Google I/O 2018 announcements: Android P, Lens, Maps, Assistant and more

Google I/O 2018 developer conference debuted just a few hours back. The three-day conference has many interesting announcements lined up from the company. These products and features will be released in the coming weeks to months. As expected, the company has made several announcements and here we have lined up all these for you. Some of the notable mentions are the Android P, and more.

Android P

This is the most awaited part of the Google I/O 2018. Android P is the next iteration of the OS. AI will be the core of Android P. It focuses on Intelligence, Simplicity and Digital Well-being. With the Adaptive Battery feature, Android P will use machine learning to offer an enhanced battery performance. This will also enhance the CPU performance of the devices.

Adaptive Brightness is another feature coming to the OS. This will adjust the brightness based on AI. App Actions is a better version of Predictive Apps seen on Android One. App Actions are predicted based on the usage pattern of the user. Google is launching ML Kit with machine learning for image labeling and text recognition among others. The ML Kit will support Android and iOS and is like ready to use models supporting cross platform functionality.

Android P will render simpler multitasking and will get gestures as in iPhone X. Slide the home button on your phone to switch between the apps. Volume changing on Android devices will be different. It will be vertical and not horizontal now. Slices are the new APIs. It will define interactive snippets of the app UI, which will show in search. Slice templates are versatile with videos, photos, etc. shown based on how developers use them. App Actions and Slices will be rolled out next month.

Android P will have an improved Dashboard showing the time you spend on your smartphone. It will also display the time spent on various apps. The platform will let you set time limits on apps. The Do Not Disturb mode will not only silent the notifications but also other distractions. Flipping the phone will activate the Do Not Disturb mode. This gesture, which will silence your phone completely is called Shush. Starred Contacts can still contact you and you will get notifications from these contacts.

These features will come to Android P this fall starting with the Pixel devices. Android P Beta will be available from today on Pixel devices. Also, devices from Nokia, Xiaomi, OnePlus and Sony will get the beta version of the OS.

Focus on AI

AI is going to be implemented in many fields including healthcare. There are field trials using AI in India to predict cardiovascular risk. Google is looking forward to partner with healthcare centers and hospitals with machine learning. Gboard with Morse code will be available in beta starting from today.

Gmail will get the Smart Compose feature using machine learning. It will consider predictive texts for addresses and more to make it more convenient send emails. This will be rolled out to the users by the end of this month.

Google Photos will get Suggested Actions with AI to offer an improved experience to the users. Users can share photos with a person in those photos, convert a scanned document into PDF, brighten the photos and add color to monochrome photos. This will be rolled out in a couple of months.

Google Assistant

Google Assistant will get six new voices. American singer John Legend's will also come to the digital assistant later this year. Working to make it better. Google aims to make the assistant to be naturally more conversational with Wavenet technology. Also, there is no need to say Hey Google every time to activate the Assistant as it will get Continued Conversation feature in the coming weeks.

The Multiple Actions feature will let you ask multiple questions in a command. Pretty Please will be an option meant for families and will be rolled out later this year. The first Smart Display from Google will go on sale in July this year. It will bring visual assistance to the Assistant to make users' lives easier. With this feature, the Assistant on smartphones will be more visual. Google Assistant will also hit Google Maps sometime later this year.

Google Assistant will get Google Duplex, which will understand a natural language, nuances of the conversation and more. It can handle actual voice calls to meet your requirements. These calls were also demonstrated and it was seen to handle the calls gracefully. It will also get food delivery option but that will be limited to the US market.

Digital Well-being

Family Link aims at kids and wants them to be secure in the internet world. This will launch later today. YouTube will send a reminder asking you to take a break if you are watching videos for a long time. This will be possible with a Time Watched too to let you see the time spent on watching videos on both mobile and desktop.

Google News

The new Google News will help you keep up with the news you care about with AI and understand the full story. There are large images and videos to make the app more engaging. The videos will be from YouTube and around the world. The app is based on Material Design. Newscasts is a new feature, which will offer a preview of the story and is not seen in any other news app. It gives an easy way to know the basic news without opening the specific piece of news.

Full coverage is offered by a new technique that will give a real-time understanding of the news with a series of news titles, tweets from several sources and more. It helps in developing knowledge on stories you care about and much more beneficial than scanning a few headlines. Also, Newsstand will help you keep updated with the news sources and subscribe to publications. Subscribe with Google lets you access paid content across all Google apps and devices. This feature will be rolled out in the coming weeks.

What's interesting is that the new Google News will be rolled out on Android, iOS and web in 127 countries starting from today. On the whole, Google News has got a major revamp this year.

Google Maps

AI will be the core of Maps. The new tab called For You will be added to show recommendations of restaurants and cafes in nearly locations. Google Maps will get a new Group Planning feature for real-time decisions. Your friends can also vote in real-time to choose a place. You Match will help show the places you prefer based on interests shared and previous ratings.

Navigation with camera

VPS (Visual Positioning System) is coming to help navigation using the camera of the device. It will use the camera to show where you are and figure you where you need to go. With this feature, there is no need to rely on the blue dot on Maps for walking navigation.

Google Home Unboxing and Setup process - GIZBOT

Google Lens

Google Lens will be integrated into the camera app from next week. This will be available in the camera app of LG G7, Pixel devices and others. It can now recognize and understand words. The Smart Text Selection feature will let you copy and paste words from a textbook to your phone. You can basically look for answers to a text. To be precise, if you point the camera at a menu, then it will check what the particular dish is about.