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Was anything good released at Google I/O 2026?

Today is day one of Google I/O 2026, and I walk through every major announcement live—from the new Gemini 3.5 model family to Anti-Gravity 2.0, Google AI Studio, Gemini's consumer redesign, the Omni video model, Flow, Stitch, and Pomelli. I test them in real time and tell you exactly which ones delivered. *What you’ll learn:* 1. How Gemini 3.5 Flash benchmarks against Claude and GPT models on speed and agentic coding tasks 2. How Anti-Gravity 2.0's new features (projects, scheduled tasks, subagents, slash commands) compare to Codex and Claude Code 3. Why the /grill-me slash command could be a more aggressive alternative to Claude Code's clarification flow—and how to use it 4. How Google AI Studio's new Workspace integration is designed to own the internal productivity app use case 5. How Google's new creative tools work in practice: Omni (video generation), Flow (cinematic video editing and character consistency), Stitch (streaming UI design with inline edits), and Pomelli (brand identity and asset generation) 6. Why Google's launch-to-availability gap is still a problem—and what to do when a featured product doesn't actually work yet *Brought to you by:* Magic Patterns—Prototypes that look like your product: https://magicpatterns.com/howiai Thoughtspot—Build AI-powered analytics into your product: https://go.thoughtspot.com/howIAI *In this episode, we cover:* (00:00) Google I/O 2026 day 1 overview (01:47) Gemini 3.5 flash (04:19) Antigravity updates (06:32) CLI test and agent features (07:59) Core agent features released today—May 19th, 2026 (09:43) New slash commands (11:20) Antigravity test results and takeaways (12:25) AI Studio updates (13:52) Access issues (15:20) Gemini redesign (17:24) Gemini image gen test (19:16) Omni (video generation) (22:56) Flow (cinematic editing) (24:31) Avatar creation test (26:45) Pomelli and Stitch (31:13) Recap and final thoughts *Blog:* How I AI: My Live Test of Google I/O’s New AI Tools—From Gemini 3.5 Flash to Omni Video: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/google-io-new-ai-tools-gemini-35-flash-to-omni-video *Tools referenced:* • Gemini 3.5 Flash: https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini/ • Antigravity: https://antigravity.google/ • Google AI Studio: https://aistudio.google.com/ • Google Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/ • Omni (video generation): https://gemini.google/overview/video-generation/ • Google Flow: https://flow.google/ • Stitch: https://stitch.withgoogle.com/ • Pomelli (Google brand tool): https://labs.google.com/pomelli/about/ *Other references:* • Google I/O 2026 announcements: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/sundar-pichai-io-2026/ *Where to find Claire Vo:* ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/ Website: https://clairevo.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ X: https://x.com/clairevo _Production and marketing by https://penname.co/._ _For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co._

Claire Vohost
May 20, 202633mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Google I/O 2026: fast Gemini models, many tools, rough edges

  1. Gemini 3.5 Flash is positioned as a high-speed, strong coding and multimodal model, with Google emphasizing agentic benchmarks and workflows across its product suite.
  2. Antigravity (IDE + new CLI) adds agent features like projects, scheduled tasks, subagents, hooks, and slash commands, but largely feels like catch-up to Codex/Claude Code despite competent results in a quick API-building test.
  3. Google AI Studio announces low/no-code app building with direct Google Workspace integrations and Android app creation, yet access appears gated or unclear in practice during the on-video test.
  4. Gemini’s consumer experience gets a UI redesign plus upgraded creative tooling: NanoBanana image generation performs fast but produces uncanny face results, while Omni video generation shows promising longer (≈10s) outputs and conversational editing concepts.
  5. Flow, Stitch, and Pomeli demonstrate Google’s push into production-grade video editing and brand/design generation, but real-world friction (broken avatar creation, confusing product naming, partial rollouts) undermines day-one impact.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Google’s core bet is “agents at Flash speed” across the stack.

The episode repeatedly ties model releases (Gemini 3.5 Flash) to agentic tooling (Antigravity, Gemini/Omni, Flow), suggesting Google is optimizing for fast, tool-using workflows rather than only raw model quality.

Antigravity’s new features are useful, but differentiation is still unclear.

Projects, scheduled tasks, CLI parity, subagents, hooks, and worktrees mirror what users already recognize from Codex/Claude Code; the value proposition may hinge on speed, multimodal strengths, and Google ecosystem fit rather than novelty.

Slash commands are an underrated productivity lever in agentic IDEs.

Commands like /goal and the more aggressive /grill-me aim to standardize common workflows (long-running objectives, requirement clarification), potentially reducing prompt-wrangling and improving task framing.

Multimodal handling remains a practical Gemini advantage (files/video in real workflows).

Claire highlights Gemini’s strength with “files and videos” and demonstrates a concrete internal use case (video-to-blog generator) that benefits from multimodal input and automation via an API endpoint.

Workspace-integrated app building could be Google’s biggest “moat”—if access works.

Native Sheets/Drive/Gmail/Calendar integration in AI Studio could displace third-party connector-based setups, but the on-video attempt fails due to missing/unclear connector access, making rollout the limiting factor.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

So again, the TLDR, coding's faster, the model's faster. It's caught up to Codex, and it has a couple interesting slash commands.

— Claire Vo

I just can't figure out how to access it, and I am pretty smart.

— Claire Vo

This is not my face. This is horrifying in every way possible,

— Claire Vo

So again, here's where we're really on the struggle bus with Google, which is they've announced a lot of stuff, and it hasn't really worked.

— Claire Vo

I subjected my human face to their DeepMind engineers, and it didn't even create the avatar.

— Claire Vo

Gemini 3.5 Flash speed vs intelligence positioningAgentic coding in Antigravity (IDE, CLI)Projects, scheduled tasks, subagents, hooksSlash commands (/goal, /grill-me, /schedule, /browser)Google AI Studio + Workspace connectors (access gating)Gemini redesign + NanoBanana image generation qualityOmni video generation + Flow cinematic editing, avatarsStitch streaming design canvas + code syncPomeli brand books/websites + Design.md conceptProduct sprawl, naming confusion, and rollout reliability

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