Google I/O 2022: everything coming out of the online developers conference

You can spot an Apple iPhone from 20 paces away. I bet you’d be able to tell a Samsung Galaxy from that distance, too. Yet, until last year, a Google phone didn’t have an eye-catching design language all its own.

But this week, Google revealed that its most distinctive, in-your-face design element ever is here to stay. Not only did it feature on last year’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro — and will appear on the Pixel 6A this July as well — but Google has also already shown us an even bolder, harder-hitting version will jut right out of this fall’s Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.

Google just revealed the Pixel 6A at Google I/O on Wednesday, and while it has a number of impressive specs for a midrange device, it’s missing one that the company has celebrated on its A-series line for years: a 3.5mm headphone jack.

As many smartphone manufacturers have moved on from the headphone jack — a trend largely kicked off by Apple with the iPhone 7 in 2016 — its presence on the A-series line has become more and more of a distinguishing feature. Google even made a ridiculous two-minute ad celebrating the headphone jack in the Pixel 5A that parodied Apple’s elaborate design videos. That video was titled, in part, “The Circle Comes Full Circle.” Well, it seems the circle is coming full circle again, as now Google is the one set to drop the headphone jack from its next phone.

Big white bezels. Matte, looks-like-plastic back. Thick profile. 2023. Android.

That’s about all we know about Google’s forthcoming Pixel Tablet, which the company teased during its keynote presentation for the I/O 2022 developer conference this week. Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice president of devices and services and head of the Pixel program, confirmed to my colleague David Pierce that the tablet is coming to fill out the range of Pixel devices and provide a complete ecosystem in Google’s lineup.

During its annual developer conference, Google I/O, Google announced a new pair of true wireless earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro, which will be available for preorder starting on July 21st and in stores on July 28th. The new Buds Pro offer more features than last year’s Pixel Buds A-Series, however, at $199, they’re also twice the price. So are they worth the extra cost or should you stick with the entry-level $99 Pixel Buds A-Series?

To give you a better idea of which might be a better fit for you, we’ve compared the features and specs of both models. Note that while we have reviewed the Pixel Buds A-Series, we’ve not tested the Pixel Buds Pro as of yet. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get some hands-on time with the earbuds ahead of their launch this summer.

Google is officially announcing the Pixel 6A, which embraces the company’s new design language and custom chipset but keeps the 5A’s $449 price tag. The announcement comes as Google kicks off its I/O developer conference, but if you’re itching to snag the new device, you’ll have to wait a little while longer since it won’t actually ship until July 28th. (Preorders will begin a week earlier, on July 21st.)

The 6A follows the pronounced design trend that the 6 and 6 Pro set when they arrived last year with a raised horizontal camera bump and a two-tone body. Following suit, the fingerprint sensor is under the screen rather than on the back panel. And there’s good news if you think the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are too big — the 6A comes with a slightly smaller 6.1-inch OLED 1080p display. It’s a standard 60Hz refresh rate, too, so Google seems happy to let Samsung take the lead on fast refresh rate screens in midrange phones. Google calls it a “gOLED” screen, but wouldn’t tell us what that means when we asked.

The Pixel 6A is the latest phone to join the competitive upper tier of midrange phones, also occupied by Samsung, Apple, and more. Google announced the new phone onstage at its I/O 2022 keynote, detailing just a few key things about it. First thing you should know: it isn’t coming out immediately. Unlike how many announcements take place as products are on their way to retailers, this one won’t be available to preorder until July 21st, 2022, with orders shipping the following week.

Unsurprisingly, this new (and smaller) 6.1-inch Pixel phone borrows many of the same design features from the pricier Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, with a raised camera section and a two-toned color scheme. The Pixel 6A is a big deal, as it’s the first Google midrange phone to ship with its Tensor processor instead of Qualcomm processors. It will be available in multiple colors, but it will ship with the same 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, no matter which one you buy.

