Top 8 Takeaways from Google I/O 2016

Enjoy a 360 view of Google I/O 2016 Keynote(Drag with your cursor to rotate the video)

Yes, it was the utmost event as whole world was awaiting triumphant announcements by Google. Google schedules its I/O events since 2008, this time it was scheduled from May 18^th to May 20^th 2016, held at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. There were various announcements made by Google, out of them some of the most important ones are:

Google Assistant

Sundar Pichai started his I/O by presenting the next generation Google Assistant, which feels more like a chat application than search based Google Now. Like Google Now it provides contextual suggestions and recommendations as if predicting what message you might reply in your chat. It has few more advance functionality of conversational speech abilities. You can interact with Google Assistant in more familiar way.

Google Home

You can connect your Home, Smart devices and much more with Google Home via Google Assistance, it acts as a central hub for controlling your home. Google Home is a Wi-Fi speaker with a built in voice assistant. We can say that Google Home is direct competitor of Amazon Echo and it will available later this year. It includes streaming, casting and has a speaker to reply your queries. You can customize the base of Google Home according to your requirements. Apart from this you can access songs, Playlists, albums, artists and postcard from music service just by asking. Music can be easily streamed from your Android or iOS devices.

Google Allo App

Google Allo is a mobile messaging app where you need to sign up with your mobile number to use the mobile app. some of the features like usual messaging, included emoji, custom stickers, notifications, ability to draw on photos, changing the font size of your message etc. Privacy and security aspects are also also taken care of in Allo as all the messages are encrypted. Allo also supports an incognito mode hence giving total encryption of messages end to end.

Google Duo

Google has added one more app for communication called Duo. It is an app for video chatting. Just like Apple which has iMessage and Face Time for messaging and video chatting respectively, Google has Allo and Duo App for messaging and video chatting. When you will open the app you will find selfie cam video preview of yourself. This feature is important because when you will call to any person, a feature called “Knock Knock” allows the person you are calling to see your video preview before they answer. But overall we can say that Google Duo has direct competition with Apple’s Face Time.

Android N

Android N is for developer preview it was launched in March, it shows the functionality to split the screen for better multitasking, new set of emoji, and a quick settings buttons.  Currently it has been launched as beta version and will remain till later this summer. But Google showed more of new operating system by releasing a new beta. The new version includes more control over the size of notifications and a new picture in picture mode. In future Android N could also be a good platform for high-end game development. This is just because of a New API called Vulkan had allowed the developers to control a phone’s GPU for 3D Graphics. But, the final name of the new OS is has still not been declared.

Android Instant App

One of the most interesting announcements at Google I/O was Android Instant Apps. Android Instant Apps is enables you to access the content of an app without actually installing it. Eg. if someone sends you a link to view something special in a specific app, you don’t need to install that particular app. Android itself will temporarily download the required modules of the app and will display the content. (Your mobile memory is going to love this one.)

Android Wear 2.0

Google I/O announced a new version of Android Wear. Android Wear 2.0 has more features and flexibility as compared to previous versions. These changes will definitely provide you the best experience with wearable tech. Android Wear 2.0 make’s your smart watch more autonomous. The new features added in the watch will help you to rely on your smartphone’s as less as possible. People will not have to look at mobile phone every now and then, also there is no need to take your phone along with you. Some more features like recognizing exercise and third party app sync should help it. Google in this event has shown a swipeable QWERTY keyboard which shows that you can now type on your wrist.

Daydream a Google’s Virtual Platform

Another interesting announcement at Google I/O was that Google Now has Virtual Realty platform which is named as Daydream. It is build on the top of Android N and thus it is not going to get compared with any of the existing products till now. It just looks like a hard cardboard and it represents a huge step to push the VR at its early stage. Android VR Mode feature will have “Performance mode”, a head tracking algorithm. This platform will provide you the functionality to render incoming call and messages in 3D.

Our thoughts: Google I/O surprises us every time with its innovative and futuristic technology concepts. Google I/O 2016 was no different, with their top class innovations like Android N, VR, Allo, Duo, etc. To most of us some announcements looked as if they were directly delivered from a magical land. But, all these products and features are going to be a reality in near future and are here to change our lives and technology forever.

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