Privacy features that Facebook is planning to build, Google has already rolled out.
Google is hosting its annual I/O developer conference for the fourth year in a row. All the tech lovers around the world tried to get a sneak peek of the event. Few got lucky who were able to get tickets for the conference. However, many people aren’t able to watch the keynotes. We have decided to provide you with some crucial highlights from the ongoing Google I/O 2019 conference.
By the way, did you know? Google made this year’s conference a “No Parking Event” in order to reduce traffic congestion. Well, keep on reading for more insights about the event.
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Top 10 Google I/O 2019 Highlights
Here are our best picks from the Google I/O keynotes.
1. Google Pixel 3A Launched
At the ongoing Google I/O 2019 event, the tech giant launched the latest series of its Pixel smartphones, Google Pixel 3a, and Pixel 3A XL. However, we already had the little idea of what will be the specs and price of the Google Pixel 3a, thanks to the earlier Pixel 3a series of Leaks and Flipkart launch teaser.
The Pixel 3a series will be available from May 15. It is set to compete with the likes of Apple, OnePlus, and Samsung in the rapidly growing premium smartphone category.
On day 1 of the Google I/O conference, company’s CEO Sundar Pichai said,
“Building for everyone” is the principal philosophy for Google.
Price of Pixel 3a series: The cost of Pixel 3a is $399 and the Pixel 3A XL cost is $479.
The Pixel 3a and Pixel 3A XL is a company’s effort to tackle the problem of declining sales of their smartphones as people are not willing to cash out $1000 on smartphones each year.
2. Google Releases Live Caption In Collaboration with the Deaf and Hard-of-hearing Community
Google’s Live caption will prove to be a boon for deaf and hard of hearing people. I would say not only deaf people, even the movie watchers will also like this feature at the time of watching low-voiced movies on their smartphones.
Live captions will enable you to get a real-time transcription from any video in all apps and even the live ones. Live captions use a local machine learning technology rather than a cloud storage and you won’t even require an internet connection to it.
To use it, you need to go to the Android’s accessibility settings, then a new button will display below the system volume slider. By tapping on it, a black box button will appear on-screen and will start showing you captions.
3. Google Assistant Now 10x faster
Google Assistant is one of the most interesting products that Google proudly shows off. And to no one’s surprise, Google Assistant was one of the main highlights of Google I/O Keynotes.
Google announced at the I/O conference 2019 that its Google Assistant can now run locally on phones. It will be 10 times faster as from now on, it can do tasks with zero latency. It got a major speed boost. In the demo, it was impressive to view Google Assistant doing various functions without any lag or slowdowns.
Previously, it needed to go through 100 GB of data to understand the tasks assigned by the user. After today’s announcement, the data has been shrunk to 500MB.
By just saying “Let’s Drive”, Google Assistant will put you into the driving mode and will show you navigation shortcuts.
4. Google Flutter 1.5 Launched
Google has launched a new version Flutter, v1.5 in the ongoing Google I/O conference. In the new version of Flutter, Google’s mobile framework has officially become the multi-platform UI framework and adds the support for web, mobile, desktop, and embedded devices also. Flutter’s aim has been expanded to create “the best framework for developing beautiful experiences for any screen.”
Flutter team elaborate in the Google I/O conference,
“This was triggered both by internal teams within Google who are increasingly relying on Flutter, as well as the latent potential of the Dart platform for delivering portable experiences.”
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Flutter for Web
Google displays a technical preview of the ‘flutter for the web’ showcasing its design to create “highly interactive, graphically rich content.” It is expected that the team will instantly build the code, with a particular focus on performance, and harmonizing the codebase with the rest of the Flutter project.”
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Flutter for embedded devices
Google finally offered Flutter for embedded devices. The Flutter team released samples displaying FLutter running on smaller-scale devices like the Rasberry Pi. An embedded API for Flutter is also provided by Google Automotive, Google Home, and others.
5. Android Q Beta 3 Released
From now on, Android Q beta 3 can be downloaded on your device. The latest Android Q beta version now features Dark Theme for each Android app. In the previous Android Q beta version, there was no option for turning it on/off.
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Manual selection of inverted app colors or it can be opened via battery saver mode.
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The dark theme is true black instead of dark gray and will help in reducing battery usage.
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New feature Focus mode has been added that will enable you to choose specific apps that you wish to ignore during a period of time.
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A new account liking feature has also been added to connect parent accounts with kids. This new feature will help the parents in setting up the restrictions for apps.
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Added Support for 5G natively.
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In the newer version, Smart Reply will also start being featured on third-party chat apps. You can also expect the suggestions to pop out from Google Maps when you get a message about commuting or address.
6. Google Brings Podcast Results in Search
At the Google I/O 2019, Google indicated to bring podcasts into the search results directly. The news about this was first surfaced a few months ago but now it is finally set to roll out and you can personally be able to see it yourself in the Google search results.
Google Podcast, Head of Product, Zack Reneau-Wedeen, stated,
“Rolling out this week, you’ll be able to search for and play podcasts directly on Google Search across Android, iOS, and desktop browsers, a step toward making audio a first-class citizen across Google.”
Searching for a podcast on Google will show you a pile of “Recent episodes.” By selecting any will send the users to podcast.google.com. If you will play these podcasts, it will display you with play/pause controls and playback speed also. There is also a sleep timer in the podcast feature but it is only available on the mobile version.
7. Google Announces Kotlin As a Preferred Language For Android
Kotlin programming language has been used by Android for two years already. In past years Java was the most influential but due to the increase in Kotlin’s popularity, Java is no longer the king in the Android development.
In the Google I/O conference, the company announced that Kotlin is the preferred language for developing Android-based apps.
Chief advocate for Android, Chet Haase, stated,
“With that, it makes sense for Google to increase its Kotlin support. We’re announcing that the next big step that we’re taking is that we’re going Kotlin-first.”
Currently, Kotlin is used by more than 50 percent of Android Developers and according to a recent survey, it is in the 4th position of the most loved programming language.
8. Google Map Meets AR in Pixel Devices and Gets Incognito Mode
Google CEO Sundar Pichai lays his emphasis on ‘Privacy is Present’ at the ongoing I/O 2019 conference. Google Maps was facing criticism for tracking the user’s navigation data even when the user is not opening Google Maps. And in order to reduce location and search tracking, Google Maps will soon add Incognito mode.
The new Incognito feature will be available for both the web and on the app. It was rolled out after Google declared that it would add an Auto-Delete feature.
The AR feature will help users understand Google Maps better. It will provide more visual cues to prevent users from getting lost. The directions can be viewed in a camera view and will place arrows in physical space.
9. Google Lens AR Update
In the Google I/O conference 2019, the Google Lens gets a major update adding AR mode. Now, Google announced Google Lens can search an exact dish on the menu and add photos of that dish based on Google Maps information to give you an idea of how it looks in reality.
And with this new upgrade, if the camera is on a bill receipt of the food then the calculator will pop out and will help you in splitting the bill and adding a tip for the waiter.