The Biggest Announcements at Google I/O 2018

The 2018 edition of the Google annual developer conference brought to the stage various announcements that undoubtedly turned many heads. Amidst the beautiful atmosphere of California, Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, kick started the event. Unveiling the latest developments, the event was revolving around Google’s success story of leveraging the potential of Artificial Intelligence. Each subsequent announcement from the release of Android P to the addition of the smart compose feature, brought in new waves of energy among the audience. Keeping in line with everyone’s hopes, the conference served as an inspiration for future trends in the field of technology. Unquestionably, the conference went far beyond everyone’s expectations in not only the big reveals for the upcoming year, but also by setting a new direction for future actions.

Google I/O 2018
Android P- the new OS in town
Android P

One of the pioneer changes that mark Android P is the digital wellbeing dashboard. Showcasing the routine of one’s day, this dashboard will help users identify how they spend each day. This will invariably help them to manage their time better by illustrating how much time is spent on different apps to optimize their usage better. Additionally, it will allow the user to set threshold time to limit the overuse of any app. Features like auto rotate and app switcher will also dawn a new face.

These new innovations are Google’s attempt to simplify the technical operation of smart phones and make the OS more user friendly. New features like adaptive brightness, according to lighting, and automatic switch to grayscale during night will definitely gain user attraction due to benefits of longer battery life. Finally, Android P brings with it special weapons in the form of app actions and slices that will attempt to optimize apps use based on user behavior.

Google Assistant- Greater user choice
In addition to our beloved ‘Holly,’ the original Google assistant voice, 6 more voice options will surface soon. The cherry on the cake is that one of them is likely to be of John Legend, the heartthrob singer. The exhaustive list of improvements in Google assistant includes he ability to sustain continuous conversations, without the need to repeat ‘Ok Google.’ Additionally, the new assistant is equipped to process multiple commands simultaneously. Thus, Google assistant will dawn a new face which will have dual benefits. On the one hand, it will be more interactive and user engaging. On the other hand, its ease of use will augment user attraction by leaps and bounds.

Google Duplex- A new face to human interaction
Google Duplex

While rumors about Google experimenting with some form of artificial intelligence were doing rounds for some time now, the 2018 conference confirmed them. Google has come up with a unique feature it calls Duplex. This revolutionary feature will allow the users to make very actual sounding conversations run entirely using artificial intelligence. As demonstrated by Sundar Pichai during the keynote, Duplex has the ability to carry out conversations on user demand without human interaction. The recording played by Pichai of a call made to a hair salon took everyone’s breath away. It was almost impossible to guess that it was a robot on the user side of the call.

A new Gmail drafting emails on its own (well almost)
What’s New in Gmail?

As a next step to the smart reply feature, Google is launching the smart compose feature. In line with its several attempts to make user life easier, this feature will make composing emails a piece of cake. Smart compose will assist the user in typing common mails by suggesting words and phrases to complete the sentence. Using the power of artificial intelligence, Google will make recommendations on ways to compose the mail when the user starts a sentence. If users agree to the suggested sentence, they can tap and save themselves the energy of typing the whole thing manually.

The suggestions made by Google will be based on the users previously composed mails. Additionally, Google may make recommendations based on its understanding of the context of the mail. In a nutshell, the smart compose feature will make the segment the user experience of using Gmail. It will save the user from the usual monotony of composing similar mails day after day.

Google Photos – New and Improved
The new update likely to be seen in Google Photos soon will also serve as a reminder to all users about why Google is one of the leaders of the technology sector. Now, Google photos will come with a friend recognize feature. This will automatically detect the face of your friends and recommend you to share the pictures with that particular person. In addition, Google Photos will equip the users with a new kind of edit options. Users will be able to convert a black and white picture to a coloured one. The opposite of this is what we have till now. Finally, Google photos will convert pictures to PDFs for user convenience.

Google Navigation- Could this get any better?
Google io 2018 map update

Most of the users depend solely on Google Maps for navigating through a new place or even to get directions to a place one may visit regularly. To refine the navigation experience, Google is powering its Maps with AI. This will allow users to view directions in augmented reality by focusing the camera on the street turns. Additionally, the new ‘For You’ tab will help the users see through particular lanes and neighbourghood areas. This will help them explore and discover places of work and leisure. As a cherry on the cake, this will allow users to interact with peers to decide the place of meeting.

Conclusion
While these are a few announcements that took everyone’s breath away, other announcements also made rounds at the conference. Among others, Google news will get a new face with focus on user preference. Additionally, the unveiling of the idea of the Google driveless car made some heads turn. In a nutshell, the Google I/O Conference 2018 was the place for an existing or budding technologist to be.