Google I/O ’16 — Year of The Android
Three years ago in 2013 I cleared my calendar of business classes to sit at home glued to a full 3.5 hours of Google IO presentations led by then Android and Chrome head, Sundar Pichai. We saw presentations on Android, the launch of Android Studio, Play, Chrome, Chromebook Pixel, Google+, Google Now, and Maps.
Fast forward to 2016, I had the great opportunity to attend as an Android Developer and watch the keynote still led by Sundar, now CEO of Google. Sundar consolidated everything into 2 hours and focused on a much larger and exciting vision driven by what Google does best: gathering immense amounts of information and making it useful to you in any activity or wherever you are. This happens through hardware with phones, wearables, cars, and smart home gadgets. After this year’s keynote it is clear that Google’s big bet and medium that will drive these experiences forward is Android.
After 10 years of building Android, the user experience and framework has developed to a point where it can provide the bridge to Google’s sources of information that up to know have been separated into standalone products. For example, Google Search returns amazing results ranging from info cards, maps, videos, and more. Now with Allo messenging app, Searches can be queried and shared all at once in order to create a powerful messaging platform where experiences can be shared livelier and it is easier to organize doing things in the real world with others.
Throughout the 3 days Google showed Android developers how we can build amazing user experiences by providing access to powerful information, continuing to improve the core platform, releasing well designed tools, connecting the mobile web and apps, and inspiring us to test, break, build things, and create with empathy.
Access to Powerful Information
In order for developers to build apps with relevant functionality depending on your location, time of day, specific activity you’re in, and a host of other custom indicators, Google announced a brand new Awareness API that combines many of the existing Location APIs focused on context.
The awareness API will let the developer easily know what activity the user is engaging in. Knowing if the user is sleeping, walking, running, biking, or driving will let developers customize the experience or handle things automatically so that one won’t have to. For example, if Strava knew I was on my bike in the morning traveling to work it could automatically start tracking and upload my ride rather than me manually needed to start and stop the app. Awareness information along with managing all of the system resources is going to allow for seamless use across a range of devices and experiences without the user having to think about it.
Besides the Awareness presentation there were great talks on leveraging existing contextual APIs such as physical proximity, places and location, and Google fit.
Improving the Core Platform
Lollipop was the first Android operating system in 2014 designed just as, if not better than iOS in terms of ease of use and aesthetics. Two years later Google has continued to make an OS that feels great to use with continual incremental improvements after the initial jump to Lollipop.
Some of the standouts for me were the following:
- Compiling — Better compiler means faster install times, better battery life and performance.
- Auto-upgrades — Even the biggest beta testers are still annoyed to download and restart the phone every time there’s an OS update. Those days are dunzo.
- Multi-tasking — Clearing all apps is an OCD behavior that can be easily expedited with the new clear-all button in the all apps screen. This is my favorite update from all of I/O. Also being able to tap the recent square button twice to go to the most recently used screen will save time in aggregate.
- Multi-screen — Creating unique and creative experiences with split screen / multi-window support on the phone.
Well Designed Tools
Android Studio
I always love the What’s Latest In Android Studio sessions at Android events because it’s the quickest ROI for time spent watching vs what you can walk away with and use right away.
- Newly added hotkeys
- Automated testing and recording w/ Espresso
- New layout designer
- APK Analyzer
- Layout Inspector
- Java 8 Support
- Constraint Layout
- Firebase Integration
- Right-click to find Sample Code
Google Play
The Play team is continuing to provide relevant metrics on your apps performance. The big takeaways from this year’s presentation was access to competitive benchmarks and more detailed keyword analysis.
- Pre and post launch reports
- Betas in search results
- Early access to apps with options for private feedback
- Benchmarks on Play performance vs. peers
- Play Console App
Firebase
The reason Google became the advertising giant it is today is partly due to becoming the gold standard for site analytics with the free services of Google Analytics in 2005. By establishing what metrics are important and establishing trust within the community developers had the knowledge and tools to grow. For Google, up until now there has been nothing comparable for mobile. Yes, there has been Google Analytics for mobile, but it has lacked functionality and integration with other mobile services. Google underinvested in mobile from 2010–2014 while Facebook doubled downed and many 3rd Party analytics providers emerged.
