China's Honor will have Google AI features, including Gemini, on its upcoming smartphones
Chinese smartphone maker Honor on Wednesday said it will bring Google's artificial intelligence features to its upcoming devices.
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Honor already has a number of smartphones on the market that fold like a book, such as the Magic V2 that was launched in July 2023 shown here. The Chinese tech company is now preparing to launch a vertical-folding style smartphone, its CEO George Zhao told CNBC at the Mobile World Congress.
Honor
Chinese smartphone maker Honor on Wednesday became one of the first device makers to say it will bring Google's artificial intelligence features to its upcoming devices.
Honor will integrate generative AI experiences into its forthcoming hardware, which will be powered by Google Cloud, the company said.
A spokesperson for the Chinese firm told CNBC that this would include Google's AI assistant Gemini, as well as Imagen 2, a text-to-image generation tool.
Smartphone makers are attempting to bring AI features to their phones, in a bid to get users to upgrade to their latest flagship devices.
The integration with Google's AI features builds on Honor already running the U.S. firm's operating system Android on its smartphones. Designing advanced generative AI features can be difficult for individual smartphone makers, so partnering with Google gives them a shortcut to the latest generative AI apps that employ the tech.
Honor is among just a handful of companies to commit to Google's AI tools. In January, Samsung announced a partnership with Google Cloud to bring Gemini Pro and Imagen 2 to its devices.
Honor has been talking up AI features in its devices this year. In February, the company launched the Magic 6 Pro with a feature powered by the company's own AI that allows users to open an app just by looking at their phone. A user can stare as a notification pops up at the top of the screen, prompting the eye-tracking tech to open up the relevant app.
