Google officially unveiled their newest version of Android during the company's I/O 2018 developer conference. Android P brings the biggest redesign to the platform to date with features that focus on a brand new gesture-based interface, similar to what Apple has implemented on the iPhone X.

Eventually the codename 'P' will be replaced with a dessert name like Peppermint, Popsicle or Pecan Pie, but for now the update will continue to be known as Android P and we have a lot to unpack

Gesture Based User Interface

Google has introduced a brand new way to navigate through your Android P device using gestures. Apple's iPhone X users however wont see much difference here from Apple's own implementation on their flagship device.



The home button has been reduced to a tiny pill that sits in the bottom of your display, which you can interact with to perform various actions. Tapping on the pill and swiping up will pull up the multi-tasking menu, from where you can scroll through all the apps you have opened. Swiping up again will open the app drawer. You can tap on the home pill again to return to your homescreen.

A dedicated back button will appear for navigational purposes when needed

Digital Wellbeing

Are you worried you spend too much time on your device ? Google has found that more than 70% of their users want to help manage their digital on-device time better, and want to address this with Android P.


With this new unified dashboard, Android P users will be able to see how much time they've spent on their phones every day. It will show you the number of times you have picked up your phone, and the time you've spent on various apps. Digital Wellbeing on Android P will let you set time limits on apps, and will nudge you when you reach that limit.


'Shush' is another enhancement on Android P, which lets you take a break from the constant flow of notifications. You can activate this feature by simply turning the screen facing down, putting your device into Do Not Disturb Mode. Interestingly, this was a popular feature on early Windows Phone devices from Nokia.

Android P is also introducing a 'Wind Down' mode, which is great for people who get constantly disturbed by their phones when they are sleeping. Users will have to set a 'Wind Down' hour, at which the phone will automatically switch into night mode with a gray scale display, which is less stimulating for the brain. Google claims that this small adjustment can help keep you away from distractions before bedtime.

Android Intelligence

With the new Android Intelligence features on Android P,  Google plans to let you get the most out of our smartphone.

Adaptive Battery

The Adaptive Battery feature on Android P will allow on-device machine learning to understand your app usage patterns, predicting the apps you use daily and those you dont use as regularly. This information will remain private as it occurs within your device itself, but it will allow your Android device to adapt to your use.



In practical tests at Google, this resulted in 30% reduction in CPU wake-ups, which in turns reduces CPU processing and increases battery life drastically.

Adaptive Brightness

With Android P, Google is introducing a new form of auto-brightness, it calls Adaptive Brightness. Unlike regular auto-brightness which adjusts your screen brightness based on your surroundings, the user will be able to manually adjust the level of brightness to suite their preference. Android will learn from these preferences and offer your personal preference in future.

Actions

Last year, Android featured predictive apps, which showed the top five most used apps on the top of your app launcher. With Android P, the team is introducing a feature calls App Actions. These will be predicted based on usage patterns of what you do most on your phone.


For example, your device may prompt you to play music when you connect your headphones, or suggest you get back to your e-Book when you are on your morning commute.

Slices

Google is introducing a new Slice API, which will give direct access to key app features from the operating system or from search (in Android P, this feature will only be available in search, but expect it to expand in future releases).


In the example above, Lyft is using the Slice API to render a slice of their app in the context of search, allowing you to directly hail a cab from your Google search without having to open the Lyft app.

MLKit

MLKit (short for machine learning kit) is a new set of on-device APIs that is cross-platform and will work with both Android and iOS. It gives developers ready to use models for things like face recognition, barcode scanning, image labeling, smart reply, landmark detection and so on.

Simplicity

Google has also introduced several smaller features and improvements that will enhance the overall experience for users on Android P.

• Volume Controls - It is now easier to adjust media volumes without having to deal with the complicated sound controls you are familiar with on Android. Simply pressing the volume up/down buttons will adjust the media volume by default. There will be a separate button for those wanting to adjust ringtone volume or switch between silent and vibrate mode. These sliders will no longer be at the top out of reach, and instead more accessible on the right side of the phone.
• Rotation Confirmation - Screen rotation is getting a huge functionality boost with one very simple change. On Android P, when you rotate a device, you will automatically be shown a button that can be pressed to rotate the screen correspondingly. This will help manage those annoying auto rotations.
• Notifications
• Work Profiles
• Quick Settings
• Better Screenshots
• Crash Dialogs
• Status Bar

AI and Machine Learning were a big focus on this year's I/O developer conference for Google, and another service which was treated to these enhancements was Google Photos. In the coming months, Google Photos will be updated with a feature it calls 'Suggested Actions,' which as its name implies, will suggest actions on a per-photo basis.

