Google wants you to use its phones less and its AI more – but who’s buying it?

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ZDNET’s key takeaways 

• Google claims to want to change your relationship to technology. 
• A dominant theme at its Made by Google event was how to use its phones less to “be more present”. 
• It’s using this idea to sell agentic AI, I argue. 

Google wants you to use your phone less. Yes, that new Pixel 11 Pro that Trevor Noah, Peggy Gou, Stephen Gerrard, and Pinkpantheress promoted at its Made by Google event — it wants you to put down to be more present. 

Google’s VP Rick Osterloh got on stage to talk to Trevor Noah about how his phone is just too dang distracting, and how he’d love to put it away. Hmm, I wonder if there are a few companies we can blame for that. Are they in the room with us? 

Also: Every Pixel device announced at Made by Google 2026: 11 Pro Fold, Pixel Watch 5, and more

“Your phones can do so much, but getting all that done today requires you to do all the work, all the tapping, and scrolling,” Osterloh said to Noah to kick off the show. 

It’s a fair point. Everything we do starts with our phones, and sometimes responding to one message feels like cutting off one of the Hydra’s heads: several more distractions just pop up in its place. Osterloh complained that after checking a notification, he often falls down a rabbit hole of dog videos. 

Google has a proposed solution for us: it’s combatting these distractions with HiLight, a new feature on the camera bar of its Pixel 11 Pro models that glows when an important contact is calling. Google says it’s one way users can stay informed about who is reaching them without having to constantly check the home screen. 

Right now, it’s limited to calls only, but Google says HiLight will support text message notifications soon. The feature is “one of the many ways our latest hardware will help you be more present,” Google says in its press release. 

Also: The Pixel’s new ‘HiLight’ reminds me of the golden days of Android phones

But does anyone really believe that Google wants us to have a healthy relationship with technology? It isn’t selling tech minimalism; it’s selling agentic AI posing as minimalism. Instead of having you respond to a text that asks about restaurant reservation details, Google wants Gemini to find those details in your inbox and send them for you. Instead of coordinating an event yourself, it wants Gemini to create the invite and handle the details. 

You might be doing less, but Google, through the integration of apps and AI, knows a whole lot more about you in the process. 

Don’t get me wrong — these updates sound helpful if they work as promised. But those three minutes I spend organizing a GCal event, ordering an Uber, or responding to an important text aren’t the reason my screen time is so high. Rather, it’s the social media platforms like Instagram and Google’s own YouTube that suck the most time from my day. 

It’s not the time spent on “menial tasks” that occupies all my time, but they are the most appropriate for agentic AI to handle, hence Google’s emphasis on them. And at Made by Google, the company leveraged our poor relationship to technology to sell us more of it. 

Also: I bricked my iPhone to prevent doomscrolling – how life has been after six months of use

Google’s future is built on agentic AI, and its next generation of its smart wearables, like the intelligent eyewear it launches later this year, will be driven primarily by voice commands. To get users comfortable with speaking to their devices instead of a touch interface, Google wants to prime users for this change by bringing it to smartphones and watches first. 

“Real leaps forward — like what we’re seeing right now — doesn’t happen that often,” Osterloh said at the event. But it is happening now. Agentic updates like the ones Google unveiled last week give users a new command over their technology. 

Also: Google’s new AI Search box is here – along with agents and 5 more upgrades

Will these agentic updates actually reduce our screen time? I’m skeptical. Will they prime us for an era of technology where smart wearables are at the center of our device ecosystem, taking photos and sending them through smart glasses or ordering Uber Eats through miced smart rings? That future makes a little more sense to me. 

I’ll continue to use these devices at the same rate that I already am, but instead of endlessly staring at them, Google is prepping us for a future that replaces visual screens with talking — and more information about you in the process.