Google recently updated the Recorder app on its Pixel phones with enhanced AI summaries. The update has led to an uptick in popularity, according to Google, and the company has shared some details about how it works.
Available on the Pixel 3 and later, the built-in app lets you take audio recordings with your Android. You can easily share audio recordings with others and sync them across your devices via the cloud. The app includes a handy real-time transcription feature, which makes it a cinch to pinpoint specific word mentions and jump to key points with searchable text. Automatic transcripts are particularly great when recording audio lectures, business meetings, and such. The new audio summarization feature makes the app even better.
Google claims it was able to create the transcription summary feature from scratch with just four developers over four months thanks to Gemini Nano, its large language model (LLM) optimized for on-device operation without requiring internet connectivity. It originally tried a server-based approach, but concluded that Gemini Nano was powerful enough to run the feature while keeping data processing on the device.
Infusing Recorder with AI summaries has boosted engagement and user retention significantly while praising overwhelmingly positive user feedback. The improvements didn’t go unnoticed by Android owners, who have been using AI summarization in the Recorder app two to five times daily, with the number of saved recordings up by almost 25%.
The latest Gemini Nano model employed by Recorder enables the software to summarize much longer voice recordings with better grammar than before. No matter how long the audio recording is, Recorder’s AI summarizer can distill the audio transcript into three bullets. The summary includes additional information, including speaker names, key takeaways, and themes. Because generative AI features usually require dedicated neural processing hardware to accelerate AI tasks, summaries are currently only available on Pixel 9 phones.
“Having the LLM on-device is beneficial to users because it provides them with more privacy, less latency, and it works wherever they need since there’s no internet required,” explains Pixel apps product manager Kristi Bradford.
Content summarization is one of the better examples of how AI can enhance people’s daily lives. If I’d had this during my studies, maybe I wouldn’t have dropped out!
Source: Google
