My Thoughts on Google I/O 2015

Overall, I’m not terribly impressed or excited

After leaving my third comment on this article (and after my ~100th tweet), I decided that I have opinions on Google I/O that are enough for a post. But I didn’t want to write my own full post. So I made a response. Sue me.

The first real bit of news covered “Android M” which is the next iteration of Android. My guess is that it will be called Milky Way.

Granular permissions are coming with apps that you install. This will give the user more control over which apps get to utilize certain parts of your device.

Finally, better permissions are going to be coming to Android. Of course, they will only be coming for Android M, not on older platforms. That means that in a year, less than 10% of Google Android users will actually have these improved permissions.

Let’s also not forget that these improved permissions are the exact same thing that Apple has been doing for years — literally years — across all versions of iOS. It’s an important update for Google, but it’s not revolutionary, and it’s too late.

Google also announced what they’re doing with their SoftCard acquisition, and shocker, it’s called Android Pay:

Android Pay is Google’s new payment platform. It’s Apple Pay, but instead of Apple, it’s Android. It’s supposedly super secure and works with most banks and retailers that support NFC payments.

An important thing to note, though, is that they don’t have launch partners that are credit companies or banks. So it may or may not work with your payment information. It will work in any store that accepts NFC payments (which is finally growing thanks to Apple Pay) so that hopefully will drive bank/card adoption.

Also important to note is that because Android devices do not have “secure elements” or TouchID/other biometric verifications systems, it’s less secure than Apple Pay. Google does use host card emulation, so it’s not unsecure per se, it’s just not bulletproof like Apple Pay is. You can use Android Pay by unlocking your phone and tapping it. This is either going to be annoying for users (having to enter a passcode instead of touching the TouchID sensor) or too easy for thieves to use (no passcode set). On the next Nexus phone, which is basically guaranteed to have a fingerprint reader, this should be reasonably safe to use. For any other device, be very cautious (or just buy and iPhone).

Now, about that fingerprint sensor:

Android M also comes with Fingerprint scanner support at the core OS level. This is great for devices with hardware buttons. But Google had their design philosophy abandon those long ago. So I am curious as to where Google will place their scanners on their Nexus devices.

This is odd to include. Obviously, Google didn’t want to announce Android Pay without some beefed up security, but this is something that they can’t take advantage of on their flagship smartphone. This was the kind of announcement that gets made because of the feeling of increasing competition from others (Apple, Samsung) not because it makes sense. I mean, not only do most Android phones not yet have Lollipop, but most Android phones don’t have fingerprint sensors. Why would they need/want to have fingerprint support in their OS? That just creates in-optimizations and bloat, which is bad.

Basically, for the most part, what Google’s doing with Android M is making Android iOS 8. There are supposedly a lot of changes to improve performance/functionality from Android Lollipop. So basically, what Apple’s doing with iOS 9.

Google’s also doing some stuff in the IoT space:

Brillo is the foundational OS, based on Android, that Google is pushing to have for all of your smart devices. Smartlocks, Garage doors, Nest, etc will all potentially use this foundation, allowing all of these devices to work together.

Weave is the language these smart connected apps will use in order to communicate with one another. Being contextually aware of what’s going on, speaking to the smart devices, your phone, and the cloud to seamlessly communicate to execute commands.

Again, this strikes me as a reactionary announcement to competition. Apple is set to make a huge unveiling of HomeKit soon (WWDC?) and Samsung is doing Samsung things with their acquisition SmartThings. Google felt like they had to try to be in this space too, so they announced Brillo and Weave. Color me unimpressed.

Google is also doing some cool things with Google Now:

Google Now is Google’s incredibly smart Search for mobile. Google Now has been ever evolving to be contextually aware of your anticipated needs and desires. The large part of this update focuses on Now on Tap. Now on Tap is designed to proactively answer questions based on the context of what is going on. Tap and Hold the home button to use this new feature. Now on Tap brings contextually aware search based on what you’re doing. Someone mention “Tomorrowland” in an email? Fire up Google Now, it’ll see the movie title, and intelligently search it. All for you.

Google Now is becoming less of an app, and more of a core experience in Android. This is huge for Google Now. The ability for our phones to be contextually aware of what we want and need to do is the future. It’s about time for Google Now, because it truly is one of the killer features of Android.

This is what Google needs to keep focusing on. Google Now is the only legitimate reason to choose Android/Chrome/Google web search as a platform right now. The changes are really cool, no doubt. The computer science geek in me is going nuts at how amazing this is. I’m just not sold on the UX yet — one more gesture for users to learn (when they largely haven’t learned the others to begin with) is not a good thing for user experience.

Also, let’s keep in mind that Google Now requires knowing about who you are and what you’re doing all the time. Therefore, with these improvements, Google is mining even more of your data than before. And let’s also not forget that Google’s revenue stream is selling user data to advertisers. So basically, this announcement is saying that they’ve found a cool new way to sell even more of your data.

That brings us to Photos:

Google Photos is a multiplatform app that intelligently organizes your photos based on date, which you can view by day, month, and year. All by pinching. You can also view your photos by Collections. This is organized by People, Places, and Things that matter to you. Photos automatically groups photos of people, places, and things over time.

Google Photos is all seamlessly integrated into the cloud. It is said to be all private to you. So, all of your photos that you want all to yourself, should stay to yourself.

The features of Photos sound awesome. Basically, though, Photos is a Carousel by Dropbox and/or Flickr clone from Google that offers “unlimited” storage (it’s only unlimited stored at 16 megapixels or smaller).

The key question for Photos, though is: is it private? They said “private” approximately twice during the keynote, but it’s Google. I’m like 90% sure that even if the photos themselves aren’t being sold, metadata or what you’re doing in the photo (something Google is parsing for search purposes) is going to be collected and sold to advertisers. You can cry foul, but the reality is that storage costs money, and Google’s revenue stream is selling you. You are the product.

I like how Photos works, and I like how it looks, but I fundamentally don’t trust it or Google, so I won’t be using it. You may do as you wish.

And, of course, Google talked about VR, because who wants to be left out of the hype loop:

Last year Google announced Cardboard. Cardboard is a cheap, effective way to get VR from your phone. This year, Google refined the Cardboard hardware. They have taken the assembly steps and minimized it from twelve steps to three. Cardboard is also getting iOS Support. Because no one should be left out.

Really the only news here is that Cardboard will finally support Google’s flagship smartphone, now being built for devices up to 6 inches, and that it will work with iOS. This is important because now Cardboard stands a chance of actually being relevant. Developers and dollars are on iOS, not Android, so the iOS launch of Cardboard could actually propel VR forward.

The last thing that I wanted to talk about wasn’t in this article, but I thought was really important. Google is launching an app advertisement platform that developers can use to promote their apps in search results, on the play store, and beyond.

I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all. Yes, app discovery is decidedly broken. Many great apps get buried by crap and never catch on. The solution, though, is not paid promotion. This is going to kill smaller apps from developers with smaller budgets. We need Google and Apple to improve search by relevancy, not by paid promotions.

So, overall, I’m thoroughly unimpressed with Google I/O 2015. Nothing stood out as revolutionary, and most of it wasn’t even evolutionary, it was just copying. Let me know what you think, though, via comments or responses.

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