This is much more than simple image enhancements as you will see. Even though it is applicable with a single tap!

Automatic Sharing of Photos with people in your photos

If you are taking some photos at a wedding, and Google recognizes one of your contacts are in the photos, it will recognize their face automatically and suggest that you share those photos with your friends. Google has been pretty impressive with this facial recognition feature in the past, and we will be interested to see how accurately it makes suggestions with these updates.



Document Scanning with OCR

Google Photos will allow you to scan documents with OCR (optical character recognition) with the new update. Capturing a photo of a document will allow the app to recognize that it is a document and automatically straighten the image, allowing you to convert it to a PDF for further editing, printing or sharing.



Automatic Image Enhancements

Google is improving its existing Image Enhancement feature on Google Photos with a few improvements to make your saves photos stand out even more.

Brightness Adjustments



If Google Photos detects a photo is under-or overexposed, it will automatically suggest a fix you can apply with a single tap.

Photo colorization

Applying color to a black and white photo takes a lot of time and skill. With the updated Google Photos, it will only take a tap. Google Photos will be able to detect monochormatic images, and offer colorization for them automatically.



While the outcome may not be perfect, the sample above shows some promise and convenience.

Other Miscellaneous effects and image enhancements



Another interesting feature Google showcased during its presentation was called 'color splash', which allows to enhance the color in a specific arena of a black and white photo, or conversely, desaturate a color photograph selectively.

The Google Assistant was first announced during Google's 2016 I/O developer conference and now two years later, the company had several updates they wanted to share regarding its evolution.

Google has shifted its focus heavily toward artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the importance of Google Assistant in this endeavor is very clear from today's announcements.


During the keynote, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai stated that once of the biggest goals for Google was to make Google Assistant more "natural and comfortable to talk to." As part of this initiative, the company plans to introduce new voices for the Assistant.

Originally, Google has a real person sitting in a studio for hours at a time, recording various audio responses to potential requests a user could make. Now Google is able to use a breakthrough form its machine learning DeepMind team to make artificial voices sound more natural, using a feature called WaveNet.

Thanks to this, Google will be able to introduce six new voices with different accents and tones, allowing the user to pick their favorite. Eventually, Google hopes to make the right accent to its global user.

Google has also used their WaveNet technology to bring John Legend's voice to Google Assistant. While the singer/sound-writer didn't have to spend hours recording his voice, the technology is able to simulate responses in his voice through Assistant. Users to be able to experience John Legend on their Google Assistant later this year for certain contexts.

Less "Hey, Google" with Continued Conversations

One of the annoying things about the Google Assistant is having to repeat the phrase, "Hey, Google", every time you want to get it's attention. Google agrees, and has introduced a new feature called 'Continued Conversations', which allows you to speak to the Assistant without having to repeat "Hey, Google", every time.

Continued Conversations will be released to Google Assistant in the coming weeks.

Multiple Actions

The Google Assistant is getting a lot smarter with it's Multiple Actions feature, which will be able to distinguish when an 'and' means a request should be parsed into parts, and when it shouldn't. Users will not have to ask requests separately when they need information about more than one person or team. Google will understand what you are asking, and provide separate information when requested.

Pretty Please

The Google Assistant is always at your service, but Google wants to make sure that parents are able to teach their kids to be polite in public after hours of interacting with their smart technology at home. With the new 'Pretty Please' feature, the Assistant will recognize when a kid asks politely and will respond saying that they are doing a good job being polite. This feature is coming later this year as an option for families.

A more visually appealing canvas

Google wants to make the Assistant look more visually assistive with a brand new look. The updated interface will offer more relevant information on your phone or other smart screens. Google Assistant for Android will receive the updated interface this summer with the iOS version being updated later this year. The goal here is to thoughtfully integrate voice and visuals together in a new way for users.


But what about when you are driving ? When you want the information to be precise and minimal ? Google has you covered there too, with Google Assistant making its debut within Google Maps.

New Food and pick up and delivery services

Other enhancements to Google Assistant include the ability to carry out complete conversations with business like a hair salon to book you an haircut appointment, a restaurant to book a table, or a clinic to book a doctor appointment.

