Beyoncé, Google for Your Home, and More Featured at Google I/O Kick-off

Google I/O, the search giant’s annual three-day tech conference, kicked off with a keynote address from CEO Sundar Pichai and a succession of Google engineers unwrapping the latest and hottest upcoming tech from Google. Personal assistants, new ways to chat and communicate, virtual reality (VR), and even Beyoncé were all part of the keynote show.

Pichai started off by saying that most of us are now doing searches on our mobile devices, and more of us are using our voices to search. Google is focused on fine-tuning the search experience. “We are pushing ourselves really hard,” said Pichai. “You search for Beyoncé, and you get a rich information card [of] music, upcoming show events–and you can book [shows] right there.”

Google All Up in Your House

With new capabilities in mobile search, a user can stand in front of a building and ask Google, “Who designed it?” then get a voice answer.

Google’s advancements in search technology have resulted in a new product, Google Assistant: an Internet-connected device for the home that lets users ask Google questions and manage tasks. The more you use it, the more it learns about you.

A Google engineer explained the ways in which Google Assistant can be used. For example, you can ask it to show you movies nearby. Then, based on your search history, Google Assistant will recommend movies playing nearby for you. You could also tell it that you are bringing the kids along, and Google Assistant will tailor the search to family-friendly movies. It will even retrieve and buy tickets without you needing your phone or opening an app.

Google Assistant can also broadcast music and entertainment throughout a home. Additionally, it can manage tasks, such as your travel itinerary, and inform you of traffic conditions for your drive to work. Google calls it “your personal Google around the house.”

There will inevitably be comparisons to the Amazon personal assisting device, Alexa. Pinchai gave credit to Amazon for innovation with its personal assistant, but also said that Google Assistant can handle search queries in ways other assistants can’t.

Allo, Duo, and More

Also announced was new messenger app, Allo.

 The app has a “great collection of stickers” and provides fun ways for users to express themselves in messages. This includes the Whisper/Shout feature, which lets you make words animate to large or small scale for extra emphasis in a message.

Allo is also capable of automated, so-called “smart” replies. On stage, the Google team demonstrated with a picture of a dog sent via text. Allo recognized that the picture featured a dog, and was able to automatically respond with “Cute dog!” or respond by texting the name of the breed. It was an amazing demonstration of what Pinchai referred to as “advanced natural language processing,” which means the app can understand the content users share and upload.

A new video

app, Duo, lets you see a caller live on video before you answer the video call. Google also touched on new features in its soon-to-be released operating system (OS) called Android N.  The new OS will include multitasking and multi-window functions; 72 new emojis, including ones that better represent women in professional roles; and split-screen and picture-in-picture window modes.

Other announcements included the upcoming launch of Android Wear 2.0, it’s software for wearables; a new platform for developing VR content, which will include rebuilding YouTube from the ground up to support VR; and a new Android Instant App feature that will allow developers to let Android devices open app-specific content without requiring the user to install the app.