I/O 2023: All the big announcements from Google’s developer conference

The Pixel Fold starts at $1799, with pre-orders starting now and shipments commencing next month. Moreover, pre-ordering the Pixel Fold will also fetch you a free Pixel Watch.

With features like Help Me Write, users can add nuance to their emails in a jiffy. The Pixel Foldable offers a gamut of features that are user-friendly and intuitive. Here is a live demonstration of composing an email on the go with the help of AI.

The Pixel Fold enters into a tabletop mode on YouTube when folded at 90 degrees, with playback controls at the bottom and the video at the top.

The Google Pixel Fold includes a Dual Screen Interpreter mode that will use both inner and outer displays to help you talk to someone who doesn't speak your language effortlessly.

The Google Pixel Tablet will include an innovative charging dock that also includes a speaker, turning the tablet into a smart display when docked. The company also says that the Pixel tablet will include Pixel 7 series' best voice typing features helping boost voice typing speed to nearly 3x faster than typing using the keyboard.

The Google Pixel 7a comes with significant camera upgrades and the Tensor G2 chip, which powers the flagship Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro devices.

Features such as Real Tone and Guided frame make Pixel cameras more inclusive. Magic Editor will let user unleash a new wave of creativity with image editing. As AI gets more and more helpful, the Pixel line of devices bring the best of user-experience with multiple accolades across segments. Google is the fastest growing OEM in the markets at the moment. 

Similar to the latest versions of iOS, Android 14 will include a host of new lock screen customisation features such as lock screen clock font, emoji wallpapers, and cinematic wallpapers, adding to Material You's extensive personalisation feature list. Moreover, Generative AI has been plugged into the system, letting users create non-existed wallpapers out of the blue using simple text-based prompts.

"From the beginning, Pixel was conceived as an AI-first mobile computer. Google Tensor G2 chip puts AI at the center," says Rick Osterloh.

Google Messages will soon include multiple tones for message drafts before you send them, letting you choose between emotions and writing styles such as Excited, Chill, Lyrical, and even Shakespeare. The feature will be called Magic Compose.

Google also subtly nudged Apple to add RCS to iMessage, as it has been for years now, saying that they hope "every mobile operating system" adopts the text messaging standard.

As smartwatches gain momentum, WearOS is now the fastest going watch platform.

The app, coming "later this summer," will let users start a new conversation, reply to messages by voice, and even take calls.

"Android used AI to protect users from over a billion spam messages and calls," says Sameer Samat.

Universal Translator AI dubbing service helps translate a speaker's voice while also adjusting their lip movements using next-generation translation models. To prevent misuse, Google says it's only making the service available to authorised partners.

Google has acknowledged AI's shortcomings such as unfair bias and other challenges that may emerge as the technology grows more advanced. That's why the company believes it's imperative to take a responsible approach. The company has listed several principles it says it takes into account when developing AI technologies:

Google developers can now build AI products with various models using something called Vertex AI. It lets users build foundational models for chats, text and images. Three new models Imagine, Codey, and Chirp are introduced as part of Vertex AI.

"Our AI platform is compelling for business as it gurantees full control and security," says Thomas Kurian

The new Google search comes with the power of generative AI. Certain searches around health and politics may not yeild GenAI results since the new search is in an experimental stage. This can be ideal for shopping and travel searches with bullet points of top options. Besides, the converse button on the search page design is a new addition. It somehow shows response that are water-down versions of response one would get from ChatGPT. 

Google Search's new AI features will be available for users that sign up for Search Labs. Registered users will be added to a waitlist. To sign up head to g.co/labs.

Google Search is about to get a lot smarter with AI-powered snapshots, allowing people to look up more complex topics -- for when even your "questions have questions."

A conversational mode has also been announced letting you ask follow-up questions.

Google Search, the founding product of the Alphabet Inc. company, has undergone tremendous changes over the years. Integrated search with AI assistance offers comprehensive results that offer details and a rich experience of the topics. The new experience builds on Google's ranking and safdety system.

Google is taking its AI-powered productivity tools to the next level for mobile users with its updated Google Workspace suite.

