Highlights:
Google has announced the schedule for this year’s Google I/O. It will be held from May 7 to 9 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. The Google I/O schedule, which is now live on a standalone website, seems to contain sessions on various developer topics, including Android Q, Google Assistant, and the recently announced Stadia game streaming service. Though the schedule is live, Google could add more events to it in the coming days.
Going by the list of events added to schedule so far, we expect Google to talk extensively about the next version of Android and its features the way the company does every year. More specifically, we expect Google to dive deeper into Android Auto, Accessibility on Android, and the much-awaited Dark Mode on Android. While we spotted at least two event titles related to “Android in Cars” and “Accessibility within Android”, we came across one very indicative event titled, “Moving Away from the Light with Android Q”, suggesting the system-wide Dark Mode we see in Android Q beta.
Last year’s Google I/O dealt with the launch of Android P, which is now fondly recognised as Android 9 Pie and is still yet to be baked for some phones like the OnePlus 3/3T; improvements to Google Assistant, including new voices; Smart Compose on Gmail, which is now finally on Android too; improved features on Google Photos, including new automatic editing features; and Digital Wellbeing, an Android feature to cut down on smartphone or app overuse.
Google I/O is Google’s annual developer conference and it has been taking place in the US every year since 2008. It is typical for the company CEO Sundar Pichai to make an appearance at the start of the three-day programme and deliver the keynote address. We expect this year’s Google I/O to be something of a part-two to many of last year’s I/O topics, including Google Assistant and its possibilities, and improvements to Android.