The Google I/O 2017 Keynote Live Blog
by Ryan Smith on May 17, 2017 12:50 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Android
- Google IO
- Mobile
12:51PM EDT - Taking place today is Google's annual I/O developer conference. Starting things off as always is the keynote, where we should receive updates on several Google technologies, initiaitves, and other Google-centric projects
12:51PM EDT - Android O will obviously be a big focus
12:52PM EDT - Android Wear and Android TV are also good bets
12:52PM EDT - I'd also be surprised if we don't see something hardware related, though that could be just about anything
12:54PM EDT - So far Wi-Fi is behaving, and the weather is clear, if a bit chilly in the shadows. So we should be in for a good show
12:56PM EDT - This is the second year Google has held their event out at Mountain View's Shortline Amphitheater; it still remains a rather unique event
12:58PM EDT - The keynote is scheduled to start at 10am, so we should be getting underway in a few minutes
01:01PM EDT - And here we go
01:03PM EDT - Google is opening things up with an animated trailer
01:06PM EDT - Now on stage is Sundar Pichai
01:06PM EDT - Over 7000 people here
01:06PM EDT - There are a further 400 remote events
01:07PM EDT - Over one billion active Google users per month
01:08PM EDT - Android has crossed 2 billion active devices just this week
01:09PM EDT - Keep in mind there's only 7.5 billion people in the first place
01:09PM EDT - Sundar is now talking about Google's heavy investment in machine learning
01:10PM EDT - Smart Reply is being rolled out to Gmail users today
01:10PM EDT - First subject: voice
01:11PM EDT - Google's voice dictation word error rate is down to 4.9%, which is down from 6.1% just in the last 6 months
01:11PM EDT - Discussing how machine learning has allowed the Google Home device to use 2 microphones instead of 8, and still get good voice recognition accuracy
01:12PM EDT - Image recognition has similarly improved
01:12PM EDT - Google says their vision error rate is now lower than the human error rate
01:13PM EDT - New Google initiative being announced today: Google Lens
01:13PM EDT - Will ship first in Google Assistant and Photos
01:14PM EDT - Using image recognition to do smart things with information in photos. IDing flowers, inputting the SSID of a WiFi router, etc
01:15PM EDT - Google is rethinking their computational architecture and data centers. Google wants to build AI-first datacenters
01:15PM EDT - The core of this is Google's Tensor Processing Units, which they started using last year
01:15PM EDT - Now recapping machine learning training versus inference
01:16PM EDT - Google's TPU was optimized for inference. Training requires greater precision
01:16PM EDT - Google is announcing their second-generation TPU today, the Cloud TPU
01:16PM EDT - 180 TFLOPS per Cloud TPU chip. 4 chips per board
01:17PM EDT - Cloud TPUs are coming to the Google Compute Engine as of today
01:17PM EDT - These new TPUs are optimized for inference and training, implying that they operate at greater precision
01:18PM EDT - Google's AI efforts will be coming together under the Google.ai umbrella
01:18PM EDT - Research, tools, and applied AI
01:19PM EDT - Now discussing AutoML: using neural nets to design better neural nets
01:19PM EDT - "Learning to learn
01:20PM EDT - Now discussing applications for AI such as digital pathology
01:22PM EDT - Google also has projects for DNA sequencing, chemistry, and drawing assistance tools
01:23PM EDT - Now on to Google Assistant
01:23PM EDT - Recapping it, rolling a demo video
01:24PM EDT - Now on stage: Scott Huffman
01:24PM EDT - Google Assistant is now available on 100M devices
01:26PM EDT - Google wants to further improve the conversational abilities of Google Assistant
01:26PM EDT - Google is adding the ability to type to the assistant starting today
01:27PM EDT - Further down the line, Google will be rolling out Lens for Assistant, allowing it to talk about what it's seeing
01:28PM EDT - Combining Word Lens image translation with more standard Assistant natural language queries
01:29PM EDT - Also new: Google Assistant is now available on the iPhone
01:30PM EDT - This is part of a larger effort to get it into more devices
01:30PM EDT - Google is rolling out an Assistant SDK to allow product developers to add Assistant to their products
01:31PM EDT - Starting this summer, the Assistant will be available in German, French, and several other languages
