Top Announcements #GoogleIO2016

5 min readJun 22, 2016

Last couple of days(I had written this article long back, however got very delayed in posting it) has marked the biggest event for an Android developer. It was the start of Google IO!

What is Google io?

Google IO is Google’s huge developer conference which is held every year. They let developers know what they are thinking for the next year and how they are evolving their platform. For geeks like me, we just watch it for new announcements and exciting products from Google.

Top Announcements from Google IO

Google Assistant

Google is transforming the way we search. The traditional way of search has been that the communication will be one way, the user asks the questions, search shows relevant answers/links. Now Google wants to make search conversational. With high end machine learning and artificial intelligence Google launched a search assistant that will make search seem more human. Let’s put this in context. When we ask about let’s say a sports player Alastair Cook. E.g. “Who is Alastair Cook?” After this question, if we want to know something more specific about him let’s say his achievements, We would ask “What are Alastair Cook’s achievements”? Well in the new search method we just have to ask “What are his achievements?” The search will be able to understand the context of “his”.

Google Home

This is a new product from Google which looks like a competitor to the Amazon Echo. Google Home is a device that will be in the center of your home and will enable you to do three key things: Enjoy Music and Entertainment, Manage Everyday Tasks and Ask Google. This is a step forward for a smart home, Google wants this device to be the central hub of our home in such a way that everything like lights can be controlled by this device.

Allo and Duo

This product again is a all about Machine Learning. Allo the new messaging app will learn about you and make you more productive in your conversations. A cool new feature is whisper and shout.

When we send a message there is going to be a slider which lets you increase or decrease the font size showing either you are shouting or whispering. Allo also suggests replied when somebody asks you a question. For example if your friends says”Let’s go for an Italian dinner”, Google will recognize this and will place a button to find Italian restaurants nearby and a person can easily book a table.

Well Google claims that Duo will work well with slow networks as well. But the most distinctive feature about this video calling app is Knock Knock feature.

Before you accept the call from a person it will show a live view of what the person is doing and what his/her expressions are. This would help the receiver know what kind of mood the caller is in and give more information to the receiver hence making the calls for informative and interesting.

Android N

Performance

Android N introduces the support of Vulkan API which will give developers direct access to the GPU. This would mean smoother gaming experience as well as more vivid graphics. Android N also packs a new JIT compiler which increases the time for app installs. Google claims that app installs will be 75% faster.

Security

Android N has file based encryption and improves their media framework. The cool new feature is that the android updates will download and install in the background.

Productivity

If the user does not use an app for a long time on his device then the app will be removed from the recent apps menu making the menu much more clean. Finally there is a clear all button. There is also a direct reply button which helps users directly reply to messages from the notification panel.

Daydream

Daydream allows incredible and immersive Virtual Reality experience right on your phone. Google says that they have optimized it to get a great experience of VR on android N.

Android Wear 2.0

This is the biggest update to Android Wear. The key feature here is that the the android wear apps can be standalone and can access the cloud directly. This is what the whole tech community was looking for, Smartwatches becoming standalone devices.

Android Instant Apps

Google is trying to get app access much easier. For example if a friend of yours sends you an amazon link of a product, but you don’t have the app installed, here is where this feature gets enabled. Android downloads the necessary components from the play store to display the app(from the Amazon link) and you can purchase the product. Basically the app gets divided into blocks which then android will piece together the necessary ones.

Google I/O was a great event and it showed us a lot of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Google is truly changing the way we access information.