Google I/O 2017

What is Google I/O ?

Every year Google holds one of the most awaited events for developers and Google Users – Google I/O. This year, the I/O event has come up with many new features and more user friendly making life much easier for its developers and Users.

I am a big fan of Android and have been developing applications using Android studio for more than one and half years. So I took lots of interest in various updates provided at Google I/O 2017.

Here, I am going to describe few highlights of this event

1. Google Assistant
   

The new feature in Google Assistant is that you can type what kind of assistance you are looking for. For e.g. You want to order something, or you want to buy something, you can directly ask Google Assistant and it will help you out. Google Assistant is now available for iPhone users too. 

2. Android O – new Android OS

 

Android has announced the new OS version Android O. This version of OS is more smart and intelligent. Few cool features of Android O are Picture in Picture, Notification Channels, Auto-fill in apps, Smart Text Selection and many more features. 

3.Android Go

Google has launched a new project named Android Go. The major focus of this project is on providing optimized and affordable devices to users. The Go configuration will be available on all 1GB (or less) RAM devices with Android O. Custom data saver and simplified web pages are the main features of Android Go. By the word of Sameer Samat, VP of Android and Play, it can save up to 750TB of data everyday.

4.Google Photos

Google Photos of Android is getting smarter. Suppose you take some photos with your friends but forget to share the photos with them. Don’t worry, now Google is rolling out suggested sharing with Google Photos.

It will identify the person in the photo and prompt you to share the photo with that person. Sounds cool, right? 

5. Google Home and News Updates

Google Home speakers will be launched

in Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan this year. There are more than 50 new features coming up with Google Home. Hands-free calling from Google Home will be available completely free now. For now, it is available for US and Canada only. The calling feature will be based on voice recognition. 

6.Daydream VR

The Daydream support will be available this summer as a software update for Samsung S8 and S8 plus devices. It is entirely different kind of VR device called as standalone VR. These VR devices are built in a way that it has everything which is required for VR. So these VR devices will not require any cable, any headset or any PC.

7.Kotlin

From the beginning when Android was launched, no other programming language was added other than Java. Now, Google has announced Kotlin, a Null Safety programming language, to be an officially supported language for Android. Kotlin support is available from Android Studio 3.0. There is no extra plugin required for it.

8.Google Lens

One of the biggest announcements in this year’s Google I/O event was Google Lens. It uses a machine learning technology to identify the objects around the world. You just need to put your Camera in front of any object and Google Lens will identify the object and describe it for you.

9.Google AI and Machine Learning

AI is one of the great initiatives from Google I/O. AI and Machine learning is not new, but Google I/O has pushed the pedal on it and launched Google.ai for artificial intelligence and machine learning.