01:32PM EDT - Now on stage: Valerie Nygaard
01:32PM EDT - Valerie is here to talk about how developers have been adding features to Google Assistant
01:32PM EDT - Actions on Google
01:33PM EDT - Starting today, Actions on Google will be supporting transactions
01:33PM EDT - Account creation, ordering/purchasing products, and more
01:33PM EDT - Demoing ordering food via Google Assistant on a phone
01:34PM EDT - Payment by fingerprint (Google Payments, I'd assume)
01:35PM EDT - Now on stage: Rishi Chandra
01:35PM EDT - Rishi is here with news about Google Home
01:36PM EDT - Launching in Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and Japan this summer
01:36PM EDT - 4 new features to be rolled out over the coming months
01:36PM EDT - 1) Proactive assistance
01:37PM EDT - Google will be starting simple, and it will have multiple user support
01:37PM EDT - 2) Hands-free calling for Google Home
01:38PM EDT - You can call any landline or mobile number in the US or Canada for free
01:38PM EDT - (If this isn't a prime example of how cheap VoIP to POTS has become, I don't know what is)
01:39PM EDT - Will be rolling out over the next few months
01:39PM EDT - Also, you can dial out using your personal number
01:40PM EDT - 3) Entertainment. Spotify's subscription and free services will be available on Home. SoundCloud and Deezer as well
01:40PM EDT - Bluetooth support is also coming
01:41PM EDT - 4) Today Google is announcing support for visual responses with Google Home
01:42PM EDT - Google Home can notify your phone (iOS or Android) and TVs via Chromecast
01:43PM EDT - Continuing to demo TV-related functionality
01:43PM EDT - Playing YouTube videos, showing the weather, etc
01:44PM EDT - Also integrates with Google's recently launched YouTube TV service
01:45PM EDT - Now on stage: Anil Sabharwal
01:45PM EDT - The next subject is Google Photos
01:46PM EDT - Recapping Google Photos advancements in the last couple of years
01:46PM EDT - 1.2 billion photos and videos are being uploaded each day
01:46PM EDT - Google is launching 3 new features for Photos
01:47PM EDT - 1) Suggested sharing
01:48PM EDT - Google will suggest photos to share, and who to share them with
01:48PM EDT - Photos will have a new "sharing" tab
01:49PM EDT - Demoing the feature
01:49PM EDT - Photos will send photos via SMS or email if the recipient doesn't have a Google Photos account
01:50PM EDT - 2) Shared Libraries
01:51PM EDT - Share part or all of your libraries with others
01:53PM EDT - Demoing how library sharing works and how it can be set to auto-save certain photos
01:55PM EDT - The new sharing features will be rolling out in the coming weeks
01:55PM EDT - 3) Photo Books
01:56PM EDT - It will now be possible to make photo books on the Photos application, with an emphasis on making it easy
01:56PM EDT - Demoing the feature now
01:57PM EDT - Google will be making the books; they offer softcover and hardcover books
01:57PM EDT - In the future, Google will be adding machine learning into the mix to suggest photo book compositions
01:58PM EDT - Photo books are available today on the website, and next week on the mobile apps
01:58PM EDT - Everyone at I/O will be receiving a free hardcover photo book
01:59PM EDT - Finally, Google Lens is being added to Google Photos
02:00PM EDT - IDing items in photos, etc
02:01PM EDT - Up next: YouTube news
02:02PM EDT - Now on stage: Susan Wojcicki
02:04PM EDT - YouTube has passed 1B hours/day viewed
02:05PM EDT - (So far this is more promotional than announcing anything new)
02:06PM EDT - Over 60% of watch time is now on mobile devices
02:07PM EDT - But living room viewing is the fastest growing segment
02:07PM EDT - Now on stage: Sarah Ali
02:08PM EDT - Google is adding support for 360 degree videos on the TV YouTube application
02:09PM EDT - Demoing controlling a 360 degree view using a TV remote
02:09PM EDT - (Looks like an NVIDIA Shield TV controller)
02:10PM EDT - Now on stage: Barbara Macdonald
02:11PM EDT - Barbara is here to discuss Google's Super Chat feature, which actually launched earlier this year
02:11PM EDT - Demoing Super Chat
02:13PM EDT - Google is adding a new API feature to Super Chat to allow Super Chat to trigger device actions
02:15PM EDT - (This water balloon stunt is cringey)
02:17PM EDT - Now on stage: Dave Burke to talk about Android
02:18PM EDT - (2 Billion active devices; I have to wonder how many of them are up to date on security patches...)
