMNTS. “It’s evolutionary in terms of how businesses can operate.”

Read more: AI’s Impact on B2B Marketing Spotlights Value of Workflow Automation

Privacy Concerns and Regulatory Compliance

Despite Google’s decision, the industry-wide trend toward greater privacy and data protection is unlikely to reverse. B2B marketers should view this moment as an opportunity to diversify their data strategies.

First-party data collection, which involves gathering data directly from users through owned channels like websites and CRM systems, offers a privacy-compliant alternative. Additionally, partnerships with data providers and the use of consent-based data sources can help mitigate reliance on third-party cookies.

“A spray-and-pray tactic in today’s increasingly competitive financial service and merchant services landscape is a recipe for disaster,” Charles Zhu, then-vice president of product at data intelligence platform Enigma, told PYMNTS in March. “You’re essentially revealing that you haven’t differentiated yourself to tackle a market in any kind of way.”

And while the continuation of third-party cookies offers immediate benefits for data collection and analysis, it also perpetuates privacy concerns that have been a focal point of regulatory scrutiny.

B2B marketers must remain vigilant about compliance with evolving data protection laws, as reliance on third-party cookies could expose companies to legal risks. This situation highlights the need for robust data governance frameworks and transparent communication with clients and prospects regarding data usage.

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Google had pledged in 2020 to eliminate all cross-website cookies within two years, and its announcement on Monday that it would not do so was unexpected, the Financial Times (FT) reported Tuesday (July 23).

Stephen Bonner, deputy commission of the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), told the FT that the regulator was “disappointed” by the change announced by Google, that it will monitor the digital advertising industry and that it will “consider regulatory action where systemic noncompliance is identified for all companies including Google.”

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority said that it is “considering the impact of this announcement” and welcomes public comment, per the report.

Google’s earlier plans to eliminate cookies aimed to protect user privacy by getting rid of that tracking technology, according to the report.

However, those plans were opposed by online advertisers, who use cookies to monitor users’ movements across websites and target them with personalized ads, the report said.

Google had pushed back its plans in the past in an effort to give advertisers more time to adjust to the planned elimination of cookies, per the report. As recently as February, the company said it still planned to turn off all cookies by the end of 2024.

When announcing the company’s change of plans on Monday, Google’s manager in charge of its Privacy Sandbox, Anthony Chavez, wrote in an update that the company recognizes that the transition would require “significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers and everyone involved in online advertising.”

Chavez added that allowing users an informed choice in their web browsing, rather than deprecating third-party cookies, is an approach that “elevates user choice.”

“We’re discussing this new path with regulators, and will engage with the industry as we roll this out,” Chavez wrote.

Google had also faced questions from regulators about its earlier plans to eliminate third-party cookies. The company said in April that it delayed its plans because a British regulator expressed concerns about Google’s proposed alternative to using cookies.

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That’s according to a Sunday (July 14) report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which pointed out that this would be Google’s largest-ever acquisition. 

The tech giant is in advanced talks with Wiz and a deal could come soon, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The report noted that the proposed deal comes as Google and other Big Tech companies are dealing with strict scrutiny from antitrust regulators. It could also, the report said, help bolster the company’s efforts to compete with Microsoft and Amazon in the cloud computing space.

Google has been trying to grow its cybersecurity business, with an emphasis on the cloud, the report added. The company’s largest recent acquisition — and its second biggest ever — was the nearly $5.4 billion it paid two years ago for Mandiant, also a security firm.

PYMNTS has contacted Google for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

Wiz was valued at $12 billion in May after raising $1 billion. Co-Founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport told WSJ at the time that the company expects this year to be a time of consolidation in the cybersecurity sector. Wiz itself had acquired another company, cloud detection and response firm Gem Security, in April of this year.

Google’s efforts to expand its cybersecurity offering comes amid what PYMNTS has referred to as the “year of the cyberattack.”

That was on July 4, and since then even more high-profile breaches have emerged. For example, last week saw hackers gain unauthorized access to dozens of HubSpot accounts. 

