The Top 5 Announcements From Google’s I/O 2017 Event
Last week, Google concluded its I/O 2017 event, keynote. Executives laid out the company’s future roadmap for Android, Google Assistant, Google Home, virtual reality, and much more. Major hardware announcements no longer rule Google’s biggest annual conference. This time, the company has settled into a design of releasing information about what it’s doing for developers at I/O event. Instead of trying to surprise consumers or the press. Today, we have listed the top 5 announcements from Google’s recent I/O 2017 event.
Google Assistant:
Google is making huge updates to Google Assistant. It is starting by adding the ability to type to the Assistant on your phone. This might seem like a step backward. But this feature is obviously going to come in handy when you are in public. Google Assistant will also tie into Google Lens. Using that, you will be able to make conversational requests to the Assistant.
Google Assistant can now analyze the world around you with the help of your smartphone camera. Using this technology, the Assistant will analyze your surroundings and display relevant content on your screen. You will be able to see a restaurant’s rating just by pointing your phone at the storefront. You can aim it at a flower to identify the species. Also, you can find a band’s music by simply pointing Lens at a concert poster. Image recognition or face filters are not the only things, Google is offering much more with Lens.
Google Home:
Google is turning its smart speaker into a phone, just like Amazon. In a few months time, you will be able to place free calls to the United States and Canada using Google Home. Google uses a private number for this feature. Home will also be able to control HBO Now, Hulu, SoundCloud, Deezer etc. Google is opening up access to Home’s Bluetooth radio. So you can treat it just like any other Bluetooth speaker.
Home will be more capable of directing the right information to the right connected screen, with the help of Google Assistant. By saying: “OK Google, show my calendar for today”, Home can instantly display your day’s events on a Chromecast-connected TV. Spotify’s free service will be supported on the Google Home for the first time. Soundcloud and Deezer support is coming as well. All models will soon be updated with support for Bluetooth audio streaming from any device.
Google Photos:
Google Photos will also be getting a few interesting additions. The app will now recognize people as being in the shot and recommend you to share photos with them. Google calls this Suggested Sharing. It’s also introducing Shared Libraries. This allows families to collectively add images to a central collection more easily. But Google is emphasizing control on sharing your entire photo library. You can share photos from a particular date, or share photos that include certain things. Google now offers printed photo books. Books can be created directly on your smartphone. Google will even recommend books to you when it thinks a particular collection is suitable for you. Books are available for prices starting at only $9.99. Google said that Photos will be able to automatically remove unwanted items in your shots in the future.
Android O:
Google announced that the Android O Beta Program will be available for Pixel and Nexus owners. They gave some information about what you should be expecting from its next major Android update. Google is also making it easier to copy-and-paste text in Android. You can also simple tap on an address. Then Google will automatically select the entire address instead of copying a part of it. Also, it will suggest pasting it into Google Maps. Other core Android O updates will improve security and battery life. There is also add a picture-in-picture mode. This will let users minimize a video so that it only occupies a portion of the screen.
Android Go:
The company announced one way it’s going to try to reach the goal of reaching “next billion” users online. Android Go, a version of the mobile operating system built for entry-level devices. This is optimized for being used in data-restricted environments. Android Go, which is built on Android O, comes with a “rebuilt” set of Google apps. It requires less memory, storage, and data to run. Android Go also has its own version of the Google Play Store. It features apps that are best suited for the developing world. Android Go will be able to run on even cheap smartphones with 512MB of RAM or less. Google also built in a way for carriers to show users exactly how much data they are using. Android Go is still an internal project. But Google sounded confident about it.
Conclusion.
At the recent Google I/O event last week, there have been many updates. But the above mentioned are the top 5 favorite updates that people are really looking forward to.
Nisarg is the Business Development Manager at Nimblechapps, a top mobile game development company and has been with the organisation since its inception in 2014. He likes to update his knowledge on changing trends in technology and marketing and pens his thoughts regarding the same on various blogs and LinkedIn.