On Gmail mobile, Duet AI will help enhance your emails with contextual assistance that’ll allow you to create professional replies. On Docs, Duet AI will help you generate content from scratch. On Slides, Duet AI will generate images using prompts. On Sheets, Duet AI will automate data classification and the creation of custom plans. And finally on Meet, Duet AI will help you generate unique backgrounds for your video calls.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Until now, creating compelling visuals for presentations has been a manual and time-consuming process.

Google is embedding Duet AI into Slides so users can easily generate images with a few words — "the real power of these image models is that they can visualize something that has never existed."

Google will soon bring extensions to Bard and introduce some of its own apps and services directly to the Bard experience. The company has highlighted that users will be in control of their privacy and security.

Most importantly, Bard will also be able to harness various services from the Internet with extensions from some of the most incredible partners. The company will soon integrate Adobe Firefly directly into Bard to help users generate brand-new images.

Besides, Google is also working towards connecting Bard with helpful Google apps and more partners including, OpenTable, Kayak, ZipRecruiter, Instacart, Wolfram and Khan Academy.

Finally, Bard has also gained dark mode for a more eye-pleasing experience. The AI chatbot is also turning more 'visual.' It will now pull images from all over the internet wherever needed.

Google is opening up Bard in over 180 countries. Users will now be able to talk to Bard in Japanese and Korean. The company said that it is on track to support 40 languages in future.

In the next few weeks, Bard will get more visual. Users will now be able to see images along the line of text responses. Bard will also be able to read and respond to images uploaded from Google Lens. This feature can come in handy for tourists who are visiting new places as the chatbot will give them a visual landscape to their search queries.

Sissie Hsiao, Vice President and GM, Assistant and Bard at Google, demonstrates the capabilities of Bard.
The chatbot has already learned more than 20 programming languages. It can now generate and inteprete code.

Google has introduced Med-PaLM 2, a specialised LLM for medical applications. It can answer questions and provide summaries from various medical texts. It also passed the US Medical Licensing Exam with an expert score. Google says it's developing multimodal skills to process information from images such as X-rays and mammograms.

Magic Editor allows content-aware movement of subjects and remove sections of images and even generation of new images. Pichai also said that the company is updating its Immersive View Feature on Google Maps that was launched last year.

Similar to Dall-E, Magic Editor will extend the image if subjects are cropped out and help move subjects to bring them into focus.

You can watch the live stream on Google’s official website or YouTube channel, or follow Google’s social media handles for updates.

A newly leaked trailer for the device suggests so. With reasonably slim halves and an almost non-existent gap between them, as apparent from the clip, the phone could be one of the most pocket-friendly foldables ever. Previously leaked information revealed that the device's inner display is rumoured to measure 7.69 inches, while the outer one could be 5.79 inches. The phone also has a rear camera bump that looks similar to other Pixel phones, though the exact setup is unknown.

The keynote by Sundar Pichai is expected to start by 10AM PT. The presentation is expected to last nearly two hours with the Google CEO touching on AI, LLMS, and the company's future vision across its products and services. 

Although Android 14 beta was out in March, the tech fraternity is looking forward to a more finished version this time. It is expected that the Google I/O 2023 will give a glimpse of the new features that will come along with Android 14. Improvements to privacy and security are also among the areas to look forward to.

AI is expected to be the main theme at the Google I/O event, with the company planning to announce a number of generative AI updates, including a new large language model called PaLM 2. Details are slim at the moment, but PaLM reportedly includes support for more than 100 languages and is also adept at a wide range of coding and math tests. Creative writing tests and analysis are also its strong points.

The latest version of Google’s mobile operating system is expected to be released by the end of summer, but we will likely catch a glimpse of its new features at Google I/O. Some of the highlights of Android 14 include native app cloning support, a better photo picker and enhanced privacy and security settings.

