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Google I/O 2017 Keynote: First Android O Beta Release Available, Google Assistant for iPhone Announced

Google I/O 2017 Keynote: First Android O Beta Release Available, Google Assistant for iPhone Announced

By Pranay Parab | Updated: 18 May 2017 00:33 IST

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Google I/O 2017: Google Assistant Comes to iPhone, Understands Typing, and MoreGoogle I/O 2017: Google Lens Visual Search Service UnveiledGoogle I/O 2017: Gmail Gets Smart Reply Feature on Android, iOS

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With that, he concludes the keynote. Thanks for following this live blog, stay tuned for detailed coverage around Google I/O 2017.

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This feature is coming to US only right now and more nations in the future.

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Google search now has job searching tools. If you search for jobs on Google, rich cards will help you find exactly what you need. Google has partnered with sites such as LinkedIn for this feature.

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He's announced a new project called Google for Jobs. Using Google products to find jobs.

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Pichai's focus has been on machine learning today.

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai is back on stage.

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He's talking about Visual Positioning Service, which combines GPS with visual inputs. Think getting directions to a particular part of a massive store that stocks the one item you need.

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Some updates on Project Tango Augmented Reality (AR). Phones that support this are getting smaller.

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Lenovo and HTC are working with Google to bring standalone VR headsets to the market.

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Google has worked with Qualcomm to build a Daydream standalone VR headset reference design.

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Daydream is launching a Standalone VR headset. These devices will run without a phone or PC.

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Bavor is highlighting Daydream apps and phones. LG's next flagship and Samsung S8, S8+ will have Daydream support.

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Clay Bavor, Google's VP of VR is on stage now.

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Google has a project called Building for Billions that incentivises optimising apps for entry level devices. Every future Android release will have a Go configuration.

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He's showing Gboard's transliteration feature. And highlighting its support for 22 Indian languages.

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Google Chrome's data saver feature will be enabled by default. Samat is talking about YouTube Go, the version of YouTube optimised for slow networks.

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It has interesting features such as seeing how much data you've used and even lets you top up mobile data right from Settings.

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Android O is being optimised to run smoothly on devices with as little as 512MB of RAM.

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He's talking about Android Go. This focuses on optimising Android to run smoothly on entry level apps. It also helps people run apps smoothly and has incentives for developers to optimise apps for these devices.

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Sameer Samat, Android and Play VP is on stage now.

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Kotlin is a new programming language that Android now supports. This drew huge cheers from the developer crowd.

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Android developers can now see detailed information on which issues are causing crashes and battery drain. They can see everything on a unified timeline and this will help them fix these problems quickly, Cuthberson says.

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Google Pixel now boots twice as fast and apps run faster and smoother, Cuthberson says. Google Play ships with a service called Google Play Protect which scans apps for malware.

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Stephanie Saad Cuthberson, director, product management for Android is on stage.

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Select a phone number, and Android suggests that you call the number. Select an address, and Android suggests that you open it in Google Maps.

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Another new feature is Notification Dots. Apps have a dot on their icon to indicate that there are new notifications. Long pressing an app icon shows more information from the app - much like 3D Touch on iOS.

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Picture in Picture for YouTube is one such Fluid Experience. This helps you watch videos while using other apps, which is multitasking.

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Android O has a few important themes - Fluid Experiences and Vitals.

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Android users have downloaded 82 billion apps and games from Google Play store.

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Android O.

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Dave Burke, VP Engineering at Android is on stage to talk about the one thing we've all been waiting for.

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Android O is up next.

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YouTube is launching new features for Super Chat (paid comments that are highlighted). Super Chats can trigger things like turning off lights at the creator's studio.

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Barbara Macdonald, Product Manager, YouTube is on stage. She says the number of people streaming live you YouTube has grown 4X.

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YouTube is also introducing live 360-degree videos to TVs. Great for those who want to watch concerts on TV.

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YouTube is launching 360-degree videos on its app for TVs.

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Sarah Ali, head of living room products at YouTube is on stage to talk about how it's growing on TVs.

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YouTube's fastest growing screen is TV. Watch time on YouTube is growing at over 90 percent.

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Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO is on stage.

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That's it for Google Photos. YouTube next. Looks like they're saving Android for the end of the keynote.

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Sabharwal just said that Photo Books will be available in more countries soon. The photo books start at $9.99 and all I/O attendees get a free Photo Book.

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You can select a bunch of photos, select a type of photo book - hard cover or soft cover - and Google Photos will create a full photo album after selecting the best photos. A few days letter a printed book will arrive at your doorstep (not sure if this will work outside the US).

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The third new feature is Photo Books.

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Google Photos lets you share libraries with others and has a feature that allows you to save photos automatically to their libraries, as you click new photos.

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The second new feature in Google Photos is Shared Libraries. You can share certain photos or the entire library with others.

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When you share photos with a friend, that person will get a prompt to share related photos with you. This feature sounds great for trips where lots of people click photos on their smartphones.

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Suggested Sharing is the first feature. Google Photos reminds you to share photos with your friends. If a person is in many photos, the app will identify that person and suggest that you share those photos with that person.

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Google Photos is launching three new features.

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Google Photos removes blurry photos and duplicates automatically from photo albums, Sabharwal says.

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Anil Sabharwal, VP of Google Photos is on stage.

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That's all for Google Home updates. Google Photos is next.

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You can even ask Google Home to watch stuff on YouTube or YouTube TV.

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Google Home will also show visual responses via your smartphone or Chromecast devices. All existing Chromecasts will get an update today to add this feature.

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Spotify Premium and Free are available in Google Home. So are Soundcloud and Deezer. Google Home also gets Bluetooth support to let you play audio from your iOS and Android devices.