The last two years Google has caught up working on products such as Firebase. From their presentation you can see they are now offering end to end services for developers to build great apps with their free services.
- Analytics
- Cloud Storage
- Cloud Messaging
- App Notifications
- Dynamic Linking
- Crash Reporting
- Advertising and Monetization integrations
- Android Studio integration
Associate Android Certification
Besides snazzy software releases to help developers build apps, there is a huge opportunity to develop beginner developers looking to become engineers. Google has devoted time and energy over the last year forming the Android Nanodegree with Udacity, and a bootcamp with General Assembly. This past year they announced continued efforts with a new certification program. So far, 2,500 people/day are signing up for the Udacity Nanodegree.
Connecting the Web and Apps
Ever since “Google+ introduced one of the first mainstream uses of deep linking outside of web-> app mapping” in 2012 it has been regarded as the future of connecting the web to mobile apps.
At I/O Android launched the next evolution of connection. Instant apps are directly launched without needing to download anything from the Play Store.
- Just run the code you need
- Merge between web and apps
- Are backwards compatible all the way to Jelly Bean
For developers this means users can frictionlessly complete an action without having to spend the time downloading an app and can experience the value of the app before committing to a download. This opens up an opportunity to build creative integrations launched from linking in order to get quick tasks done. For example, if you send a friend a link to purchase tickets for a concert the payment window would simply pop up and you could pay without leaving your current messaging app. Perhaps in the next few years Google Play will host 100% of our apps and there will be no need to download the majority of an app, besides caching your user info.
Emerging Ideas
Voice
1/5th of all searches are done via voice. Products like Google Home will further increase the need to integrate seamless solutions with natural voice commands in apps that developers want to become a part of people’s lifestyle and routines.
We’ll need to think about how to make apps useful for both pro-active actions as well as reactive status check-ins and updates.
The initial thought most of you are thinking is why is there both an OnHub router as well as a Google Home smart hub that connects to all your daily tasks? It would be surprising if the final product did not combine the two.
ATAP
With change at the helm, enter Dan Kaufman joining from DARPA last year, ATAP is still a “band of pirates trying to do epic shit”. My largest priority of must sees was ATAP, close to none. The Advanced Technology and Products team works on some of the most inspiring ideas at Google/Alphabet.
Dan’s Philosophy is People first > Passion > an Idea > Developer Journey — which is us helping to prototype and take these ideas to market. All 5 of the main hardware innovations presented require developers to completely rethink how Android apps are made and used.
- Project ARA — Modular phone with development kit by the end of the year, consumer launch next year.
- Project Tango — Launching a tablet that can map the indoor world by Lenovo later this year.
- Abacus — Developed a trust API that can recognize the intended user using only contextual signals. They are testing this June with large financial institutions and should be available to developers by the end of the year.
- Jacquard — Levi’s smart commuter bicycle jacket with a conductive threading to allow touch controls on the sleeve of the jacket while riding. We’ll see a beta by the end of the year, and launch in the Spring of next year.
- Soli — A micro radar system that can identify fine movements of the hand and fingers to use as controls for apps. In order to prove this is can be a real product they integrated the system into a smart watch consuming 22x less power and 25x processing optimization as well as a home speaker.
- Pearl — For the last 3 years Google has partnered with amazing film makers and animators to tell a story. ATAP doesn’t have to produce these stories each year, but does so because
- To show off emerging VR and interactive media.
- Create an experience to empathize with, and for developers to remember the point of building things is to connect and delight people.
Additional Resources
note: All photos shot on Nexus 5X and 6P.
disclaimer: The views in this article are my own and do not reflect those of current or previous employers.
