Last Google I/O left us important announcements for Android development such as Android App Bundle, Android Jetpack, Slices or App Actions, to name a few. In addition to all this new amazing features and resources they have presented, the event has made something very clear: Artificial Intelligence is becoming a main focus of Google.
Although betting for AI isn’t something new at Google, not in vain have they renamed its research division to Google AI, which proves how much more committed they are about this technology now, which we will see integrated into their services even more.
And with the new version of Android OS becoming more simple (UI), careful (Digital Wellbeing) and, mostly, smarter, they are trying to improve the whole Android experience and take it to the next level.
From Google Assistant and Google Duplex to many Google apps like Photos, Maps, News and Gmail, AI will play a huge role on how these services enhance that experience and make things so much easier and enjoyable for all Android users.
Google Assistant and Google Duplex
By the end of this year, it is expected that Google Assistant get support for more than 30 languages in 80 countries, expanding this experience worldwide. A continued conversation feature has been announced for Assistant, to create a more natural dialogue without the need of having to say “Hey Google” or “Ok Google” the whole time.
For this, a technology named Duplex, based in a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), will be integrated to Assistant, for now mainly thought to help small businesses that don’t have an online booking system.
Also, they are enabling a new feature to ask multiple questions in a same request; a “Pretty please” mode to promote good manners in kids, and six additional sounding voices to get a little more variety.
Google Apps
Many Google apps are being improved by AI as well. For example, Google Photos will get upgrades to suggest you better corrections of your pictures or identify people on your photos so you can share them more easily.
Google Maps
will integrate Google Assistant to enhance recommendations of trendy local places. Also, Augmented Reality directions will be added -using Street View database- so you can point your phone´s camera and have more information about what you see around.
Gmail
will soon get a Smart Compose feature, which will help you write your emails faster by predicting entire sentences based on just a few typed words.
Google News
is getting a redesign and will now be curated by AI. It will analyze all the content published on the web at any moment to provide storylines you might be interested in, giving you more coverage and personalize features about the news you care about.
Focusing on AI
AI is also being used for health and accessibility purposes, as Google is using AI to get better diagnoses of possible diseases risks through retina scans. Regarding accessibility, Morse code compatibility is being added to Gboard.
As you can see, Google is getting serious (even more now) about AI and how it can be used to improve their major services. A trend right now that certainly will become the rule for Android development in a near future.
What do you think about the improvements Google is trying to make related to AI? Are you excited about all these services getting smarter?