Perhaps, the Google I/O this year would lay the groundwork for the company's broad vision for AI in the coming years. Google is expected to announce a slew of features to its chatbot Bard which was launched earlier this year as a direct competition to OpenAI's sensational ChatGPT.  While OpenAI in collaboration with Microsoft has integrated GPT-4 into Microsoft's Bing and various other properties, it remains to be seen how Google is bolstering its efforts in developing its generative AI capabilities. So far it has been rumoured that Google is likely to unleash some new upgrades to its chatbot that will bring it on par with GPT-4 or may even supersede it with its capabilities.

If you are wondering when and where you can watch the Google I/O conference, the main keynote will start at 1 PM ET (10:30 PM IST). You can watch the live stream on Google’s official website or YouTube channel, or follow Google’s social media handles for updates.

Google’s annual developer conference is set to be a big one this year, with new updates to its generative AI, including a wider rollout of Bard and its Magi search engine, taking centre stage. Android 14 is also expected to be revealed during the conference.

But it’s not just software that’s getting the spotlight - Google is also expected to launch a range of new Pixel products. These include the Pixel Fold smartphone, the Pixel Tablet, and the more budget-friendly Pixel 7a.

The upcoming Google Pixel Fold seems to make an appearance in an unlisted YouTube video shared by the account Made by Google. You can see the Pixel fold in action in the video below. The video was shared in a link by a Google account on Twitter, according to The Verge. Google has already earlier shared what the Pixel Fold will look like but this is the first time that the phone can be seen in what looks like everyday conditions. 

?May The Fold Be With You?https://t.co/g6NUd1DcOJ#GoogleIO #PixelFold
May 10 pic.twitter.com/K8Gk21nmo8

— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) May 4, 2023

Unlike previous iterations of the Google I/O developer conference, there is a good chance that generative AI could take centre stage at this year’s edition. The reason is simple—OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the looming AI arms race with Microsoft that Google is heading towards.

This year’s I/O could present Google with the opportunity to show developers its artificial intelligence mettle, including how it integrates AI into search and other products. This is especially important for the company considering that Microsoft is already offering a version of its Bing search engine with an integrated AI chatbot based on OpenAI’s GPT. 

Interestingly, when ChatGPT hit the market, Google executives announced a “code red” at the organisation and rushed out Bard, its chatbot based on LaMDA, its own large language model. 

Also, how Google chooses to integrate AI into its product offerings could have long term implications for the technology world. Will the company upgrade search to have AI integration or will it bring out a separate product meaning that there will be two versions of Google Search? All of that remains to be seen and is a great part of why this year’s I/O will be especially interesting for many. 

Google is set to officially announce Android 14 at the I/O developer conference, even though the developer preview is already out and the Beta version is available for some pixel devices. Ahead of the launch, we already know a little about the latest upcoming version of Android, thanks to the developer preview. 

Although the user interface remains largely unchanged in Android 14 Developer Preview 1, developers have introduced several behind-the-scenes changes to enhance device performance, reduce battery consumption, and improve security. Google is now optimizing its mobile operating system for foldable phones and tablets. While Android 12L made significant progress in terms of user interface and scaling, Google claims that Android 14 will bring even more optimization for large-screen devices.

The latest version of Android allows users to increase the font size up to 200%, compared to the previous limit of 130% in Android 13, and adds support for non-linear scaling. New optimizations include managing downloads over Wi-Fi and restricting apps that do not require strict timing schedules, such as the clock or calendar app.

In a sea of foldable device announcements and AI developments, the release of a budget phone might seem downright interesting. But chances are, this affordable device will be of interest to much more people than an expensive foldable or flagship phone. 

Based on reports, the Pixel 7a is set to feature a smoother 90Hz refresh rate and an improved in-display fingerprint sensor. Camera hardware upgrades are also expected, with a 64 MP primary camera with OIS and a 12 MP ultra-wide-angle lens. The selfie camera is also said to receive an upgrade, featuring a 10.8MP sensor.

In terms of design, the Pixel 7a is likely to resemble the Pixel 6a, with slightly thinner bezels and multiple colour options. The phone could also have an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance. 

Google could finally be jumping on the foldable device bandwagon with the Pixel Fold, which is expected to be revealed today at I/O 2023. Based on reports, the device will have a 5.72-inch cover display and a 7.57-inch internal foldable display. The phone will probably come with the Tensor G2 chip, which also underpins the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro. 

