Remember Project Brillo from Google? You probably don’t, and that’s most likely the reason for its rebranding. Google has announced its platform for the Internet of Things, which will now be known as Android Things. The company announced a new developer preview of Android Things yesterday. “We're releasing a Developer Preview of Android Things, a comprehensive way to build IoT products with the power of Android, one of the world's most supported operating systems,” said Google, in a blog post on the Android Developers Blog.
Google has incorporated tools like Android Studio, the Android Software Development Kit (SDK), Google Play Services, and Google Cloud Platform. The company says it this is based on feedback it received from Project Brillo earlier. This is only the first part of the update, though. “And in the coming months, we will provide Developer Preview updates to bring you the infrastructure for securely pushing regular OS patches, security fixes, and your own updates, as well as built-in Weave connectivity and more,” says the blog post.
“Device makers like Philips Hue and Samsung SmartThings already use Weave, and several others like Belkin WeMo, LiFX, Honeywell, Wink, TP-Link, and First Alert are implementing it,” the post says. The Weave platform is responsible for providing cloud infrastructure, so that developers can focus on building their products without investing in cloud services, says Google.
Further, Android Things comes with “turnkey” support for Intel Edison, NXP Pico, and Raspberry Pi 3.