Google just announced a batch of new Pixel products at its I/O 2022 keynote. Among them is a new midrange Pixel phone, the Pixel 6A; some new premium wireless earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro; and Google’s first wearable, the Pixel Watch. This is a healthy amount of new tech to come out of the online developer conference, in addition to what’s coming soon for Android 13 and other Google services, but let’s not start camping out in lines at the Google Store and various Best Buy locations just yet.

In typical Google fashion, much of what it boasted onstage during I/O are things that are coming soon. If you missed the keynote, here’s where you can catch up on all the nitty-gritty details. But if you’re in the market for Google’s new phone, buds, or watch, you’ll have to wait until the summer — or in the case of that last one, the fall. Let’s quickly go over when each one is due out and what to expect.

Google’s new Pixel 6A, announced at its I/O 2022 keynote, may seem like just another budget-focused A-series model, but the latest midrange Pixel is a little different than its forebears. In the past, the Pixel A-line opted for a cheaper, plastic build and slower processor to hit a lower price point. This time, the Pixel 6A uses the same Google Tensor processor that first debuted in the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, and yet it still undercuts its flagship brethren to sell at the same $449 price as the outgoing Pixel 5A when preorders go up on July 21st and it hits stores on July 28th.

So if you’re not giving up slower performance, what are you giving up? And why would anyone still spend more on a Pixel 6 or 6 Pro?

Google wrapped up its I/O presentation with one big surprise: a look at its latest AR glasses. The key feature Google showed off was the ability to see languages translated right in front of your eyes, which seems to me like a very practical application for AR glasses. While a big part of Silicon Valley is heavily invested in making AR glasses a reality, thus far, no one has suggested a truly “killer” app for AR that would let you overlook the wide variety of privacy concerns inherent with the tech. Live translating the spoken word would definitely be a killer feature.

The company didn’t share any details about when they might be available and only demonstrated them in a recorded video that didn’t actually show the display or how you would interact with them. But what was shown in the video painted a very cool picture of a potential AR future.

The story of this year’s Google I/O actually started three years ago. 

At its Made By Google event in 2019, onstage in New York City, Rick Osterloh, Google’s SVP of devices and services, laid out a new vision for the future of computing. “In the mobile era, smartphones changed the world,” he said. “It’s super useful to have a powerful computer wherever you are.” But he described an even more ambitious world beyond that, where your computer wasn’t a thing in your pocket at all. It was all around you. It was everything. “Your devices work together with services and AI, so help is anywhere you want it, and it’s fluid. The technology just fades into the background when you don’t need it. So the devices aren’t the center of the system — you are.” He called the idea “ambient computing,” nodding to a concept that has floated around Amazon, Apple, and other companies over the last few years.

After weeks of rumors and leaked photos, Google finally confirmed that the Pixel Watch is real. Today’s announcement is more of a tease than a full reveal, however, with the watch arriving later this fall alongside the Pixel 7.

Given that the Pixel Watch is the worst-kept wearable secret of 2022, there wasn’t anything too surprising in terms of design. As suspected, the Pixel Watch has a circular, domed design and features a “tactile” crown and side button. It’s made of recycled stainless steel and has swappable proprietary bands. It’ll also run on an “improved” Wear OS 3 that features a “refreshed UI” with better navigation and smart notifications. You’ll also have the option to pick a cellular version of the device for standalone connectivity.

Google is getting back in the tablet game. The company’s internal hardware division plans to release an Android-powered tablet in 2023, senior vice president of devices and services Rick Osterloh announced on Wednesday at its I/O developer conference. Osterloh was light on details, except to say it’ll run on the same Tensor processor inside Google’s latest Pixel phones and that he imagines it as a consumer-focused gadget focused on entertainment and consumption rather than work. (The Verge’s Dan Seifert, who briefly saw a picture during a product briefing ahead of I/O, immediately said “it looks like an old Samsung tablet.”) But Osterloh’s overall message is clear: Google cares about Android tablets. For real this time.

