Google I/O 2021 Keynote (Image Source: Google)Google I/O, the company’s annual developer is back this year, after taking a hiatus in 2020. Given the ongoing pandemic I/O is taking place digitally as well. Google will be streaming all other sessions as well. The three day conference will take from May 18 to May 20.
The event is also being streamed on the company’s YouTube channel. So far, Google has focused on new features focused around its key products which are Search, Maps, Photos, Google Lens, etc. We’re also getting a look at the new design for Android 12. It’s called ‘Material You’ and brings a major design change from redesigned widgets to apps. It will be coming to Pixel phones first, and later on to other Google products. Google also revealed that there are now 3 billion Android devices in the world.
The beta for Android 12 will be available from today for Pixel, OnePlus and Xiaomi devices, according to Google. Wear OS will be teaming up with Samsung’s Tizen it seems to create a new platform: Wear. The next Galaxy Watch will be powered by this upcoming platform, which will have a lot of new features and the ability to run Google apps.
Sundar Pichai is back. He's talking about Project Starline, which is a holographic video conferencing system. "You can talk naturally, gesture, and make eye contact," Pichai says. The company has tested this in its offices so far, but remember this is still a work in progress.
WearOS will combine some of Fitbit's fitness features as well. The features will come later this fall.
Next Galaxy Watch will run the Google Play Store, support other Google features such as Maps.
Google is talking about Wear OS, which it has helped build with Samsung. The new partnership will see Google combined Wear OS and Tizen focusing on longer battery life, faster performance, and focus on developers.
It looks like users will be able to unlock their Chromebook with their Android phone. They will also get notifications from their phone on the ChromeBook. Google is also building a dedicated TV app which will work with Android TVs. Further, Android Auto wireless will be supported by nearly 100 million cars.
Android 12 gets a new Privacy dashboard as was leaked. It will show what data was access and when. A user can revoke permission directly from the dashboard. Two new options in quick settings can disable camera and microphone access for all apps in just one tap.
Android 12 is getting a complete revamp. The system will create a custom palette based on the colours being used in the wallpaper photo. A one of a kind design, just for you. It will come to Google Pixel phones first, later this fall. Everything gets a total revamp, be it the clock the notifications shade or the quick settings, which now includes Google Pay. Users can now invoke the Google Assistant by long pressing the power button.
We're geting a look at the redesigned Android 12 right now during the livestream. 'Material You' will be coming to Google Pixel first this fall. Google will be bringing 'Material You' to all other products as well later this year. Android 12 will get redesigned widgets. Google is calling this their most personal OS ever.
It looks like there are more than 4 trillion photos and videos stored on Google Photos. In fact, Google says most of the photos on the service are never viewed. Well soon, we will all have to pay for storing our photos.
Google will now use AI to resurface some of these memories. 'Little Patterns' is a new way to look back at some old photos. Google will rely on Machine Learning to show you these photos. It will look for patterns in photos to match pictures with similar shapes and colours and then show these to the user as a memory. Thankfully Google will also let users remove a photo from memories as well in case it is triggering.
Google is adding a Private Compute Core to Android, which keeps user information safe and private for some AI-driven features like Live Caption (which displays captions based on audio), Now Playing (which tells users the song that’s playing) and Smart Reply (which suggests short responses to messages and emails). For these features, the audio and language processing happens exclusively on the user's device, according to Google. This is also fully open source.
Google Maps will show the Live View instantly from the app. Google is adding more prominent virtual signs, and it is also bringing Live View inside as well. Live View is not yet available in India. Google is also adding more details to Street Maps. It plans to do so to 50 new cities by the end of the year.
Google is adding more context to search results. 'About this Result' will showcase details about a site when you find it appearing in your search results. The idea is to ensure users get accurate information from quality and trusted sources.
Google Search is adding some new features to the AR bit. Remember those 3D animals you could view on Google Search? Well, Google is taking it one step further. You will now be able to view athletes in augmented reality mode on Search. Gymnast Simon Biles is one of the those who will be visible in this AR mode.
Google Lens is getting support for more languages. A student can take a picture of a science problem and get the answer in their preferred language.
MUM is Google's new Multitask Unified Model for search, which is a lot more powerful than the earlier BERT. It can acquire 'deep knowledge', understand language, video and images when you place a search query. It can also translate across multiple languages to give a richer answer. For example, a user can just show an image of their hiking boots and ask whether it can be used to hike across a certain mountain. MUM would know the answer based on the image and your query.
Google will now make it easier to delete recent search history. Google will also reminds users that they have location history turned on. Further, there will be a new locked folder in Photos, and photos inside these won't show up on any other device.
Jen Fitzpatrick, Senior VP for Core Systems & Experiences at Google, is on stage, talking about privacy and Google. She's talking about how Google wants to free all users from password pain. The password manager is getting some new features. One it will support imports from other password managers, two there will be deeper integration between Chrome and Android so password sharing is easier, further, Google will have automatic password alerts for compromised ones. Finally, for compromised passwords in Chrome, users will have an easier way to fix this problem.
