5 Big Trends From Google I/O 2022

It's very easy to dismiss Google I/O as just an opportunity to evidence off new toys and to throw a big party. Given the advent of LCD Soundsystem at this year's closing concert, the impression is understandable. Just I/O 2022 was when Google's efforts in large data, search, and device ubiquity bore fruit as it transitions toward a new focus on AI and machine learning.

Everything Old Is Finally Here

Google I/O 2022 is etched in my mind for ii reasons. Commencement, it was mortiferous hot, dampening the fun of an outdoor briefing with sweat. Second, cypher announced was actually released.

In retrospect, 2022 was a edifice year for Google. Products announced last year, including Google Assistant and Google Home, accept now been in the wild—some, similar Android Wear 2, for just a few months. This twelvemonth, nosotros heard about improvements and Google opened them to developers.

Developers can now work on Android, Chrome, the Google Assistant, and Google Home through the Actions API. Instant Apps are also now available, taking away the primary friction point of downloading and using apps. The omnipresence of the Google Assistant also means Actions adult for it will filter into many new platforms, including the iPhone.

In fact, the iPhone was mentioned with such frequency, it began to experience less like a competitor and more than like another platform ripe for development. The fact that the Google Assistant will be moving into Siri territory made this abundantly articulate.

This is especially notable because Android has ever been the centerpiece of the Google developer experience. Truthful, not every attendee is an app developer, only Android has always loomed large. This yr, the presence of Android wasn't necessarily macerated, but it was just 1 of many platforms under the Google umbrella.

Taking the Reins

As a programmer briefing, I/O is an opportunity to not only encourage developers to adopt new tools and new platforms, but to offering some useful feedback besides. That'due south not unusual, simply there was some tension in the discussions this twelvemonth.

At the developer keynote, Android luminaries explained how new restrictions on data, processing ability, and bombardment power for apps are non meant to be punitive but to make Android better for everyone, including users. That'south a sensible viewpoint — it might even be correct — but it felt decidedly more prescriptive than past Google sessions.

That's but a few of the new ways Google is reclaiming Android. Project Treble, described in the Android security panel, divides Android into 3 segments. Google will maintain control of the core OS segment, hopefully allowing for bigger, broader updates with less meddling from device manufacturers and carriers.

In that location are also new rules about user identifiers. Developers and advertisers apply these to runway users on and off their devices and serve upward targeted ads. Restricting them is a privacy win for consumers, and probably a data win for Google, which controls most of the means of identifying users.

The Turning Point in Android O

Some other innovation in Android O comes in the notification eye. Google designers and developers have paid item attention to notifications and icons over the last few iterations of the Os. They rightly empathize this is a major area of interest for consumers, and a chief surface area of interaction.

"Channels" is the internal term Google applies to new categories of notifications. In O, developers will group their notifications together into different types, letting users modify how those notifications announced, or if they appear at all. Google'southward leadership says this is a characteristic requested by users and developers, and the benefits for both are clear. Users get more control over how their phone works — a central Android concept. Developers have more means to communicate with users, and users will be less likely to simply uninstall apps that generate unwanted notifications. Instead, those notifications tin can simply be silenced.

Android O

That all comes with a catch: In one case developers target Android version 26 (or Android O, to its friends), they must use notification channels. If they don't, their app's notifications volition be dropped and simply not appear. This, of class, will have limited impact in the Android user community, given the depression adoption rates for new Android OSes. But O volition exist a turning point for the platform and all developers.

Also during the session on notifications, the Googlers on stage took the unusual footstep of asking developers not to abuse the ability to change colors on notifications — a new feature in Android O. This warning was included in the developer documentation (and I noted it in my review of the pre-release of O), simply it was strange to hear it on stage. Information technology was too strange to hear Googlers say they were "giving a lot of trust" to developers, and promising to take away these privileges if they felt colorful notifications were being driveling. It was odd, partly because of the paternalistic tone, simply also because the vast majority of Android developers were non in the room or at I/O.

VR and AR, Unleashed

In that location are only two major tech companies with fully functional AR experiences: Microsoft through HoloLens and Google with Project Tango. Tango has been my perennial favorite at Google I/O in part because it is so radically different from other Google efforts, and as well considering it has felt ready for primetime since 2022 at least.

Tango had a large coming out this past year with the proclamation of the first commercial telephone to support information technology, the Lenovo Phab ii Pro.

This yr, we got discussion of an entirely new device with a thinner body and brighter screen. Lowe'due south has likewise agreed to permit Google map 400 of its stores to provide in-store navigation via Tango devices that tin can take you direct to items on your shopping listing.

From my conversations with the Project Tango team, the principal focus correct now is improving the overall experience and supporting the rollout of consumer applications for what was in one case a lab experiment. But we did get some hints. A session specifically on Tango showed off future efforts to identify discrete objects within the room, software that can map a room and then clear all the furniture from it, and an app to automatically generate 2d floorplans. I of the most exciting applications was an autonomous aerial drone using Tango technology to navigate obstacles at top speed.

HTC Vive Standalone teaser

The biggest VR announcement of Google I/O was, without a doubt, standalone VR devices. Google was brusk on details, simply it's a marked difference from previous VR efforts. Google dipped its toe into the world of VR with the Cardboard, a $20 frame for a smartphone that provided a surprisingly immersive and low-cost VR experience. The company doubled downward with Daydream, which used only loftier-terminate phones and a specialized headset, but still cost dramatically less than whatever other VR experience.

A standalone VR device finer removes the hurdle of Google itself. It's a huge boon to Google and for the developers who want to attempt this new platform. With a standalone device, Google can offering VR to anyone willing to purchase such a device. You won't need a specialized Android telephone; it will all exist one package.

Daydream is very impressive in its ain right, and I'm excited for a standalone device that volition allow iPhone users and others to enjoy Daydream apps. Hopefully it volition cost far, far less than the Vive and the Oculus Rift. But I worry about moving too far from the apprehensive Cardboard. Part of what impressed me nigh it was its DIY efficiency and remarkably low bulwark for entry. As the price of Google'south VR feel goes up, the number of people who can enjoy it will go down.

Going Forward

In 2022, it wasn't clear what the AI revolution really meant for Google. While machine learning was certainly at the forefront, there wasn't any tangible prove of how this would work for Google. It could all have easily been dismissed as a fad, or merely a prissy style to encapsulate a sector of Google'due south progress that had flown under the radar.

This twelvemonth, we finally saw what being "AI first" really ways. Information technology means Google in more places, it means developers being able to interact in new ways (and on new devices). And most chiefly, information technology shows Google with far more focus than ever before. It seems very likely to me that this year specifically will marker a major turning point not just for Google, but for the entire industry.