02:18PM EDT - The 2B number is just phones and tablets, BTW
02:18PM EDT - Dave is currently recapping recent efforts. Android Wear, Android Auto, etc
02:20PM EDT - 82B apps and games installed via the Play Store in the last year
02:20PM EDT - Now focusing on Android O
02:20PM EDT - Release later this summer
02:21PM EDT - Dave is going to walk us through two themes that Google wants to focus on
02:21PM EDT - 1) Fluid Experiences
02:22PM EDT - Multitasking on Android O: Picture-in-picture on a phone
02:23PM EDT - Notification dots: a dot on the icon for an app to indicate that an app has a notification
02:24PM EDT - All fully automatic, without developers having to do extra
02:24PM EDT - Autofill with Google: autofill has been extended to apps
02:24PM EDT - Auto fill usernames, passwords, etc
02:25PM EDT - Copy & paste: smart text selection
02:25PM EDT - On device machine learning to intelligently automatically select text based on context
02:25PM EDT - Select a whole name at once, etc
02:26PM EDT - Announcing TensorFlowLite
02:27PM EDT - TFL will be leveraging a new API for neural network hardware
02:27PM EDT - The neural network will be made avaialble to O later this year
02:27PM EDT - 2) Vitals
02:28PM EDT - Vitals is focused on core functionality like security, performance, and battery life
02:28PM EDT - 3 foundational building blocks: security enhancements, OS optimizations, and developer tools
02:29PM EDT - Google is going to make their Google Play store security features more obvious
02:29PM EDT - Google Play Protect
02:29PM EDT - Letting users know the app has been scanned
02:29PM EDT - OS optimizations: faster boot time
02:30PM EDT - O will be adding limits to background execution
02:30PM EDT - Play Console Dashboards, to help developers see what problems users are happening
02:31PM EDT - Having
02:31PM EDT - One more thing
02:32PM EDT - Google is adding a new programming language to Android
02:32PM EDT - Kotlin
02:32PM EDT - Fully ART compatible, and interops with existing Android apps
02:33PM EDT - A ton more features they aren't going into right now, such as Project Treble
02:33PM EDT - First Android O beta out today
02:33PM EDT - But wait, there's more
02:34PM EDT - Now on stage: Sameer Samat
02:34PM EDT - Sameer is here to talk more about Android
02:35PM EDT - How do we get smartphones to more people and more of the world?
