THE 5 BIGGEST ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM GOOGLE I/O 2017

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM GOOGLE I/O 2017

Google just concluded its I/O 2017 keynote, where executives led by CEO Sundar Pichai laid out the company’s future roadmap for Android, Google Assistant, Google Home, virtual reality, and much more.

Skydiving Google Glass-wearers, giant phone giveaways, and major hardware announcements no longer rule Google’s biggest annual conference. Instead, the company has settled into a pattern of releasing information about what it’s doing (and what it wants to do) for developers at I/O, instead of trying to wow consumers or the press.

You might call that boring, but that’s also a misguided notion, because there was much to glean from Pichai and the rest of the Googlers who presented onstage. So here are the 10 most important takeaways from today’s I/O keynote.

ANDROID SURPASSES 2 BILLION MONTHLY ACTIVE DEVICES

Android’s mobile dominance hasn’t stopped growing. CEO Sundar Pichai revealed at the keynote’s start that the tally of monthly active Android devices now exceeds 2 billion. That includes smartphones, tablets, Android Wear devices, Android TVs, and any other number of other gadgets that are based on the operating system.

GOOGLE ASSISTANT CAN SEE AND UNDERSTAND THE WORLD AROUND YOU

Google Assistant can now analyze the world around you with the help of your smartphone camera. Using a technology the company calls Google Lens, the Assistant will analyze your surroundings and display relevant content on your screen. You’ll see a restaurant’s rating when pointing your phone at the storefront, you can aim it at a flower and it will identify the species, and you can even pull up a band’s music or videos by pointing Lens at a concert poster. But the most useful example might be this: if you point Lens at Wi-Fi login credentials, your Android phone will be able to use that info to log on to that network. (Thank you, Google.)

Google’s not the first company to try to add artificial intelligence to a smartphone’s camera. Samsung recently launched “Bixby Vision” on the Galaxy S8, a sight-based version of its own Bixby digital assistant, for example. And Snapchat (and now Instagram) are using low-level AI to apply goofy filters to your face. But Google’s offering much more with Lens than just image recognition, shopping, or face filters. And while Facebook is exploring similar computer vision efforts, Google is trying to do it sooner than later with Lens.

GOOGLE ASSISTANT COMES TO IPHONE

Assistant is expanding beyond Android to iOS. Google Assistant will be a standalone app on iPhone and iPad, offering many of the same functions as what we’ve seen it do on Google’s own operating system. You don’t have to wait long to try it, either; it’s available starting today.

GOOGLE HOME TURNS INTO A PHONE

Like Amazon, Google is turning its smart speaker into a phone. Over the coming months, all Home owners will be able to place free calls to the United States and Canada. By default, Google uses a private number for this feature — but you’ve got the option of tying it to your own mobile phone number. The same goes for everyone else in your house, as phone calls support Home’s multi-user setup. Only outgoing calls will be available at launch, as Google is taking a cautious approach to avoid privacy headaches.

HOME GETS WAY MORE USEFUL

Google’s smart speaker was already one of the best ones on the market, but the company announced a suite of other new features and updates beyond calling to Home that make it much more powerful. Home is now going to be able to control HBO Now, Hulu, SoundCloud, Deezer, and more. Even better, Google is opening up access to Home’s Bluetooth radio, meaning you can treat it just like any other Bluetooth speaker.

More than ever, this requires extreme commitment to Google’s products and services, but that’s sort of the point — Google is betting it can bring all this stuff together in such an attractive way that you won’t think twice about buying (or ditching) your Amazon Echo.Home is also becoming more useful away from the device itself. Google showed off what it’s calling “visual responses.” Using Google Assistant, Home will now be more capable of directing the right information to the right connected screen. Say something like: “OK Google, show my calendar for today” and Home can instantly display your day’s events on a Chromecast-connected TV. Ask Home for directions to a place or event, and it will send the directions right to the Google Maps app on your phone.