Google I/O 2026: AI Dominates Search, Smart Glasses, and New Gemini Features

Google I/O 2026 kicked off this week, and to no one's surprise, it was almost completely about AI.

To start with, Google is rolling out its "intelligent, AI-powered Search box" globally. Instead of just autocompleting your text, it uses AI to anticipate your intent and help you formulate questions. You will be able to use images, video files and entire Chrome tabs as direct search inputs. Its AI Mode, now powered by the new Gemini 3.5 Flash, will still live alongside it, for your follow-up questions/corrections.

Google also introduced Gemini Spark. Running in the cloud, Spark is a digital assistant that can autonomously monitor credit card statements for hidden subscriptions, track updates from your kid's school emails, or pull notes together into a Google Doc. It can even interact with third-party apps like OpenTable and Instacart to complete tasks—though it promises to ask for your confirmation before making any final purchases or sending emails. Google may have figured out a way to take the fun out of shopping.

There were glimpses of future hardware: Google and Samsung teased a collaboration with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker and offered the first look at two models of Android XR smart glasses. The glasses will allow you to chat with Gemini, get real-time audio translation in the speaker's voice, translate real-world text in your line of sight and snap photos on the go.

Naturally, with all these new features, Google adjusted its AI subscription tiers, adding a new $ 100-per-month mid-range (hah!) tier. The AI Ultra Plan will offer five times higher usage limits than the standard $20 Pro plan, as well as priority access to Google's Antigravity coding tool and 20TB of cloud storage.

Meanwhile, down from its original $250 price tag, Google's top-tier Ultra plan features 20 times higher usage limits and exclusive access to Project Genie — Google's experimental research preview that lets you build interactive 3D worlds using real-world Google Street View imagery.

We dig further into a few more of the biggest announcements below.

— Mat Smith

Instead of subtle, normal-looking glasses with some smart features, Xreal's smartglasses aim for an immersive AR experience, with a focus on entertainment. That approach is very much the same as the company's Android XR-powered Project Aura, but based on Karissa Bell's time with these new smartglasses, they may offer more than just another wearable screen.

Compared with the low-key (arguably lower-spec) audio-only smartglasses from Warby Parker and Gentle Monsters, Xreal's Project Aura packs in three cameras, a 70-degree field of view and hand-gesture navigation. The main gesture is a pinching motion that will feel pretty familiar to anyone who has used other AR setups, such as Apple's Vision Pro.

Speaking of which, Project Aura comes with a tethered puck, just like Apple's wearable display. It comes with a trackpad and a fingerprint sensor, although neither worked on the demo model we tested. The company hasn't revealed pricing details yet (expect those alongside the formal launch later this year), but they're likely to exceed Xreal's One Pro glasses, which cost $650.

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