What was the best Google product release of 2024? [Poll]

We’re fast approaching the end of 2024, and while we could tell you what we think is the best Google product, software, or service release of the year, we’d rather get your opinions and let you have your say.

In the past 12 months, in typical fashion we’ve seen Google ditch a few things, but more importantly, lay the foundations for new form factors, which means a few new product and service releases. In the AI space alone, Google announced almost 100 new functions and features that take advantage of the Gemini backend at IO 2024. Lots of these new changes are developer-focused, but they’ll soon help improve many of our favorite services and software products.

That’s not discounting the huge variety of AI functions already available. Google even has a guide with 24 of its own tips for getting the most from the burgeoning suite of Gemini-powered functions on your favorite smartphone. Like it or not, we’re getting Gemini basically in everything and everywhere in our daily tech.

Video and audio generation looks to be a huge area of growth in the coming years. Veo and MusicFX are impressive but is this something that we need from Google? AI can be helpful, but it’s still prone to errors, and vast improvements from iteration to iteration already appear to be slowing down. Also it’s worth noting that while these products were unveiled by Google in 2024, they are technically still in the preview phase. More updates will completely change how they function.

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As such, we’ve seen Google’s burgeoning AI suite bleed into more hardware products over the year. The highly anticipated Google TV Streamer replaced Chromecast with Google TV and has launched with major AI enhancements. Sure, it’s not the most powerful Android TV box on the market, but it’s a robust system that will no doubt power many home entertainment systems for years to come. It’s good at the fundamentals, and is a big improvement over the previous streaming system.

The Nest Learning Thermostat was finally updated after almost 10 years of the original. It adopts more of the same design language we’ve seen from the Pixel series in recent years. Is it a killer addition to your home? You’ll need to decide that for yourself.

It’s hard to look past the 2024 Pixel series as one of the most improved Google product releases in recent years. The Pixel 8 didn’t have many major dealbreakers, but the latest generation has provided a truly stable base to build on as a big chip change comes with the Pixel 10 and beyond.

Android is set for the first new frontier in a long time with the late introduction of AndroidXR. This could be the silver bullet for AR-based applications and Gemini. We’ve tried the developer headset and prototype glasses. This is more than just a rebirth for Google Glass; it’s a whole new landscape for passive information ingesting.

There’s almost too much to list – especially after a deluge of announcements at IO 2024. We want to know what you think was the biggest and most important Google product launch of 2024. Use the survey and comment section below to let us know your thoughts.