Google I/O 2016 : Highlights

Google’s annual developer conference concluded last Sunday. Every year they proudly showcase their current work and cool stuffs that different teams are working on. The event is mostly about telling to the world, what they can expect from Google in near future, it reveals a lot about the current focus of the company. Since Google is part of everyone’s life in one way or the other, it affects a very large population, especially businesses, startups, developers & competitors. I am briefly going to discuss their major announcements and obviously my opinion on them.

1. Google Assistant

Pichai started the keynote with the small history of Google’s legacy and how Artificial Intelligence is going to be the focus of Google for next decade. He built the ground to reveal the new intelligent voice command based search application, Google Assistant. Around 20% of searches are voice queries in Google so they see it as the next step. He demonstrated the app by booking movie tickets.

Dont you think this is what Apple’s Siri does? Ofcourse, the intelligence algorithm would differ. Infact where they differ is the scope, Assistant’s scope is limited to Google searches, but Siri’s scope is lot wider than that for example I can not set alarm in my phone using Assistant. The company might be looking to reinvent Google Now with this. Give this a short name in next I/O, Google Assistant does not sound that cool.

2. Google Home

This is the hardware gadget launched by Google, an intelligent device (looks like a room freshener) that takes voice commands to control your home. It can control lights, thermostats, speakers of your home. Yeah! just like Amazon Echo, except that Echo is wireless bluetooth device. Google has an added advantage over Amazon though, they can integrate the elements of Google ecosystem like Search, Maps, Directions, Android phone control, Youtube in their device. Everyone uses these features and a device with these features will always have upper hand over other similar devices. Pichai did not forget to thank Amazon Echo team during the presentation for penetrating this space.

3. Allo

This is one of those two announcements that disappointed me the most. This is an intelligent messaging app. Atleast Google should understand that world does not need new messaging app right now. WhatsApp has almost 100% share of this market, it is as difficult to displace WhatsApp from messaging as displacing Google from searches. But they integrated Assistant’s intelligence in this app to make it smarter, after which it also becomes the competitor of Facebook Bot, the intelligent messaging platform opened by Facebook. Allo has many cool features, but again world does not need it in my opinion.

4. Duo

It is a one-to-one video calling app. Yep, this is the second disappointment. An app to compete the Apple’s Facetime. What’s so great about this app? Nothing!

Allo and Duo combined compete directly with Google’s own Hangout. What differs is that Allo & Duo are phone number based, you do not need email ids or Google Plus profiles, but phone numbers just like iMessage and Facetime! Chances are Google wants to develop their own ecosystem for Android phones just like Apple has for iPhones. But why would they release both apps for iOS too? To capture more market?

5. Android N

This was one of the most expected (and customary) announcement, the next OS version of Android. Some 200+ new performance & security improvements have been released in this. Some major changes are Multi-window support (A feature called Split-View released by Apple in 2015 for iPads), improved power saver mode, improved data saver mode, support for Vulkan APIs, Picture-In-Picture (minimize the video to browse further content, again released by Apple in iOS9 in 2015). This OS has not been named yet, and anyone can submit their suggestions for naming.

6. Android Wear

Google called it a major upgrade over previous wear version of wearable software. It includes some UI changes, notification changes, material design changes, Android N support and direct network connectivity without any paired phone in vicinity.

7. Instant Apps

This one can finally be called an innovative and much needed step. Have you ever been in situation where you had to install complete app just because you needed a very limited functionality of app. For example, you just wanted to track location of taxi driving your friend to station. To see that, you do not need the entire app. Now Google Playstore will support limited functionality install.

8. Daydream

The latest buzzword today is VR, virtual reality. The concept needs a separate post for description. Facebook had acquired VR tech company Oculus for $2bn to get into VR world. Daydream, a beautiful name for VR, is Google’s dream in VR. Their VR cardboard became immensely popular because of low price, probably Google wanted to test the VR market with that before investing heavily into it. Now, under this project they have released a headset, controller and a platform for developers.

9. Firebase

This is again a much needed update for developers. Acquired by Google in 2014, now has wider scope for developers after this update. Google Analytic has been integrated for developers’ apps including insights into usage, audience & ads, notification system and crash reports. It is a great attempt to bring all the pieces together at one place for developers.

Google has been technology leader for years and our (atleast mine) expectations from them are higher than this, This I/O was not upto the mark. An attempt to release products in domains where their competitors Facebook, Apple, Amazon have already made their marks. They are trendsetters but this I/O shows they are merely attempting to catch upto the competition.