Its quite impressive to see how advanced the Assistant has grown, allowing to carry out meaningful interactions with businesses without much effort from the user.

The highlight will likely be Android P, with Google unveiling more details of their latest mobile operating system with the world. While we may not get in depth details, developers will get an idea of the general enhancements they can expect from the update, and likely a hint on the name Google will be picking for their latest dessert.

Google will also probably give some information to developers on Wear OS (formally Android Wear). Google's smartwatch platform is expected to receive several new features and enhancements, including an updates user interface and improved power efficiency.

The Google Assistant will also likely be highlighted during the keynote, discussing machine learning improvements, and enhancements to the artificial intelligence platform. Google has been focussed on competing in the smart home space, and we will likely learn more on how the company plans to do so.

Traditionally, Google has been naming major Android versions after candy and pastries. Android 1.5, for example, was called Cupcake. Then came Donut, Eclair, Froyo, and so on, all the way to Lollipop. Since Android release names go in alphabetical order, it is safe to assume that the name of the next big Android release will begin with the letter M.

According to speculations, it could be anything from Muffin or Marshmallow to Milky Way or M&M's, should Google choose to partner up with a well-known candy brand like it did for Android 4.4 KitKat. It is said that the upcoming Android release is internally codenamed Macadamia Nut Cookie. Its official name, however, is most likely to be different, hopefully one that rolls of the tongue more easily.

In terms of version number, Google may choose to go with Android 5.2 or decide to jump straight onto Android 6.0 for their next dessert.

Material Design

In terms of features, Android M is shaping up as an evolutionary upgrade over Lollipop, not as a revolutionary one. That is, its focus could be on enhancing existing features instead of implementing a ton of new ones. Then there are the things likely to stay rather unchanged, such as the look and feel of Android's stock user interface. Minor tweaks here and there are sure to come, but as a whole, Android's UI is expected to be built on top of the Material Design principles instilled with Android 5.0 Lollipop. In other words, expect seeing more flat icons, shadows under objects, sliding transitions, and minimalist approach to graphics design in Android's next major version.

New Features

The Android M user interface is rumored to introduce a couple of welcome features – native multi-window support and universal quick replies to incoming messages. The former, which allows apps to run side by side, has been available on some manufacturer UIs for quite a while, and we'll be happy to see it land on a broader range of Android devices. As for the latter, quick replies have been part of iOS since its 8th major release. If Android M's approach follows a similar principle, we'll be allowed to shoot quick text messages back straight from the notification panel.

Android Pay

Back in March, Google confirmed that it had been working on a new mobile payments framework called Android Pay. It shouldn't be seen as a whole new mobile payments system as, technically, it isn't going to be. Rather, Android Pay is developed to be a layer allowing devs and companies to easily integrate secure payment methods in their apps. At first, NFC will be the main communications medium used by Android Pay, and biometrics data should be supported at a later point in time.

new Photos app

From the looks of it, a new Photos application will be announced alongside Android M. Screenshots of the new app were recently obtained by Android Police, showing off the software's functionality and UI. As before, users will be able to back up their images to the cloud, but the twist now is that images won't be tied with the user's Google+ account. Furthermore, Assistant is the name of a new feature in the Photos app. Its purpose is to let people easily create movies, stories, animation and collages out of their photos and videos.

New ways to interact

Imagine if you could interact with Android apps using your voice. Well, if rumors are to be trusted, that might be a feature in Android M, allowing developers to add hands-free capabilities to their software. While details are still scarce, this alleged hands-free capability could be just an advanced accessibility feature.

Another rumored Android M feature that we know little about is referred to as Nearby. In a nutshell, it is supposed to simplify the discovery of and communication with other Android users. Will this be Google's Answer to Airdrop in iOS? Well, your guess is as good as ours.

Furthermore, Android M is expected to bring changes to the UI's notifications and volume control system. Details are, again, little to non-existent, but we're secretly hoping for the plain ol' mute feature to make its return to Android. Not that we think Android's interruptions system is going to be retired, that is.

Performance Improvements

Even though Android M won't really be a major Android release, it will focus on improving the overall platform performance. Among the enhancements we're expecting to see are optimizations in RAM management – apps should be using less of the stuff. Furthermore, Android M is likely to improve on stand-by time by reducing app wake-ups and activity while the device is asleep.

Privacy and security enhancements

Lately, fingerprint scanners have become an industry trend, appearing on more and more premium smartphones, including Android-based phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 4, and Galaxy Alpha.

