Google removes mysterious COSMO app from Play Store

A new Google app quietly appeared on the Play Store, then vanished just as quickly. The app, called COSMO, was live for a short time before being pulled, leaving many to wonder if it was an accidental early release or something we were never meant to see.

At over 1GB in size, COSMO was described as an experimental AI assistant for Android devices. It packed a Gemini Nano model and offered a surprisingly practical set of tools. Users could find features like a List Tracker, Document Writer, Event Suggester, a Deep Research mode, and a Conversation Summary tool. These are exactly the kinds of everyday tasks people turn to AI for, making the app seem both useful and straightforward.

The app’s settings also offered flexibility. Users could choose to run the AI model locally on the device, connect to an online model, or use both. This is a notable feature because most AI services today rely heavily on cloud processing. Running models natively on a phone drains battery and requires significant hardware power, so offering a local option suggests Google is exploring more efficient, on-device solutions.

So why was it removed? The most likely explanation is that COSMO was published ahead of schedule. This theory gains weight with Google I/O just weeks away. The annual developer conference is the perfect stage for unveiling new AI tools, and COSMO could be a headline feature.

Of course, this is Google. There is always the possibility that COSMO was an internal prototype that slipped out by mistake. It could also be a project that gets shelved entirely, never to see the light of day. For now, we can only speculate. Either way, the brief appearance of COSMO offers a tantalizing glimpse at what Google might be cooking up for the future of on-device AI.