The announcement is a huge about-face from Google’s recent history. In 2019, when Osterloh himself said Google was getting out of the tablet business. “Hey, it’s true,” he tweeted in response to rumors that Google was shutting down its existing tablet products, “Google’s HARDWARE team will be solely focused on building laptops moving forward,” though he again said the software teams still care about supporting tablets. That announcement seemed to chill the market, as if signaling that Google was never going to get serious about tablets. Since then, few companies outside of Samsung have continued to make Android slates.

Today, after several attempts at making wireless earbuds, Google is announcing its most premium product in the category yet: the $199 Pixel Buds Pro. Designed as a direct answer to Apple’s AirPods Pro, the Pixel Buds Pro offer active noise cancellation, a transparency mode, multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, and an IPX4 water resistance rating, among other features. They’ll be available to preorder alongside the also new Pixel 6A smartphone starting July 21st and in stores a week later on the 28th.

Both the earbuds and case closely resemble the 2020 Pixel Buds — the carrying case looks practically identical — and the Pro earbuds will come in black, blue, green, or red. Compared to the older buds, you’ll notice more microphone inlets around the exterior of these, and they’re meant to sit deeper in your ear canal than previous Pixel Buds.

Google is adding a feature to Chrome’s autofill system called Virtual Card Numbers, which will let you hide your credit or debit card number while making purchases on the web. Google says the feature will help make it easy to securely buy things on sites that don't support options like Google or Apple Pay.

It’s basically the same experience as using Chrome Autofill to enter in your credit card details but with an added layer of security. If you give your card number to a vendor and they abuse it, you then have to contact your bank to reverse the charges and cancel your card, which is an inconvenience at best. That won’t happen if you use Google’s virtual cards, Bill Ready, Google’s president of commerce and payments, told The Verge in an interview. Each virtual card can only be used for a specific transaction (though they do support recurring transactions if you want to use it for a subscription).

Google has outlined its vision for this year’s major Android update, which looks set to continue many of the customization and privacy initiatives that the search giant introduced with last year’s Android 12. Its customizable Material You color schemes will now be available as preset themes and are also expanding to cover third-party apps icons and the media player. There are also new security features, including a dedicated Privacy and Security menu.

The direction isn’t likely to come as much of a surprise to anyone who’s kept up with Android 13’s early betas. But today’s announcements, made to coincide with the search giant’s annual Google I/O developer conference, see the company lay out its overarching vision for this year’s major Android update. The search giant is releasing Android 13’s second public beta today to coincide with the announcements.

Google has announced that it’s bringing back the Wallet app as a place to manage payment cards, gift cards, rewards cards, passes, and more. Wallet used to be a standalone app before it was folded into Google Pay. Now, the company is making it a separate app again, saying that consumers and companies alike are pushing for digital cards.

Wallet will be the app you use to store and manage your debit and credit cards on Android. (You’ll be able to use it across Google’s ecosystem in apps like Google Pay and on the web via Chrome Autocomplete.) But Google wants it to be much more than just a way to store credit and rewards cards. The company is also pitching Wallet as the place to keep your transit cards, proof of vaccination, tickets to events, and even your government-issued ID and car keys.

For Google, a company that built its reputation on organizing the world’s information, the latest sales pitch to users is that it will try to do more with less of it.

At its I/O 2022 developer conference on May 11th, the tech giant announced a range of privacy measures that it says will help users retain more control over how their data is used by Google applications and displayed to the world through search.

There’s a good chance you’ve spent much of the last two-plus years sitting at home, cycling through endless days of virtual meetings staring into your laptop’s webcam and talking into your built-in mic. This means you’ve spent much of the last two-plus years appearing to everyone else like a mushy pile of poorly lit pixels, sounding like you’re shouting from inside a tin can. It’s not your fault: your laptop’s webcam just sucks. And so does its mic. But Google thinks it can fix them both with AI.

