The dust is settling on the keynote at Google's I/O developer conference, and there is a lot to be excited about. What exactly has the company been up to? Here are five things we can expect to see from Google in the coming months.
Daydream
This year is the year of virtual reality, and Google has a new platform. Daydream is a collaboration with Android manufacturers That will bring it into the virtual reality space.
Among the apps that will be available on Daydream are Google maps and Streetview, YouTube and Play Movies. There's talk of a VR viewer and controllers too.
Google is late to the party on this one, with Oculus, HTC and Samsung headsets already on sale and Sony’s PlayStation VR coming later this year. It certainly has some catching up to do, but we wouldn’t dismiss Daydream just yet.
Google Home
The news that Google has been working on a competitor to Amazon Echo is not surprise, with speculation that I/O would be the launching pad for the device heating up in recent weeks. Google Home is a voice activated helper that you can use for everything from organising your entertainment or setting your oven times to checking flight times or simply searching the web.
Google Home will launch later this year, although it’s not clear if Ireland will be on the list for the product.
Allo
Everyone is doing AI this year. Facebook announced at F8 that it was introducing chatbots that would allow businesses to deliver more personalised interactive, services, from ordering products to providing customer service. Allo will use Google assistant, which will enable it to provide information, automatically generate replies and generally make itself useful to you. Its messages are encrypted if you use incognito mode, which offers full end-to-end encryption, and Allo will also have expiring messages and private notifications
Duo
FaceTime may have brought video calling to iOS users, but that’s no use to Android owners. Now Google is releasing Duo, a one to one video calling app that will be available to both Android and iOS users. It’s linked to your phone number rather than a Google ID, which means it will be mobile only for now, unlike FaceTime, which can be used on a MacBook and iPad too.
There’s one feature that iOS doesn’t have: something called Knock Knock, which gives you a live video of the other caller before you answer. We can see this one backfiring for some people...
Android Wear 2.0
You may not be ready to jump on the smartwatch bandwagon just yet, but maybe the updated version of Android Wear will persuade you. The next generation of Google’s wearable software will be a bit less dependent on your smartphone connection, which is good news. There are more standalone apps that run directly on the watch. It means you can go for a run and leave your smartphone behind or occasionally go smartphone-less without rendering your expensive smartwatch completely useless.
