(ThyBlackMan.com) Google I/O 2018 was wrapped up with promises to make the world a better place through technology. Google introduced some new products and features for its existing services. The company announced some big changes coming in 2018 and beyond. From Android P beta to Google Lens, and the next level of artificial intelligence, Google talked about many things during the 3-day event. Here are the 8 biggest announcements from Google I/O 2018 you need to know about.
- Android P
One of the biggest Google I/O 2018 announcements include the launch of Android P beta. Google has confirmed that Android P beta can now be downloaded on the latest Pixel smartphones along with a number of smartphones from Nokia, Essential, Sony, OnePlus, Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi. You can read about all the Android P features here in this post. For Pixel phone, you need to sign up for the Android P beta and updates will be delivered to you. If you are not a Google Pixel phone user, there’s no OTA update available for you and the only way to get Android P on your phone is flashing your smartphone with the beta build.
- Google Duplex
If you missed Sundar Pichai’s presentation in which he introduced Google Duplex system for the company’s voice assistant, you missed a lot of laughs. Duplex is a system developed by Google for its voice assistant. What it can do is it can fake human voice and make reservations for you. In the Duplex demo at Google I/O 2018, Pichai showed us how easy it is to make reservations in restaurant and salon when your voice assistant can chat with humans without letting them know that they’re speaking to a bot.
- Smart Compose
Google announced smart compose feature for Gmail. This feature is similar to the text prediction feature found on Android smartphones. As you type something in your email, Google’s artificial intelligence based system will provide suggestions you can pick. Just like Smart Compose, Google will also roll out a Smart Reply feature in the coming days.
- AI-powered Google News
The popular news services by Google also gets a design overhaul and some changes in the algorithm. Now Google News will bring you results curated by artificial intelligence. The system will collect and organize news stories, articles and videos according to your preferences and interests.
- New assistant voices
Google has confirmed that it is bringing six new voices to its digital assistant. Android users will be able to select from different male and female voice options. In a big move, Google is also bringing John Legend’s voice to the digital assistant. The American singer-songwriter will give his voice for some general commands.
- Continued conversation
In a move to make the Google Assistant feel more natural, Google will bring continued conversion. For a typical conversation with the digital assistant, you have to say some predefined words such as “Hey Google” or “Ok Google,” and it sounds awkward when you have continued queries.
Google is working on a system that enables Google Home to recognize your voice naturally. So the voice assistant will be able to understand if you’re speaking to someone else or giving a command to it. The overall process will certainly become more natural after this.
- The new TPU 3.0 chip
The Google I/O 2018 showed us a better future of AI with the third generation Tensor processing unit. The chip is a combination of hardware components that enables developers to work on Google’s machine learning and AI capabilities. Developers get these units to work on their projects. The new TPU pod is 8 times more powerful than the previous generation.
- Linux apps on Chromebook
One of the noteworthy Google I/O 2018 announcements made it clear that Google is steadily working on Chrome OS. According to Google, Chromebook will be able to run Linux apps as native applications. It clearly means that people will no longer have to rely on less-secure configuration methods as Chrome OS will support native Linux applications. This change is not exciting for average users, but for advanced users, it’s a big change which will have a massive impact on the future of Chromebook.
What’s the best thing about Google I/O 2018 that excites you the most? Share your thoughts in the comments down below.
Staff Writer; Corey Shaw
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