We ‘Stole’ a Phone From Google’s Sameer Samat and Were Dazzled by Android 16

On a sunny bench next to an Android statue at Google HQ, Sameer Samat, president of the Android ecosystem, had his phone stolen. And it wasn’t the first time Samat saw his Pixel phone nicked. In fact, on the day I visited, Samat had his phone nabbed four separate times by a man running past. It was all part of a demo to show off Android 16’s expanded Theft Detection Lock: As soon as Samat’s phone was grabbed, it locked itself down and showed a message on the lock screen that read, “Theft detection, device auto-locked.”

Theft Detection, introduced with Android 15, is one of several new and expanded features in Android 16 that are focused on safety and security. The new OS has three main pillars: a significant UI overhaul called Material 3 Expressive, support for Gemini on more devices, and safety and security tools. CNET sat down for an interview with Samat, and his genuine enthusiasm for Android 16 and what it means for customers shone through.

“Android 16 is one of our biggest releases ever,” Samat said. “What’s really cool about the release is it touches on so many things that people are excited about.”

Android is the largest operating system in the world, running on more than 3 billion active devices. Android 16 marks a significant milestone for Google, showing that the tech giant’s nearly 17-year-old OS is just as important now as it was in 2008 when it debuted. In particular, as all eyes look to Google’s Gemini AI tools and services to be the next big thing, Android 16 proves that it can bridge the gap between the tried-and-true features people have come to expect on their phone and the promises of AI. And Samat is clear that he doesn’t expect AI to replace Android or apps, but rather make them more powerful and helpful.

“Apps are still going to be important, but maybe in different ways,” he said. “There are some mundane things that we do in apps today that an AI could help you with. For example, you might want to call a car, or reorder your favorite food from a particular restaurant. You still want to transact with that business, but perhaps you don’t want to press the three buttons that you usually press to do it every time. You want to just ask the question, perhaps on your watch, and have it done for you.”

Android 16 Material 3 Expressive

The first thing most people will notice is that Android 16 looks different from previous versions. Everything from the lock screen and the home screen to the quick controls panel and notification shade have been overhauled with a new design that Google calls Material 3 Expressive. This isn’t a radical departure from the past, but rather the addition of a number of graceful and dynamic animations that are equal parts delightful and eccentric.

For instance, if you raise the volume to its max, you feel a haptic, and the on-screen volume control actually moves higher than its normal spot, with your finger, to show that you can’t increase it anymore. You can also easily resize tiles in the quick controls panel from 1×1 to 2×1 simply by pressing and holding on the control and dragging the side handle bar left or right. In fact, when you tap a control, the tile’s icon moves subtly as a reaction.

“When we think about how to design these systems, there is, of course, a utility to it all,” said Samat. “For us, it isn’t just about how it functions, but it’s also about how it makes you feel. And all these touches around beauty and aesthetics, they’re not always consciously meaningful to people. But as you experience a device, you just leave with a sense of delight. And that’s what we’re going for.”

Perhaps a good example of what Samat describes is the new dynamic animation for swiping away a notification. Rohan Shah, Google’s senior product manager for the Android platform, demonstrated this for me. As he swipes away a notification, it’s almost as if it’s sticky and doesn’t want to leave the notification shade.

“When you, for example, swipe a notification, which users do 40 times a day, there’s this real subtle motion where the notifications around it just give a little resistance,” Shah said.

Samat said that tearing off a notification and swiping to the right has never been more satisfying. That springlike action is part of Material 3 Expressive’s fluid motion mechanic, which gives items that enter and leave the screen a more natural adherence to the physics you’d expect.

Material 3 Expressive also makes Android more glanceable from the lock screen, home screen and your apps. For instance, on the lock screen, notifications you’ve read are tucked away in a pill-shaped box that shows each app’s icon. This works in tandem with your phone’s wallpaper and the new Live Updates that can be used to follow directions from Google Maps straight from the lock screen.

Android 16 brings Gemini to more devices

As conspicuous as Material 3 Expressive is, Gemini also plays a large role in Android 16 and is now the default digital assistant. Samat explained that the choice to replace the Google Assistant with Gemini is about making interactions feel more intuitive.

“In the past, where assistants maybe taught us how to speak to them, you had to say things in a particular way. Now, with the advances in AI, you can just speak naturally, and with ‘ums’ and ‘ahs,'” Samat said.

And it’s not limited to phones. Gemini will be in cars, watches, Android XR headsets and even your TV. For Wear OS devices, Gemini works purely via the cloud, and you’ll need an internet connection (Wi-Fi, phone or LTE) to use it.

I got to see Google’s group product manager for Google TV, Sal Choudhary, test Gemini on a television set. He started a demo by simply having Gemini show us the weather. Next, he asked it to show us Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1, and Gemini pulled up the movie’s page. But then things got interesting when Choudhary asked Gemini, “Which Mission Impossible is the best one?”

Gemini replied, “That’s a fun debate. Many fans consider Mission Impossible: Fallout to be a standout for its incredible action sequences and compelling story. Others might argue for the original Mission Impossible for its suspense and classic spy feel. Or Ghost Protocol for its globe-trotting adventure and Burj Khalifa stunt.”

Obviously, integrating Gemini into so many devices opens the door for it to be used in even more form factors — like Android XR headsets as well as Gemini-powered glasses, which Samat teased. He points out that Gemini can not only understand what you say and what’s on your screen, but can also use cameras to give you more info on the world around you. Glasses offer you the ability to view a display no one else can see, and frames with a built-in camera let Gemini see the world as you do. I imagine we might hear more about glasses and how Gemini fits into Android XR at the Google I/O keynote presentation on May 20.

Having Gemini in more places is only as good as the information it gives you. If Gemini’s responses are inaccurate or just plain wrong, that can unravel a novel use, such as glasses. Admittedly, Samat acknowledged this pain point with AI.

“AI certainly does have instances where it doesn’t get things correct,” he said. “I think what’s important here is [for the user] to understand the context. So, using AI as part of Google search, that’s going to be a really important area where factual information is critical, and the search team works really hard to make sure that they get that right. In other instances, like where we talked about identifying an image and describing it, the AI can do its best, and it can actually be tuned to do quite a good job, and also give a disclaimer to the consumer that’s like, ‘You may want to double-check this if it’s a critical decision you need to make, like before you buy it.'”

Samat also shared that Google has found that people would rather have access to this type of AI and that there are instances where they may need to understand that there are limits.

Android 16 Scam Detection

One of the most impactful new features in Android 16 is Scam Detection, which can alert you to a possible scam when you’re using the Google Messages app. Scam Detection uses an on-device model specifically tuned to understand when a particular message or thread may be leading you to reveal personal information. And it works when you’re having a conversation with somebody who’s not in your contacts.

“We’ve really taken an on-device AI model and we’ve helped train it with a lot of different scenarios for what can go bad and what can go wrong here,” Samat said. “We’ve tested it against millions and millions of different possibilities of these scams that we see.”

Android users will also help to keep Scam Detection up to date. Every time a person reports a scam, Google can use that information to evolve the feature over time.

Android 16 final thoughts

It was an insightful time talking with Samat. The way he sees the future of Android and Gemini truly instills me with hope that all of this can lead to a better world. Android 16 genuinely does feel like one of the more significant releases in years. And we’ve just touched on a few top-tier features. There are a lot more tools, utilities and updates to Android 16 — for a deeper look, check out CNET’s Android 16 explainer.

Android 16 is set to be released publicly in June, and Wear OS is scheduled to be out later this summer. I look forward to testing both and seeing people’s reactions to the new tools and features.