Google announced on Wednesday at its annual I/O developer conference that its Workspace team has been working on a couple of AI-powered ways to improve your virtual meetings. The most impressive is Portrait Restore, which Google says can automatically improve and sharpen your image even over a bad connection or through a bad camera. Portrait Lighting, similarly, gives you a set of AI-based controls over how you’re lit. You can’t move the window off to your left, Google seems to be saying, but you can make Google Meet look as if you had one to your right as well. And when it comes to sound, Google’s rolling out a de-reverberation tool meant to minimize the echoes that come from talking into your laptop from a boxy home office. 

Google is partnering with a Harvard professor to promote a new scale for measuring skin tones with the hope of fixing problems of bias and diversity in the company’s products.

The tech giant is working with Ellis Monk, an assistant professor of sociology at Harvard and the creator of the Monk Skin Tone Scale, or MST. The MST Scale is designed to replace outdated skin tone scales that are biased towards lighter skin. When these older scales are used by tech companies to categorize skin color, it can lead to products that perform worse for people with darker coloring, says Monk.

It’s clear that the future of Google is tied to AI language models. At this year’s I/O conference, the company announced a raft of updates that rely on this technology, from new “multisearch” features that let you pair image searches with text queries to improvements for Google Assistant and support for 24 new languages in Google Translate.

But Google — and the field of AI language research in general — faces major problems. Google itself has seriously mishandled internal criticism, firing employees who raised issues with bias in language models and damaging its reputation with the AI community. And researchers continue to find issues with AI language models, from failings with gender and racial biases to the fact that these models have a tendency to simply make things up (an unnerving finding for anyone who wants to use AI to deliver reliable information).

At Google I/O, Google senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan announced new enhancements for its Lens multisearch tool, which lets you conduct a search with just an image and a couple of words.

A new mode, called “near me,” will let users take a photo of an object and then find results locally. As Raghavan explained, you’ll be able to take a photo of a dish and then search for restaurants that serve that specific food. Google will then display a list of relevant restaurants near you. To make this feature happen, Google scans relevant photos from websites, as well as those posted by reviewers, and then matches them to the one you uploaded. Near me will be available in English later this year and will expand to more languages “over time.”

The Nest Hub Max’s latest updates let you use Google Assistant without having to say “Hey Google” ahead of every request.

One of the ways that’ll work is with a new feature Google calls “Look and Talk.” Once it’s turned on, you’ll be able to look at the Nest Hub Max’s display and ask a question, no “Hey Google” prompt required. The feature could be a handy way to save some time when you’re already looking at a Nest Hub Max’s screen — I could see it being a useful way to ask for recipes. 

Google launched a new mode for Maps on Wednesday, designed to give users a more real-life look at the places they’re going before they even go. The new Immersive View is sort of a Street View in the sky: you can look over a location from above to get a sense of the neighborhood and then drop to street level to see the specific spots you might want to hit up. Maps overlays its live busyness and traffic info, so you get a quasi-augmented reality look at whatever park or street corner or beach spot you’re looking at.

The images behind Immersive View are all computer-generated, a combination of Google’s satellite captures and its Street View shots. As you move through them, it looks like playing a video game on medium graphics set in a precisely scaled real world. “We’re able to fuse those together,” says Liz Reid, a VP of engineering at Google, “so that we can actually understand, okay, these are the heights of the buildings. How do we combine that with Street View? How do we combine it with aerial view to make something that feels much more like you were there?”

2022’s developer conference season is here, and, as usual, Google is the first of the major companies to host its event. But while Google I/O is full of useful information for developers that build things for Android devices and Google services, it also has a bunch of product announcements and other interesting news for us consumers.

This year, we’re expecting to see a whole raft of products, from a new Pixel A-series phone to upgraded Pixel Buds and maybe even a Pixel Watch smartwatch. During its kickoff keynote, Google will also likely go over all of the updates coming to Android, other Google products, and its AI efforts, so there’s something for everyone.