Want Google’s smartest Gemini features? You’ll need one of these phones

Google’s latest AI features are becoming less about what version of Android your phone runs and more about what’s inside it. If you were hoping a software update would eventually bring Google’s smartest Gemini Intelligence features to your older flagship, the latest device list is a good reality check. Google now says Gemini Nano 4 is supported on only seven Android phones, and those are the devices positioned to unlock the newest on-device Gemini experiences.

The list includes Google’s Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold, alongside Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. Google quietly added these devices to its developer documentation this week (via 9to5Google), making them the first phones officially listed with Gemini Nano 4 support.

The Pixel 11 series has some of Google’s newest and most advanced Gemini Intelligence experiences, including Gboard’s Rambler voice typing and the upcoming Create My Widget feature. Rambler, for example, is meant to make voice typing feel much less robotic. You can speak naturally, stumble over your words, repeat yourself, or change your mind, and Gemini can clean up the result instead of dumping your entire ramble into a text box.

Create My Widget, which Samsung is also working on, takes the idea further by letting you describe the information you want on your home screen and having Gemini build a custom widget around it. Google has also demonstrated more intelligent autofill and increasingly capable task automation as part of Gemini Intelligence.

The catch is that Google has already made it clear that Gemini Intelligence is a premium experience. Its requirements include 12GB or more of RAM, a qualified SoC, on-device Gemini Nano support, and lengthy software and security commitments. With the Nano 4 list, Google might be drawing another line between phones that can run Android and phones that can run the newest version of Google’s Android experience.

And that line could become more important over time. Google is increasingly tying new AI features to newer chipsets, which could leave perfectly capable older phones behind even while they continue receiving Android updates.

It’s worth noting that while Samsung’s recent foldables support Gemini Nano 4, only the Pixel 11 phones support Rambler and Create My Widget. We hope this isn’t a technical limitation and that Samsung’s devices get these features soon. But for now, you’ll need a new Pixel flagship if you want to use Rambler and the next generation of Gemini Intelligence features.