Google I/O 2026: Gemini 3.5 Pro, Spark, and Other Major Announcements

At this year’s Google I/O conference, Google announced a suite of new features and products powered by Gemini, covering Search, Android XR, and its key services. The most notable is Gemini 3.5 Pro, currently in testing and expected to officially launch next month. Additionally, Gemini Spark will become available next week for US Google AI Ultra subscribers. Google also introduced Neural Expressive, a new design language that brings fluid animations, haptic feedback, and refreshed typography to Gemini apps.

Importantly, Gemini apps will remove daily prompt limits and shift to a usage-based billing model tied to “compute consumption”, which factors in prompt complexity, feature usage, and conversation length. Google AI Ultra is now priced at $100 per month, offering five times the usage allowance of AI Pro. Meanwhile, the first smart audio glasses built on the Android XR platform are set to launch this fall, marking what Google describes as a new form factor — “smart glasses.”

These new features will begin rolling out in the US this week across different subscription tiers, covering Gemini apps, Google Flow, YouTube Shorts, and more. A broader expansion to Search, YouTube, and Gmail is expected this summer.

Editor’s note: The shift from “prompt limits” to “compute-based” billing shows Google’s move toward more granular AI resource management, while also offering heavy users greater flexibility. The arrival of smart audio glasses signals that Google’s long-term AR hardware efforts are finally yielding consumer-ready products — one to keep an eye on.