Google’s annual developer conference ‘Google I/O 2018’ will take place at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California starting Tuesday, May 8. Here’s what you can expect:
Android P
Google is expected to unveil the next version of the Android OS. For now, the company has already released one developer preview of Android P, which focuses on major decision changes to the mobile operating system.
The design of the iPhone X is such that there is no room left for the home button that has been synonymous with iPhones thus far. Therefore, Apple enabled gesture controls, where gestures from the bottom of the screen completed the functions that were previously controlled by the home button, such as going to the home screen, activating Siri or opening up the app switcher screen.
Android P will natively enable similar functionality, thereby allowing Android OEMs to do away with hardware and on-screen navigation keys and enables full-screen displays. The gesture controls will allow the back and app-switcher on-screen buttons to be hidden away, thereby allowing a more effective use of the full-screen display.
It’s worth noting that many Android OEMs including OnePlus, Vivo and Oppo have already enabled similar implementations of gesture navigation in their recent smartphones even on the framework of Android Oreo, so this is nothing new to Android. However, enabling this functionality on the basic framework of Android P will mean that manufacturers don’t have to specifically develop such functionality on their UI overlays.
Artificial Intelligence
CEO Sundar Pichai has previously stated that AI as the secret sauce to his company’s future. According to The Verge, the software that can see and understand the world, identify objects, and parse natural language will help Google products improve in the coming years. The company is already testing artificial intelligence with Google Assistant, Google Lens and more.