02:35PM EDT - Annoucning the successor to the Android One program, Android Go
02:36PM EDT - Android Go focuses on 3 things: optimized OS for low-end devices, smaller built-in apps, and a Play Store that highlights suitable apps (though all apps are accessible)
02:36PM EDT - For phones with 1GB or less of RAM
02:36PM EDT - Go devices can run with as little as 512MB
02:37PM EDT - Quick settings will include data usage information
02:37PM EDT - Chrome Data Saver will be on by default
02:38PM EDT - YouTube Go: a version of the app optimized for Android Go
02:38PM EDT - Save videos to watch them later. Peer-to-peer sharing of saved videos
02:40PM EDT - Improved keyboard tools for typing in other scripts
02:40PM EDT - "Building for Billions" best practices for Android Go
02:41PM EDT - Useful offline state, sub-10MB APK size, and better performance through GCM
02:41PM EDT - Starting with O, all 1GB or less devices will get the Go configuration
02:41PM EDT - And all devices will eventually have a Go configuration
02:42PM EDT - Now on stage: Clay Bavor to talk about AR and VR
02:43PM EDT - LG's next flagship phone will support Daydream
02:43PM EDT - Samsung GS8/GS8+ will add Daydream support this summer
02:44PM EDT - Daydream will now support stand-alone headsets as well
02:44PM EDT - (Qualcomm has been pushing this idea particularly hard)
02:45PM EDT - WorldSense tracking technology
02:45PM EDT - Inside-out tracking from the device
02:45PM EDT - Google will be taking a platform approach for standalone Daydream devices
02:46PM EDT - Working with Qualcomm, of course. Also working with HTC and Lenovo on headsets
02:46PM EDT - Standalone devices later this year
02:46PM EDT - Update on Project Tango
02:47PM EDT - The second generation Tango phone will be the Asus Zenfone AR, which will go on sale later this summer
02:48PM EDT - Visual Positioning Service
02:48PM EDT - The phone finds its place by looking around and identifying visual markers
02:49PM EDT - CV meets positioning
02:49PM EDT - Adding a new AR mode to Google Expeditions for education
02:51PM EDT - And back to Sundar
02:53PM EDT - Sundar is sharing a developer story on TensorFlow
02:53PM EDT - Rolling a vido
02:56PM EDT - New initiative: Google for Jobs
02:56PM EDT - Job listing/matching service
02:57PM EDT - New search feature to help people find job postings
02:58PM EDT - Google's worked with all of the major job listing services
02:58PM EDT - Filtering jobs by type, hours, etc
02:59PM EDT - Addressing jobs of every skill and experience level
02:59PM EDT - Rolling out in the US in the coming weeks
03:00PM EDT - Recap time
03:00PM EDT - Google's shift from mobile-first to AI-first
03:00PM EDT - And that's a wrap
16 Comments
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MrSpadge - Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - link
Strange interpretation of "One more thing" ;)tuxRoller - Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - link
It's unfortunate that we can't judge each of these summits of their own terms, but that's human nature. We lazyMeteor2 - Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - link
So what devices is Google Assistant available on? Or is that 100m figure effectively how many Pixel phones have been sold?Matt Humrick - Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - link
Google Home and Android phonesMeteor2 - Thursday, May 18, 2017 - link
It's only on Pixel phones, no other Android phones have it yet. It's 'promised soon', like Wear 2.0...So they've sold 100m Pixel phones and Homes.
Meteor2 - Thursday, May 18, 2017 - link
(Did some research)NonSequitor - Thursday, May 18, 2017 - link
Are you sure about that? It's on my Nexus 6P, which is totally stock, and has been on it for some time.Cliff34 - Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - link
All the talk about AI, I still feel it is more hype than functional. I wish they focus more energy to make Hello Google easier to use and more human friendly.For example, when I am driving back home (using Google Map to direct me), I wish i can simply tell Google to call my wife or change the music on the fly.
It is almost there. But it is still not to the point where i can control the phone without touching it. I can make a call to my wife BUT after the call end, it doesn't flip back to Google Map. The same goes for changing music.
If they can make AI where i can control the phone by speaking to it without clicking, WOW, then we are getting somewhere.
Meteor2 - Thursday, May 18, 2017 - link
On my Nexus 5X I can change music and make calls through voice control only. Are you doing it right? It's 'OK Google, play Push It by Garbage' or 'OK Google, call so-and-so'. You need to have 'unlock via voice' set in Settings in the Google app.Meteor2 - Thursday, May 18, 2017 - link
Neither interrupts Navigation via Maps, btw.