Pichai is about the company's TPU v4 which power its TensorFlow. The TPU v4 are deployed in Pods, each Pod has around 4096 of these TPU v4. These will be made available to Google's Cloud customers later this year. These pods can achieve Exoflops (1018 floating point operations per second )
He's also talking about Quantum Computing and how Google wants to build an error-protected quantum computer. Google also has a new data centre focused on Quantum Computing called Quantum AI Campus.
Pichai admits LaMDA is not yet perfect. He says they want to ensure that it meets Google's standards on fairness, privacy and accuracy. It is not clear whether LaMDA will be incorporated into existing Google products such as The Assistant. Also LaMDA is limited because it is trained only on text, not images, videos, etc. It is not yet a multimodal model.
Pichai is back on stage. He's talking about Google Translate. He says usage for Google's interpreter mode has seen usage grow by 4X. He's also talking about Image Recognition and how Google Lens is used more than 3 billion times per month. 'We can be as helpful with text as with images," Pichai said.
Pichai is explaining how the company's translation tools have evolved over time, with the help of machine learning, and improvements around natural language processing. 'LaMDA' is the company's new model in natural language processing and while it is still in research, Google is pitching this as a more advanced version. The new model is much more natural and can generate an open-ended conversation.
Google is showing what it would be like if someone were to talk to Pluto or a paper airplane, though in this case, the voice and conversation for both of these is powered by LaMDA.
Smart canvas appears to be a collaboration tool with AI-driven features. It looks like Google will also allow users to bring Google Meet directly into their Docs, Sheets and Slides. Google is also adding a Companion Mode in Google Meet, which gives each user their own video tile, so everyone is in the frame during those video calls with all teammates visible. No hiding in Google Meet.
Google Meet will also use Machine Learning to cut outside noise and keep the lighting perfect to make us look more presentable on those video calls. Smart Canvas will add a lot of features to Google Meet. The company says it will make these features available to all users, not just paid enterprise users.
Pichai mentions how they are adding two new features to Google Maps. The service will soon show most eco-friendly routes soon. Another feature is 'Safer Routing', the feature will try and show the safest route during your journey. Pichai is also talking about the impact of Chromebooks and how they have become a best-seller in education during the pandemic.
"Work has been transformed in unprecedented ways," Pichai says. He's talking about a new feature for work called Smart Canvas.
The Google keynote has begun and Sundar Pichai is on stage. He's talking about the impact of the COVID-19 and mentions how the pandemic is currently raging in India, creating a 'very difficult time.' Pichai is highlighting Google's COVID-19 relief work as well and how the company is helping more than 170 organisations across the world. Also, mentions how Google is helping users find accurate vaccination information.
The Google I/O livestream has started and right now it is pre-show content which is being displayed. The keynote will open at 10.30 PM IST, so you will have to wait another 20 minutes or so. Of course, we're expecting Sundar Pichai to open the I/O address.
Android 12 will focus a lot more on privacy it would appear. The latest leaks from XDA Developers showcase a dedicated privacy dashboard in Android 12. The dashboard easily lets users restrict an apps ability to access the phone's camera, according to the report.
Further, another report in The Information says that Android 12 will have privacy controls which will make it easier for "users to reach a settings screen where they can restrict apps' abilities to access the phone’s camera, location and other permissions."
The Google Pixel 5a 5G variant is supposed to be an upgrade to last year's Pixel 4a. Now some leaks claimed the phone was cancelled, but then Google had to put out a post saying, no, the Pixel 5a was still on. The company said the 5G variant would making its way to Japan and the US later in the year, and it will be in line with when last year's a-series was announced.
Given Pixel 4a made an appearance only in August, so if Google follows that timeline here's a good chance this phone won't be part of the announcements during today's keynote. But hope continues, and we will have to wait and see if the phone is showcased or not.
The event is being streamed on YouTube as well, which means you can watch it anywhere on any device, be it your smartphone or even your smart TV. The link for the livestream is below
Google accidentally revealed the Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds ahead of its official launch at the Google I/O 2021 event in a tweet. The tweet, which has since been deleted, was posted by the official Android account, revealed that the Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds will come with Fast Pair support, which will be available on Android 6.0 and above devices.
Further, the image in the tweet also reveals the design of the Pixel Buds A-Series, which will feature a stem and will come in a pebble-shaped case. They in fact look very similar to the 2020 Pixel Buds. At least one colour variant, white, has been confirmed via the premature tweet.
Trusted Android tipster Jon Prosser has revealed details about Android 12 on his YouTube page Front Page Tech. The detailed video gives a first look at changes we can expect and it looks like there will be major design overhaul for Android this time.
Android 12 will get revamped toggles, buttons, widgets and new animations, according to Prosser's video. The video also mentions that Android 12 will bring ” brand new stacked notifications.” It suggests that users might be able to group app notifications as per their preference. To know what else to expect, read more here.
The Google I/O keynote is the most awaited event given it has all the major announcements on the software and hardware front. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other members of the executive leadership team are on stage making all the key announcements. It will be interesting to see what message Pichai and co have this time, given they are appearing for I/O after a gap of year.
The event will be live at 10 am PST or 10.30 PM Indian Standard Time (IST). It will be streamed live on the Google I/O official website and Google's official YouTube page as well.