Ahead of Google I/O, Apple has announced the launch of video editing software Final Cut Pro and music production software Logic Pro on the iPad. Couple this with the fact that some iPads come with nearly laptop-class Apple Silicon, Google’s upcoming Pixel Tablet could be given a run for its money. 

The unveiling of Android 14 will be one of the biggest announcements during Google’s annual developer conference. The tech giant is also expected to reveal new generative AI updates, including a wider rollout of Bard and its Magi search engine.

But apart from software-related announcements, Google is also expected to launch a slew of new Pixel products, including the Pixel Fold smartphone, the Pixel Tablet and the relatively budget-oriented Pixel 7a. 

Google is currently locked in a bit of an artificial intelligence (AI) arms race with Microsoft and OpenAI. When OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT, the now extremely popular AI chatbot, it sent alarm bells ringing down Google’s offices. 

Now that Microsoft has integrated OpenAI’s GPT into its Bing search engine, the new age of generative AI is directly threatening Google’s core business—search and search advertisements. Since I/O is usually where the tech giant announces its latest developments in software, we can also expect some updates to Google Bard and its AI-driven search engine Magi. 

While Android incredibly popular, capturing more than 70 per cent of the global mobile OS market share according to Statista, Android tablets don’t enjoy anywhere near the popularity. This could be because Android tablets fail to offer an experience similar to Apple’s iPad. 

Now that could change as Google is set to launch its Pixel Tablet. Along with the new larger-screen-focused updates in Android 14, this could ever so slightly tilt the odds in favour of Android tablets. 

Based on leaks, the Google Pixel Tablet could be powered by the Tensor G2 chipset and could feature an 11-inch LCD display with a 2560 x 1600 resolution along with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. It could come with USI 2.0 stylus support, Wi-Fi 6 and two 8 MP cameras. The Pixel Tablet will also reportedly come with a wireless dock that will allow for it to double as a speaker and a smart display. 

The latest version of Android is usually one of the most looked-forward-to reveals during Google I/O. Earlier this year, Google unveiled the developer preview of Android 14, and it seems like it will be an iterative upgrade to Android 13, bringing in a few new features and improvements. 

Based on Android 14 Developer Preview 1, the new version of the popular mobile operating system will not change the user interface drastically but there seem to be some under-the-hood changes to improve devices’ performance, reduce battery consumption and improve security. 

Also, it looks like Google is finally optimising the mobile operating system for tablets and foldable phones, coinciding with the launch of the Pixel Tablet and the Pixel Foldable. Google said that it is also introducing cross-device SDK preview, which will allow developers to create apps that work well across different screen sizes.

While the Pixel Fold is probably the most exciting device that Google is set to announce during the I/O developer conference, the Pixel 7a is the device that could find the most takers. 

The budget “a” variant of the Pixel phones typically packs in many of the features of the higher-end flagship devices at a more affordable price point. Based on leaks, the Pixel 7a will likely come with a 64 MP primary camera, which will mark a big jump from the 12 MP sensor on the Pixel 6a. The phone could also come with a 12 MP ultra-wide-angle lens and a new 10.8 MP selfie camera. 

It is almost confirmed that the Pixel 7a will feature the Tensor G2 processor, which also finds itself in the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro. 

The Pixel 6a cam in just one memory variant. The same could be true of the Pixel 7a, but it could come with 8GB of RAM instead of the 6GB on its predecessor. The Pixel 7a could also come with 128 GB of internal storage. 

Google is set to unveil its first foldable smartphone–the Pixel Fold–at I/O today. While the company has not yet revealed any of the specifications, it looks like the phone will have a full outer display that will open up to a larger inner display. This is similar to the form factor seen in Samsung’s Z Fold devices. 

The Pixel Fold will probably be powered by the Tensor G2 chipset that also underpins the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro. Based on early reports, the phone will come with 12 GB of RAM and could also come in two variants, with 256 GB and 512 GB of internal storage, respectively. The Pixel Fold will likely ship with Android 13 out of the box and could also be the firwst foldable to get the Android 14 update.