Therefore, rumors suggesting that Android M will boast native support for fingerprint scanners make perfect sense as the feature is only going to grow in popularity. This should allow devs to integrate fingerprint authentication in their apps with ease, regardless of the device's make and model. Besides, logging in on multi-user devices with a scan of a fingerprint seems like a convenient solution.

On a related note, Android M is expected to be the most enterprise-friendly version of the OS to date. The new release is rumored to bring "the power of Android to all kinds of workplaces [...] to workers at small business, deskless workers, logistics and warehousing jobs". From the looks of it, Google could be building on top of Android's ability to separate personal and work-related data, which was added with Lollipop.

Speaking of security and privacy, rumor has it that Android M will allow users to edit app permissions. In other words, if you don't feel like allowing an app to, let's say, read your Google account information or to view your photo gallery, you should be able to disable the software's access to that data.

Release and Availability

Even though Android M will very likely be unveiled at the Google I/O Developer Conference, it will only likely debut later this year, alongside new Nexus devices. Both LG and Huawei are rumored to be building new Nexus handsets, and we cant wait to see what both manufacturers bring to the table.

Based on last year's trend, an early build of Android M may be released to developers after the conference. Last year it was only the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2013 (WiFi) owners who got to sample Android L, before the public release of Lollipop five months later.

But in any case, one should expect Nexus and Google Play Edition devices to receive the Android M update first. Flagship smartphones and tablets by Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC, and Motorola should come next in line. More information about the Android M launch date will be posted as we get it.

For those attending the event on May 28th and May 29th in San Francisco, you can set reminders to go off before certain sessions start. The conference map makes sure that you don't get lost at the Moscone Center West. And you can even sync your schedule between the Google I/O website and your mobile devices.

The app explains all of the sessions in detail including the topics and names of the speakers. Whether you are going to Google I/O or watching it from your mobile device, the Google I/O app comes in handy. You can install it for free from the Google Play Store.

source - Google | AndroidPolice

source - Google

The Google I/O is scheduled to take place this year on May 28 and May 29, and those who want to attend the developer conference can now register for tickets.

In order to register for a ticket, you'll need to sign into your Google account and then fill out an application. Registration will remain open until 5:00 pm PDT/8:00 pm EDT, after which Google will randomly select applicants and give them the opportunity to buy a single ticket. Google says that the order in which you apply has no bearing on your chances to get a ticket.

Google’s decision to randomly select applicants to buy I/O tickets is a wise one. In previous years, it was a mad rush to buy tickets once sales opened, meaning that not everyone had a chance to get a ticket. For example, tickets to Google I/O 2012 sold out in less than 30 minutes, meaning that anyone that wasn’t able to get online right when sales opened were out of luck.

If you don’t end up getting selected to buy a ticket, Google will be livestreaming I/O 2015 so that you can watch remotely. There will also be I/O Extended events all around the world for you to gather with other developers and watch the events together.

Leave us a comment if you have registered for an I/O 2015 ticket!


source - Google

Google on Tuesday announced that the Google I/O 2015 will take place on May 28th this year and will run through to May 29th at Moscone Center West in San Francisco. Registration for the conference will start on March 17th at 9 a.m. PDT (12 p.m. EDT). That means, you have more than a month before you'll be able to sign up to attend the big developer conference.

Google I/O is a major developers conference for anyone who makes apps for Google’s assorted software platforms, including Chrome OS, Android and Android Wear. Given Android popularity, there's no surprise that it takes up most of the event. Last year, for instance, Google made waves at I/O by unveiling Android 5.0 Lollipop and its gorgeous Material Design user interface. Google has also used I/O to showcase projects like Google Glass.

While we doubt Google has been working on a new version of Android to release Lollipop, we are sure the company has some great surprises in store for us this year.

You can learn more about the events at Google I/O 2015 here.



source - Google

source - Google

		Google Android Wear - Here's all you need to know
		Android Wear is Google's platform built for smartwatches and other wearable gadgets. It was shown off on an LG G Watch and on a Motorola Moto 360. Learn all about the new platform and new devices it wil lbe offered on.

source - Google
img source - The Verge

source - Google

During I/O 2014, Google announced Android TV, which hopes to take over your living room. However the company hasn't quite forgotten one of its most successful releases, the Chromecast. The humbly priced, $35 dongle is about to get some decent features and improvements