The Alphabet Inc-owned company will make the AI feature available in select games in the coming months, it said Sept 23. — AFP
Google is introducing an artificial intelligence assistant that can offer live coaching to mobile gamers, part of a larger effort to boost engagement on its Android platform.
The Alphabet Inc-owned company will make the AI feature available in select games in the coming months, it said Sept 23. Gamers can ask the assistant, which uses Google’s AI models, to interpret what’s happening on-screen. In response, the assistant offers conversational suggestions, ideally to prevent users from having to exit the game to find tutorials online. Alphabet’s artificial intelligence lab, Google DeepMind, first teased such capabilities last December.
Google’s interest in building agents – AI systems that can perceive their environment and execute tasks rather than simply answering questions – comes amid a broader push into this space by big tech rivals. OpenAI has developed agents that can book flights and order food for users, while Anthropic is building agents to help with coding tasks. By introducing an active agent to manage in-game tasks and enhance a player’s experience, Google is going beyond workplace helpers to introduce agents for everyday entertainment activities.
On Tuesday, Google also announced a centralised gamer profile within the Play store that displays existing metrics like user achievements, gaming progress and related community forums, similar to what other gaming platforms already offer.
Overall, the updates are part of an effort by Google to increase engagement on Android apps and its Play store, where Android users can browse not just applications but also entertainment content like short films, books and comics. Revenue from subscriptions, platforms and devices, which includes Play store sales, jumped 20% in the second quarter to US$11.2bil, making it one of the faster growing segments of the business.
Apple Inc. similarly revamped its mobile gaming experience this year by releasing a standalone Games app for iOS 26. The app displays the games that other people like friends recently played, along with in-game achievements.
Android users can also participate in new, limited-time leagues to earn virtual points within the Play store. (Prior perks have included discounts on Google Pixel phones.) The first league will be for the popular Subway Surfers game, and will be held Oct 10-23. – Bloomberg
