Google’s got a mysterious new experimental AI app for Android

New app is coming with package name com.google.research.air.cosmoDescribed by Google as “an experimental AI assistant application for Android devices” 9to5Google). The company further explains:

COSMO brings the power of artificial intelligence straight to your device. From organizing your day to answering complex questions, COSMO works behind the scenes to simplify your life.

That… doesn’t really do much to differentiate it from Google’s main Gemini app – so what does COSMO actually mean? For now, this appears to be a test of some sort, although exactly for whom and what is not yet clear.

Looking at the app settings, COSMO shows that it can work with a local Gemini Nano model, a remote “PI” server, or a hybrid mode that switches between the two when available. COSMO is designed to tap into Android’s Accessibility Service API to access your screen, but in our testing it wasn’t fully functional yet.

COSMO comes equipped with some unique AI skills, although not all of them are enabled by default.

Interaction with COSMO’s assistant works as expected, but it’s noticeably rougher around the edges than the full Gemini app. In fact, the overall impression we’re getting here is that this is an app that isn’t quite ready for prime time – even the Play Store listing is poorly executed, with screenshots resized to the wrong aspect ratio:

Access seems to be a bit limited at the moment, and even on Pixel devices the app is not available to install in all regions.

We know none of this is very satisfying, but we really have more questions than answers right now. We’ll keep digging to find out if there’s anything interesting the app has to tell us, and keep an eye out to see if Google ever announces its new tool – and hopefully that will clear up a lot of these unknowns.