Pertaining to the changes in technology and user habits much has changed since the inception of Google 17 years ago. There was a time when there were 300 million people online in contrast to the 3 billion users now. Earlier desktop had been prominent now mobiles have taken over. To develop and announce its new advancements, Google kicked off its Developers Conference on May 18, 2016 at their Mountain View, CA Backyard.
What Google strives for is, “To organize world information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Let’s take a peek into what new Google will offer this time. Here is the list of areas where Google has announced to advance and evolve.
The Conversing Google Assistant
Google has all plans to move from just a search based to more of a chat app. What does this mean? Well, this means the new system has all the ability to converse like a human and so a two way conversation can take place.
Till now Google used to translate sign in a picture or respond by giving links to the sources. But now you could just tell it to book tickets for you or search a good restaurant and it would do all that. Sundar Pichai, during the conference showed this; besides just responding to his questions it also reacts in the form of emoji’s and photographs.
Thanks to the Artificial Intelligence, which gives an ambient experience aiding in your work across all devices and contexts. So you call Google for help anytime and anywhere. It will understand user’s question through the user’s working mechanism.
Thus, this Google is for you and by you.
Smart Home Speakers
This consists of small speakers and microphone which could be placed in all your rooms. What does this do? It is a voice activated device which has a listening microscope which will bring Google Assistant to your home. It can be used with multiple devices and in multiple rooms.
This is so classy that you could just order/command it to play any song for you, check your flight tickets, set a timer for anything and what not all through simple conversation. You can also get it in your base colors to give a trendier look to your room as well.
I know you would love to get this, Google promises to release this later this year.
Google Says Say Hello To Allo
Allo is a smart messaging app which helps in making your conversation easier and more expressive! Allo has a smart reply built in and so now you can respond to your messages without typing a single word. It is based on your phone number and deeply built in machine learning technology.
The more you use this app the more “you” its answers will become. For example, if a friend sends you a picture of her niece, you will simply get the response ‘aww so cute’ without the need to type anything.
This also has Google Assistant and brings help to your chats. Thus, makes your day to day work more easy and sorted. You could either directly get in contact with the assistant or even while chatting with your friend you can seek its help. For example, simply type ‘Is my flight delayed’ to know your flight details.
While taking to your friend it gives you information, like if you are talking about dining in a restaurant it will give you a list of all the nearby restaurants and help you further to get there and dine too.
It brings Searchs, Maps, translation and YouTube all in one place so that you don’t need to switch between apps. And please don’t worry about privacy because Google offers you to go incognito here also.
Duo- video calling app
These calls are in crisp HD video and audio. It is a very simple and fast one to one video calling app. It works well on both android and iOS and also adjusts its quality according to the network and mode of connection, i.e., Wi-Fi or cellular data.
One of its notable features is the ‘Knock Knock’ which shows the live video preview of the caller even before receiving the call. This will surely give a feel of faster and spontaneous connectivity. Once you answer, the simple interface fades away thus giving space for the two of you.
It is based on phone number and so you can reach out anyone in your phonebook. Also, it takes care of the privacy and security and so makes sure that the calls are end to end encrypted.
Android N
Motto is to give higher productivity, performance and security with the release of this new android version. The Developers Conference introduced a brand new ‘JIT compiler’ to improve software performance, make app installs faster, and take up less storage. The second N Developer Preview included ‘Vulkan’, a new 3D rendering API to help game developers deliver high performance graphics on mobile devices.
Earlier in March, they had introduced the split screen multi-tasking and a set of new emoji’s besides the new introductions. They are also introducing ‘Seamless updates’, which means that the next time a user powers up their device, new devices can automatically and seamlessly switch into the new updated system image.
Android Wear 2.0
With this new version of Android Wear, Google is trying to enhance the experience of its users. They are trying to improve the key watch experiences; watch faces, messages and fitness.
With changes in UI people can now have a stable and consistent use of their devices even if their phones are far away or switched off. This is since now they are not dependent on the Data Layer API’s. Now you can directly connect to cloud through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or cellular connection.
This will surely help your watch climb a ladder to sovereignty.
Instant Apps
This talks of a system where you need not install your app and still use it! Yes, you heard it right. Whether you find the app on social media, messaging, search or any other link, you can just simply use it without any further installation or re-authentication.
Best thing is that it is compatible with all Android running devices having jellybean or higher with Google Play Services.
Daydream: A Virtual Reality
A VR for android, daydream is a mobile virtual reality platform built on top of Android N. There will be a home screen for its apps. Also, Google has designed new VR versions for its own apps like YouTube, Street View, Google Play Store, Play Movies and Google Photos.
Its limitation is that it will work only on phones with updated sensors and screens. They have been selling the designs of such VR models to phone manufacturers along with the android developers and are expected to be in by this fall.
Firebase
This is surely going to be in favor of the developers as they are now going beyond the mobile backend. Developers can now build high quality apps, grow their user base and also earn more profits across iOS, android and the mobile web.
Getting Smarter
In the words of Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google; the world is going through a lot of advances and up-gradations in the technological spheres like never before. It is not only changing computing but also the way we deal with day to day things and happenings.
He says that these ‘open source tools’ can surely transform the society if larger community gets its benefit. And working together we can achieve a lot more in the field of health, education, climate change, etc. As the machine learning and AI is getting better, the world too will get smarter.
Surely, Google has something really interesting and exciting to offer. I’m sure all of us will look forward to this.