“Despite the smaller scale of the breach, considering that many people reuse passwords across accounts, a single, targeted breach on a defined customer subset can trigger extensive and far-reaching consequences,” PYMNTS wrote last week.

Days later, AT&T revealed that the call and text records of “nearly all” of its customers were stolen in April when a fraudster accessed an AT&T workspace on a third-party cloud platform and exfiltrated the files. The company said it delayed providing public disclosure of the incident at the request of the Department of Justice, according to a regulatory filing.

“This heightened emphasis on cybersecurity coincides with a broader debate surrounding data security in the connected economy, particularly in connected workplaces and smart homes, where the growing use of connected devices highlights new vulnerabilities, given the vast amounts of personal data they gather,” PYMNYS wrote earlier this month.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Fraud Management in Online Transactions” found that 82% of eCommerce merchants suffered cyberattacks or data breaches in the past year, with 47% saying the breaches resulted in both lost revenue and lost customers.

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Google Maps is reportedly extending to Apple’s iOS and CarPlay a speedometer and speed limits feature that it has long offered for its own operating system, Android.

TechCrunch reported Tuesday (July 9) that it spotted the feature being available to iPhone users in India last week and that Google confirmed Tuesday that the feature will be rolled out globally.

The feature helps users avoid speeding tickets while driving by showing the vehicle’s speed when people start navigation on Google Maps and by changing colors on the speed indicator to remind people to drive within the speed limit, according to the report.

The vehicle’s speed is shown for “informational use only,” according to a Google support page, suggesting that drivers should rely on their vehicle’s speedometer, per the report.

Google launched the speedometer and speed limits feature on Android in 2019, the report said.

This new feature will join some others that have been added to Google Maps in recent months.

These include a generative artificial intelligence (AI)-powered feature launched in February that helps people discover places by providing personalized recommendations based on users’ specific needs.

For example, if someone is visiting San Francisco and wants to explore vintage shops, they can simply ask Google Maps for “places with a vintage vibe in SF.” The AI models will then analyze the available information, including photos, ratings and reviews from the Maps community, to provide suggestions.

In November, Google Maps added a feature that helps groups plan trips by creating a collaborative list in which members of the group can add places they would like to visit and can vote on group activities by using emojis like a heart or a thumbs down.

During that same month, Google added a “small business attribute” that allows merchants to prominently display their small business status on both Maps and Search, making those businesses easier to spot among the list of merchants.

This feature is designed to help consumers find and shop at new small businesses. It is meant to appeal to the 84% of consumers who said they prioritize supporting local and small businesses.

The post Google Maps Extends Speedometer, Speed Limit Feature to Apple Users appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The rollout of this feature on both web and mobile began Monday (June 24), the company said in a Monday blog post.

The AI assistant will be available to Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Business and Enterprise add-on, the Gemini Education and Education Premium add-on, and Google One AI Premium, according to the post.

The rollout of this feature follows the addition of Gemini to the side panel of Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides and Google Drive, the post said.

With Gemini in Gmail on the web, users can deploy the technology to summarize an email thread, suggest responses to an email thread, get help drafting an email, and find specific information from emails within their inbox or from their Google Drive files, per the post.

“While Gemini in Gmail will provide proactive prompts to help you get started, you can also ask freeform questions,” the company said in the post. “For example, you can ask Gemini to search your inbox for things like ‘What was the PO number for my agency?’, ‘How much did the company spend on the last marketing event?’, or ‘When is the next team meeting?’ And just like that, you’ll have the information you need to quickly reply without having to ever leave Gmail.”

Gemini in the Gmail mobile app on Android and iOS can be used to analyze emails threads and see a summarized view, as can be done with the side panel on the web, per the post.

Additional mobile features will be added soon, the post said.

Google announced in May at its annual developer conference, Google I/O, that it would be enhancing Gemini to enable users to establish a virtual teammate.

The company said this AI-powered team member is designed to integrate with Google Workspace and perform various tailored tasks, including monitoring and managing projects, organizing data, providing insights, detecting trends and aiding in collaborative efforts.

Microsoft, too, has been expanding the capabilities of its AI assistant, Copilot, and other AI tools. The company recently reported that Copilot is being adopted across industries.

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