All of this reflects the very obvious, inescapable shift that Google and every other tech company have made recently to pump out AI features at a breakneck pace.
But in a way, less news about the newest Android OS at I/O is actually a good thing.
The past two years of software and hardware from seemingly every consumer tech company have been nonstop AI pep rallies.
To Google’s credit, it has certainly shipped lots of AI features.
But if nothing else, I appreciate that Google went out of its way to give Android time to shine before the big show — rather than relegating it to a handful of mentions between AI feature updates.
Instead of making the announcement at its major annual developer conference, Google revealed Material Three Expressive at a YouTube pre-show event broadcast the week before. This is the largest visual update Android has seen in years. What else could make a significant change to the design language of the most widely used mobile operating system in the world a headliner at I/O? You guessed it: artificial intelligence.
At Tuesday’s I/O, we anticipate Google will discuss Gemini in detail, including how it is enhancing it and integrating it into products in places where customers will see it more.
It should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched the last two I/O keynotes. In 2023, Sundar Pichai, the CEO, said AI so many times that we lost count, and Android was hardly mentioned at all. The keynote from the previous year was essentially the same, with the exception that Pichai saved us some effort by tallying all of the AI-related references. This is a clear indication of the unavoidable change that Google and all other tech companies have recently made to release AI features at a rapid pace.
Less information about the most recent Android OS at I/O is, however, somewhat advantageous.
In recent years, Google has worked hard to expand the number of phones that can access new features, even if they don’t have the newest operating system. Adding new features through Google Play and app updates will help companies like Samsung and Motorola reach people more quickly because they release new OS versions on their own timetables. Android’s sluggish feature rollouts, which frequently failed to reach many users, were a major criticism in previous years. This year, Google also changed the release schedule for Android 16, aiming to make more devices utilize the new features by releasing the major version in Q2 and the minor version in Q4.
It’s possible that this year’s I/O will feel familiar if it is indeed an AI show.
Hardware and software from almost all consumer tech companies have been AI pep rallies for the past two years. There have been numerous sneak peeks at features that are allegedly imminent. When it’s time to ship them, you should ask Apple how things are going.
Many AI features have been released by Google, to its credit. The company offers a wide range of platforms for it as well, including Chrome, Gmail, Meet, and the XR platform, about which we’re hoping to learn more (the glasses it has repeatedly hinted). There is much ground to cover.
However, it seems to me that we are approaching a tipping point, where the claims of how much time and effort AI will save us are starting to sound a little stale. At the very least, though, I value Google’s efforts to give Android a chance to shine before the big event instead of limiting it to a few mentions in between AI feature updates.
