🤖Google Ships Gemini 3.5 Flash, Bets on Agents at I/O
TL;DR
At I/O 2026, Google made Gemini 3.5 Flash its default model in the app and Search, claiming it beats 3.1 Pro on coding and agents and runs 4x faster. Gemini 3.5 Pro slipped to next month, while Omni and Spark also debuted.
At I/O 2026, Google made Gemini 3.5 Flash its default model in the app and Search, claiming it beats 3.1 Pro on coding and agents and runs 4x faster. Gemini 3.5 Pro slipped to next month, while Omni and Spark also debuted.

Key Points
Gemini 3.5 Flash is now the default in the Gemini app and AI Mode in Search globally
Google says it tops Gemini 3.1 Pro on coding, agentic, and multimodal benchmarks
Output runs up to 4x faster than rival frontier models, and it powers Antigravity 2.0 and the API
Gemini 3.5 Pro was pushed to next month; Google also previewed Gemini Omni and Spark
Why It Matters
Leading with a cheap, fast Flash model signals Google thinks the next AI wave is agents doing work, not chatbots answering questions.
Quick Facts
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does this matter?
Leading with a cheap, fast Flash model signals Google thinks the next AI wave is agents doing work, not chatbots answering questions.
What happened?
At I/O 2026, Google made Gemini 3.5 Flash its default model in the app and Search, claiming it beats 3.1 Pro on coding and agents and runs 4x faster. Gemini 3.5 Pro slipped to next month, while Omni and Spark also debuted.
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