Photo: Google
Conference recaps are always a tad tricky because you don’t want to omit the big things, but I don’t want to ramble on endlessly either so here we go! This past Wednesday Google kicked off their annual I/O conference. Google’s I/O, like most tech conferences, the keynote presentation had well.... some things to take note of....
Google Home
So you may or not be familiar with the Google Assistant (which got some IQ points this year and will be smarter and overall be a better assistant per Google's Keynote demonstration and announcement), Google Home will make Google Assistant apart of your home. It looks like a small speaker which it is, and the base comes in a few colors to match the decor of your house. So you can talk to it the same way you would the Google Assistant on your phone.
Meet, Allo and Duo
Apple has Facetime so it looks like Google's answer will be Allo and Duo. Apps for messaging (Allo) and video calling (Duo), one thing that makes it different it is based on the phone number and not on whether or not you have a Android device. But you also can't use it with your email address the way you can with FaceTime and iMessage from Apple. Duo video provides end to end encryption for security and privacy. It also has pretty cool feature called Knock Knock that sends a live video preview of the caller before you answer, so it's like you looking through the peep hole at your front door. Thankfully this doesn't work on both ends, what if you had just woken out of bed or something? You can pre-register for it now on the Google Play Store and the apps are expected to be released this summer.
Allo Screen (Gif: Google)
Duo Screen (Photo: Google Play)
New Android OS....Codename Android N
While Android's last release of it's mobile OS, Marshmallow has just surpassed a 7% adoption rate ( 7.5% at the beginning of May) Google also announced a new mobile OS. Android N...that's not the official name, they are accepting ideas for the name here. The new instance of the mobile operating system will come with updated emojis as well as 72 new ones, better battery life, improved performance as well as graphics. There will also be background downloads of system updates. Now if they could get all of the mobile providers to roll out the new mobile OS quicker that would definitely speed up the adoption rate, but there are so many different Android devices, so that is not likely to happen soon.
These are just a few of the things announced at the I/O keynote, if you want to watch the entire thing, you can watch it below: