Google I/O 2016 Complete Wrap-Up

Google I/O 2016 is over, but that doesn’t mean the excitement has to stop as we’ll be hearing more about everything from the annual developer conference many more times over the next few months or more. There were tons of things announced over the last few days and many of them big enough to reach a wide audience and capture the attention of mainstream consumers and users. In regards to mainstream, I am, of course, referring mostly to things like Google Home, Google Assistant, and the newly announced apps ‘Allo’ and ‘Duo’ which you can now pre-register for on Google Play. There are other more specialty products too, like the Levi’s Commuter x Jacquard jacket that was announced just this morning from Google’s ATAP division as the project turned product, which is due to launch and make it to the hands of consumers in the Spring of next year. ATAP also showed where they are with Project Soli, and we got to see a working developer model of the most recent revision of the Project Ara smartphone which is due to launch to the public next year as well.

On day one of the conference, Google launched the third version of the Android N developer preview, of which there is to be five, and then following the fifth developer preview Google is planning to launch the final and public version of Android N, at which point we should know the name. Speaking of names, Google officially revealed that they will be letting the public vote (kind of) on the upcoming name for Android N, and have put up a webpage where users can cast their submissions. Google will in the end, have the opportunity to choose the name, but it stands to reason that they will probably pick the most popular submission, so long as it isn’t offensive, and probably so long as it’s a dessert.

Also introduced this week was Android Wear 2.0 which sets out to offer a good chunk of new functionality, and we can’t forget about Daydream, Google’s official name for the VR platform that was announced on Wednesday. There are already a number of manufacturers lined up with products in the works which will be Daydream-ready, and Google themselves have confirmed that they will be building their very own Daydream VR headset complete with controller, that the majority of the public seems to agree looks like a Wiimote. Google showed off more with Android Auto this week, and they announced the Google Play Early Access program which aims to help developers with beta version apps become discovered easier. If you happened to miss any of the news from Google I/O this week, you can find the links to all the coverage from the conference, and you can even now watch the entire keynote speech if you didn’t have the chance to catch the live stream.

Google I/O & Keynote Speech

Google Assistant

Google Home