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Google Assistant recognises people's voices, and personalises results for each person. If you say Call mom, it will call your mom, and not your cousin's mom.

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Google Home can now make hands-free calls. Calls to numbers in US and Canada are totally free, Google says.

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Google Assistant can do things like alert you about traffic conditions so you can make it to an event listed in your Google Calendar on time.

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Google Home will soon be available in Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and Japan.

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Rishi Chandra, VP of Home Products is on stage to talk about Google Home.

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Google now has 70+ smart home partners.

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Nygaard just showed a demo of an ordering experience via Google Assistant. It was a conversational chatbot and the conversation felt quite natural. She didn't have to enter her address or credit card details, as the data was already stored with Google.

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Google Assistant product manager Valerie Nygaard is on stage to talk about Google Assistant actions.

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Google Assistant SDK allows developers to integrate the Assistant into all kinds of devices.

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Google Assistant is now available on the iPhone.

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He's showing ways in which Google Assistant helps people. The demo shows the Assistant helping with visual translation of a sign in Japanese.

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You can now type to Google Assistant, instead of just using voice commands.

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Almost 70 percent of queries to Google Assistant are in natural language - just like how people talk. Many of these queries are follow up queries.

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The Google Assistant is becoming even more conversational, he says.

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Scott Huffman, vice president engineering for Google Assistant is now on stage.

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Google has also built a tool called Auto Draw. If you scribble a drawing, the software can help identify the object and draw for you.

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Google has built neural networks to help pathologists improve cancer diagnoses.

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He's talking about AutoML - automatic machine learning - neural networks learning to build neural networks.

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Google.ai is a collection of efforts and teams to bring together the company's AI efforts. It has three areas - research, tools, and applied AI.

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Google just announced Cloud TPU, which is the hardware that powers machine learning in Google's data centres.

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Pichai is talking about machine learning and how it works to recognise objects in photos.

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Google has launched a new feature called Google Lens. This can recognise objects by simply pointing your smartphone's camera at them. It can even enter WiFi passwords directly and all you have to do is point the camera at the password text.

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Soon Google will be able to remove obstructions from photos in case something gets in the way of your photo, like a stray branch.

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Pichai claims Google's computer vision technology is better than humans at image recognition.

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Pichai is talking about Google's progress in speech recognition. The word error rate is now at 4.9%, much lower than what it was a few years ago.

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Google is rolling out Allo's Smart Reply feature to Gmail. It automatically suggests replies based on the text in emails you receive.

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The company is using AI and machine learning to optimise all of its products.

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He's talking about Google's shift from a mobile-first to an AI-first approach.

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Android has over 2 billion active devices now.

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Google Photos has 500 million monthly active users.

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Google Drive is at 800 million monthly active users.

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Pichai says 7 of Google's platforms have over 1 billion monthly active users.

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai is on stage for the keynote.

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The keynote has begun with an animated video.

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The Google I/O 2017 keynote has begun.

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The keynote is set to begin in 10 minutes. The venue is packed.

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We'll be bringing live updates right here. Stay tuned.

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Android O is likely to be the biggest announcement at the Google I/O 2017 keynote.

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Google I/O 2017 is scheduled to begin at 10.30 pm IST.

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Google I/O 2017 keynote has begun, and CEO Sundar Pichai has announced a new feature called Google Lens, which can recognise objects by simply pointing your smartphone's camera at them. It can even enter WiFi passwords directly and all you have to do is point the camera at the password text. Pichai has also announced at his Google I/O 2017 keynote that the company has built neural networks to help pathologists improve cancer diagnoses.

Scott Huffman, Vice President - Engineering, Google Assistant, took to the stage after Pichai, revealing that the AI-powered digital assistant is now even more conversational. He announced Google Assistant is now heading to iPhones, and the SDK will allow developers to integrate the virtual helper in all kinds of devices. He also said roughly 70 percent of queries to Google Assistant are in natural language, and many of these queries are follow-up queries.

Though the Google annual conference is primarily for developers, it has a lot of announcements that will interest people who aren't developers, the biggest draw being Android O, the next version of Google's operating system for smartphones. The Internet giant is expected to announce many new features of Android O during the keynote, as well as new developments around its other products.

Also seeGoogle I/O 2017 Keynote: How to Watch It and What to Expect

There are several other things that may be announced at Google I/O 2017, not least of which are improvements to Google Home and Google Daydream. Home is a speaker that has Assistant baked in, meaning it can listen to your voice and execute commands, and Daydream is the company's virtual reality headset.

Also seeGoogle May Launch a Standalone VR Headset at I/O 2017: Report

While Android has been at the centre of Google I/O every year, this year we might hear more about something beyond Android. The Fuchsia project is an operating system that the company might reveal more about at the Google I/O 2017 keynote. There's also the long-rumoured standalone VR headset.

Also seeGoogle I/O 2017: Android O, VR Focus, Google Assistant on iOS, and More You Can Expect

We could also hear about how Google Allo and Duo have been performing, although that's unlikely because the two apps aren't exactly very popular. Google I/O 2017 could feature a mention of Android Instant Apps, something Google announced in 2016 but only started testing earlier this year.

Also seeGoogle I/O 2017 Dates, Schedule, and Rumours: What We Know So Far

If you are interested in Android Auto, then you may hear something about it during Google I/O 2017. This could also be the time Google mentions something about Chrome OS and Chromebooks. Apart from that, we could hear mention of Project Tango - the company's augmented reality project as well.

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Further reading: Google, Google IO, Google IO 2017, Android, Google Home, Google Assistant, Google ALlo, Google Duo, Android Instant Apps, Sundar Pichai, Google Daydream