If there’s one thing Google loves doing, it’s taking a great idea and making it available to absolutely everyone.
Sometimes that’s a good thing, but sometimes it means one of the more genuinely original features from a smaller brand suddenly doesn’t feel quite so special anymore.
That’s exactly the vibe with two of the most interesting AI additions coming as part of Android 17. Google’s new Rambler and Create Your Widget features look undeniably slick, but if you’ve spent any time with a Nothing phone lately, you might be feeling a very strong sense of déjà vu.
Google’s Gemini Intelligence is a massive Android 17 upgrade
Gemini Intelligence is arguably the biggest upgrade coming with Android 17, aimed at making Gemini much more helpful in day-to-day use.
That starts with better cross-app support, which, according to Google at least, will allow you to take a photo of a flyer for a restaurant and tell Gemini to find the location on Expedia or OpenTable and book it – all you need to do is confirm. And, by extension, Chrome Auto Browse will also let Gemini browse the web on your phone autonomously.
There are also improvements to the Android autofill process, with Gemini now able to intelligently fill out most forms in Chrome and apps.
But, by far the two most important and interesting additions are Rambler and Create Your Widget.
Rambler is Google’s attempt at fixing voice-to-text dictation in the age of AI. Rather than simply transcribing whatever you say, including all the uhms, ahs and other fillers, Rambler aims to make the final text feel more natural and polished. It’ll remove any filler, and it’s smart enough to remove redundant information if you change your mind mid-recording. You can also use your voice to tweak the output post-recording, and it’ll even work across different languages in real-time.
Create Your Widget, as the name suggests, is a new way to create totally custom widgets for your smartphone home screen using Gemini. You simply describe what you want it to look like and do, and Gemini will create it for you.
It’ll work just like any other widget, automatically updating with new information as it becomes available, and it’s highly specific too – you can create a widget displaying baby-friendly activities in your area happening at the weekend, for example. Gemini’s access to the web makes it particularly well-suited to this kind of task.
But Nothing phones had it first
If some of that sounds familiar, it should; Nothing already offers its own spins on AI-developed, fully customisable home screen widgets dubbed Essential Apps, along with similar speech-to-text tech that goes by the name of Essential Voice.
The latter, to be fair, is pretty new, but Nothing phones have been able to create custom widgets since early 2026, following a 2025 announcement. And, going by Google’s snazzy Android Show presentation, it looks like the tech will work in a similar way too.
Nothing’s AI-developed widget tech is framed a little differently from Google’s announcement, with Nothing claiming you can build ‘apps’ using Essential Apps, but really and truly, it creates widgets that sit on your home screen.
The difference is that it’s a much more community-focused affair – as is everything Nothing-related – with you requiring to push the ‘app’ to Nothing for approval before it’s available for you and everyone else to download and use.
It’s not quite as individual and unique as Google’s widget alternative, then, with instant access and no approval needed, but the core concept of using AI to create custom widgets isn’t exactly new.
And, when it comes to Essential Voice, you simply need to record your message as you normally would. Nothing’s Essential AI will then not only transcribe what you said but also analyse it and tidy it up in real-time, removing uhms and ahs, and removing redundant information. Sound familiar?
Unlike with Google’s alternative, you can also integrate custom vocal phrases to insert the same text you use often – email addresses, phone numbers, email templates – to save even more time.
It’s not an exact copy, then, but there’s no denying that the tech is very similar to what Nothing offers, and I’m sure that CEO Carl Pei isn’t too happy about the announcement that its previously exclusive tech will now be available on a bunch of non-Nothing handsets. It’s one less reason to buy a Nothing Phone, and one more reason to buy a Pixel.
Coming to Pixel phones first
It’s worth noting that, as with all features announced in the Android 17 update, the Ramber and Create Your Widget features aren’t guaranteed to hit your device.
Instead, it’s down to individual phone makers to decide which, if any, of the latest features they want to integrate into their custom Android skins. After all, we didn’t see the massive Material 3 Expressive UI update in Android 16 on any other phones aside from Pixels, did we?
That said, Pixel owners will likely get the features at launch, likely alongside the Pixel 11 series in the summer, and it’s possible that Samsung will follow suit with the two brands pallying up on quite a few key Android 17 features. However, those of us rocking Oppo, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Honor or Motorola devices may not see the benefits anytime soon.
And that, I suppose, is a bit of a silver lining for Nothing; it’ll still be one of the only third-party phone makers offering similarly impressive AI widgets and voice-to-text features – for now, anyway.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
