Google’s live Google I/O 2021 keynote took place on May 18. A huge number of announcements were unveiled, and we’re here to catch up on them with you.
The Android 12 has a radical and bubbly new look; the “Material You” design offers color and customization, a new mobile OS, and new privacy features, including a new privacy dashboard. Another announcement included “smart canvas”, a new initiative for Google’s Workspace office software to make it easier to work between products. Some features include “smart chips” that can link to other Workspace apps or allow you to start a Meet video call right from a Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide. Google also showed off pre-recorded demos around its new LaMDA AI language model technology where AI “talked” as Pluto and a paper airplane.
A few other announcements included the merge between Google’s Wear (formerly Wear OS) and Samsung’s Tizen into a unified platform, real-time 3D models of a person “sitting” across from you demonstrated through Project Starline, and updates in progress to Google’s camera and imaging products to more accurately capture and reproduce skin tones in images. Google Photos unveiled “cinematic moments” which uses two photos to create a moving image, plus a password-protected Locked Folder feature where you can store and hide photos.
Rolling out over the next few months will be the ability to change a stored password for a website from right inside Google’s password manager. Google Maps will receive new features for its Live View augmented reality tool, other privacy-focused features will be added to Android, and digital car keys will soon be supported to unlock your car with your phone, though BMW is the only confirmed automaker to support this so far. Lastly, is debuting a new health tool which will identify skin conditions using your camera. To learn more details around this pilot, as well as all of the other announcements made, visit here for a more in-depth recap.
