Look past the lines of code and tech jargon, and you’ll see Google’s developer-focused I/O event reveal gems that Android and Google service users — that’s pretty much all of us, really — can look forward to in our phones, homes and cars in the year ahead. Here’s my pick of the biggest announcements from I/O 2017, and why they matter for you and me.

STAND-ALONE VR HEADSETS

Current VR headsets require you to strap your smartphone onto a holder on your face, and the phone does the rest. Google’s now partnering with HTC and Lenovo to make headsets that don’t need a PC or phone to power the VR experience, and can work on their own. These headsets work with something Google calls WorldSense, which enables the headset to track your precise movements in space, without any extra external sensors. Can’t wait for these to hit later this year!

ANDROID O

Google showed off its next big Android 8.0 ‘O’ update and, boy, is it packed! Big new features include picture-in-picture — which allows you to multitask on an email while you’re on a video call — and smarter text selection, say while you’re copying an address and quickly want to bring up Maps to help navigate you there. O also sees tweaks in the “vitals” — battery life and performance — and improved notifications and password autofill capabilities. And, in a much-needed move, Google claims it’s making changes in the base Android OS that will make it more modular and help brands deliver Android updates faster, but that’s a pipe dream I’ll believe when I see it happen.

ANDROID GO

With Google hitting 2 billion monthly active devices on Android, Android Go is how the firm plans to reach the next billion. Go is a version of Android O purpose-built for entry-level devices operating in data-constrained environments. All the Google apps on Android Go come rebuilt to require less memory, storage and bandwidth, and the OS itself can run on cheaper smartphones with as little as 512MB of RAM. It even has its own version of the Play Store with curated apps suited for developing markets, and fine-grained data control for users to know first-hand how much data each app is using. Sounds like a more mature, well-thought-through version of Google’s 2014 Android One initiative to me, but I’m all for anything to make the experience of using Android on
sub-Rs 5,000 devices smoother.

SUGGESTED SHARING AND SHARED LIBRARIES

Google Photos is already a must-have app on any Android or iOS device, and the latest update adds Suggested Sharing — recommendations on who you should share the photo with based on who it recognises as being in the shot! At I/O, Google also announced Shared Libraries, which allow families to jointly add images to a central collection, and share onwards — either your full library, photos of certain people (like your kids), or even photos from a certain date onwards — more easily. What’s even more interesting is that Google Lens is coming to Photos later this year, so you’ll be able to look at an old vacation photo and find more information about a landmark from a photo you took.

GOOGLE LENS

To search via text is passe, or so Google would have you believe. Google Assistant can now analyse the world around you with the help of your smartphone camera, using machine learning-assisted technology that the company calls Google Lens. Point it at an eatery’s storefront, and you’ll see its rating, or at a flower to identify the species, or translating a sign from French to English simply by looking at it. And the most useful example — point it at a WiFi router’s login credentials and your Android phone will be able to use those details to log on to that WiFi network.

ASSISTANT ON iPHONES

Google’s often reserved some key smarts for Android, but it’s rolling out its AI-powered Assistant for iOS to take the fight to Siri. You can ask it to play videos on YouTube, add reminders in Google Calendar and compose emails in Gmail, plus all the regular smarts like asking about directions and the weather. Unlike Siri, Assistant has access to the power of Google’s Knowledge Graph behind it, which means that the sheer variety of information it can understand and respond to is wider than Siri’s.

GOOGLE HOME ON STEROIDS

Google Home is already one of the best of this generation’s smart speakers, but it got a shot in the arm at I/O. Home can now show visual responses on the nearest connected screen. So you can ask it to pull up your calendar and Home will display the day’s events on a Chromecast-connected TV. Ask Home for directions to a place, and it can send the directions to the Maps app on your Android phone. Soon, Home will even proactively notify you for meeting reminders, flight alerts and traffic delays along your usual route (to work or home). And in a move long overdue, you can finally treat Home like a Bluetooth speaker for any Bluetooth-connected device. Now, if only Google would actually launch the device in India...

Tushar Kanwar is a tech columnist and commentator. Follow him on Twitter @2shar. Mail your tech queries to t2onsunday@abp.in