Google is about to hold its biggest show of the year. And we’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen.
The company holds its I/O conference every summer to show off the biggest updates to developers and let them get their hands on its newest products. And this year that’s going to be the technology that will power your house, take over your wallet and create the reality that you live in – as well as the now relatively small matter of powering your phone.
Google I/O runs from 18 May to 20 May. But Wednesday is the big day, when executives take the stage for the presentation that will lay out everything that is going to be talked about through the rest of the week.
Here’s the things we expect them to talk about.
Project Chirp
This is likely to be the big part of Google’s show, and probably the only major announcement that isn’t just a refinement of something that already exists. And it’s important because it could mark Google’s entry into the connected home and voice assistants.
Project Chirp – which is just a codename – is Google’s answer to Amazon’s Echo. Like the Echo, it’s expected to sit in your house and respond to commands, serving as a voice-activated personal assistant.
Google’s entry into the market will be significant, since digital assistants are a hot topic in recent months. Amazon’s Echo has received rave reviews, and alongside upstarts like Viv is taking on the baked-in voice software that’s found in Android and with Siri on iOS.And Google’s attempt could be major, because it is so skilled in the areas that are required to get voice assistants right. It has access to important data about both its users and the world, highly-developed voice recognition and artificial intelligence capabilities.
It also fits into the rest of Google’s plans – it could eventually find its way not just into whatever box Chirp comes in, but also in Google’s phones and computers and eventually cars.
If anyone is going to be the company to develop a real-life robot butler, then it’s probably going to be Google. And we’re going to see the start of that project at I/O.
Virtual reality
The other major update is expected to be in virtual reality, which Google has focused on heavily in recent years. It’s already shown off capabilities with its VR software and Cardboard headset – but this year might be the time it finally brings out its own headset.
Doing so will put it in competition with a range of other companies, including Facebook-owned Oculus and HTC. So it’s likely that Google will only bring that technology if it has something genuinely new – whether it’s ready to compete on price or software.
Little is known about the headset at the moment. All that’s leaked is that it will probably run on Android.
Android N
Google’s new operating system has already been revealed, and consists mostly of housekeeping updates that clean up the software rather than anything stunningly new. It brings with it nice little updates like multitasking support, but there isn’t much to be excited about, yet – especially since Google gave it all away by releasing a preview to developers in March.
But Google might still have some surprises up its sleeve to keep people excited. And if nothing else we might get to hear what dessert Google has chosen to name the new software after – it’ll be something beginning with N.
Android Pay
Google is likely to talk about the extension of Android Pay, the system that allows people to swap their credit cards for their phone, into other countries. The service has launched in the US and is gradually expanding across the world, in competition with other services like Apple Pay.