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Google I/O 2016: the biggest news from Google’s biggest event of the year

Google I/O is done for the year. The company showed off Android N, along with new apps for messaging and video calls. Plus, it unveiled an Amazon Echo competitor called Google Home, and outlined its plans for the future of VR. Catch up with all the news here.

  • May 18, 2016

    Adi Robertson and Ross Miller

    Daydream is Google’s Android-powered VR platform

    Following months of speculation, Google is diving deeper into virtual reality. Today at its I/O keynote, the company announced Daydream, a VR platform built on top of Android N. Google says that Daydream-ready phones, as well as VR viewers and motion controllers, will be available this fall.

    Daydream — which encompasses both hardware and software — is a more advanced successor to Cardboard, the disposable headset standard that Google released two years ago. It's a mobile VR system powered by the next wave of Android N devices, built to a company-approved standard. Where Google Cardboard worked with almost any smartphone, Daydream will only work on new phones with specific components like special sensors and screens. There's no sign of something like Project Tango's spatial mapping or augmented reality options, but the components are supposed to offer a smoother, lower-latency experience than you could get by simply adding VR as a software update.

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  • May 18, 2016

    Ben Popper and Adi Robertson

    Google reveals plans for new VR headset and motion controller

    At its annual I/O developer conference today, Google is showing off a reference design for a new virtual reality headset that builds on the success of the Cardboard unit it launched back in 2014. The headset is part of Google's new Daydream initiative, a mobile VR platform baked into Android N. As with Android, Google wants its hardware partners to build and sell their own Daydream devices. And in a surprise move, Daydream's system doesn't just use a headset — it also features a new kind of control system for mobile VR.

    Based on the reference design above, the Daydream headset is a fairly straightforward step up from Cardboard, made to hold a smartphone in a front slot that latches at the top. While some early rumors suggested that Google was working on a totally self-contained headset, that hasn't shown up at I/O. This design looks closest to Samsung's Gear VR headset, which was released last year and fits a small number of Samsung phones. Besides the fact that the Daydream platform is supposed to cover large swathes of the Android ecosystem, the most obvious difference between this headset and the Gear VR is the small remote that's shown alongside it.

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  • May 18, 2016

    Vlad Savov

    Google details Android N features ahead of late summer release

    It wouldn't be a Google developer conference without some time dedicated to Google's most important software platform: Android. The next iteration, codenamed N, was announced super early in March of this year, and today at Google I/O more details and features are being revealed.

    Google says the response to the N Developer Preview has been "overwhelming" and many developers are already working with it on a daily basis. The company has improved Android N performance in two keys ways: graphics and runtime. Android N will introduce the Vulkan graphics API to Google's mobile platform. Vulkan promises to deliver better graphics with greater efficiency, which is always nice to see — especially with the amount of power now available in modern Android smartphones and tablets. This cross-platform API was recently shown off by Nvidia with its latest graphics cards playing Doom on the desktop. The compiler in Android N works a lot faster, as much as 75 percent faster, and it's reduced the the space required for app installs on your phone. So basically, it's an under-the-hood win that shouldn't be hard to feel on the surface too.

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  • Jacob Kastrenakes

    May 18, 2016

    Jacob Kastrenakes

    Google wants you to name Android N

    Google wants your help naming Android N. It's launched a website that'll let anyone suggest names for N, and Google says it'll search through them to pick out a final name. Does that mean it could choose something aside from a dessert? Who knows. Google didn't really go into detail about what the selection process will be like, aside to say that it very much reserves the right to choose whatever it likes.

    Google announced N in March, releasing a developer preview that included a handful of new features: split screen multitasking, quick settings buttons, battery life improvements, and new emoji. Later, Google also announced that N would support an equivalent to 3D Touch (although word is this may be delayed).

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  • Dieter Bohn

    May 18, 2016

    Dieter Bohn

    Google Duo makes mobile video calls fast and simple

    Google is releasing a new video calling app later this summer. It's called Duo, and it's probably the fastest and simplest video calling app I've ever seen. Like its companion chat app, Allo, Duo is mobile-only. It uses your phone number as an identifier, and it will work on both iOS and Android.

    The interface for Duo is so simple and sparse it almost seems silly to describe it, but here goes. When you open it, you're greeted with a selfie-cam video preview of yourself. Check your hair, then tap one of the giant circled photos below to start a call — or scroll up on the panel to see more contacts. You call, the person on the other end of the line answers, and you're having a video chat. You can mute your microphone, you can flip the camera. You can't do a video conference, though.

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  • Nick Statt

    May 18, 2016

    Nick Statt

    Watch a video of Google Home in action

    Google Home, a small speaker you can converse with using natural language, is an ambitious way to weave the company's search engine and artificial intelligence into every fabric of your daily life. The company announced the new product today onstage at its I/O developers conference, and it will be available later this fall.

    More than anything, Home represents Google's answer to Amazon's competing voice assistant Alexa and the myriad number of devices and services Alexa runs on and connects to. In a video released today, Google laid out how it imagines people will communicate with its software to do everything from play music in the morning and check the weather to changing dinner reservations and sending texts.

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  • Ashley Carman

    May 18, 2016

    Ashley Carman

    Google Photos now has over 200 million monthly active users

    Google Photos now has over 200 million monthly active users after only a year of existence, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced at I/O today. Users have created more than 2 trillion labels that help the company sort its Google Image search results, and 24 billion of those are selfies.

    "Google Photos shows what's possible when you approach an existing area from a new perspective," he said.

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  • Dieter Bohn

    May 18, 2016

    Dieter Bohn

    Allo is a messaging app with Google built right in

    Google is announcing a new messaging app today. It's called Allo and its main feature is a Google assistant that's built right in. Google says it'll be available later this summer — for free — on both iOS and Android.

    Allo (pronounced like "Aloe" and not like "'allo, guv'nor!") is a mobile-only app that you might think is meant to replace Google's other messaging app, Hangouts. But you'd be wrong. Allo is explicitly meant to be a fresh start for Google's new communication's division (which also runs Hangouts and Project Fi).

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  • Dieter Bohn

    May 18, 2016

    Dieter Bohn

    Google is making its assistant 'conversational' in two new ways

    Google would like to remind you that you can talk with it.

    Today Google is announcing a "Google Assistant" that essentially performs the same tasks as other Google interfaces do, but in a conversational mode. It doesn't have a name, it just has the power of Google and its deep mine of data behind it.

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  • Chris Plante

    May 18, 2016

    Chris Plante

    Google I/O 2016: Keynote, live stream, and schedule

    Google I/O is an annual developer conference at which the company announces new hardware and software, hosts educational sessions pertaining to its various products and services, and broadly tries to build hype and warm feelings in the hearts of creators and fans who watch online.

    The event begins with a keynote. This year, the host will be Google CEO Sundar Pichai. We expect him and his colleagues to make a number of announcements, like giving an official name to its new mobile operating system, revealing more of Google's plans for augmented and virtual reality, and detailing how Android would work on the desktop.

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