7000+ people once again gathered this year at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, to check out all the latest goodies that Google has in store for 2018. Starting off with Sundar Pichai’s light humor pointing out what a major bug the wrong placement of “cheese” was in the burger emoji to putting spotlight on Artificial intelligence, this years annual conference for developers was as usual a hit. Here are 10 of the biggest unveilings from the event :
A step closer to no phone calls ! Awesome - the wishes of the collective world came true !
We all are going to agree on one thing - Millennials are characterized as a generation with a pure hatred of making phone calls. Thanks to Google, you can officially kiss phone calls goodbye ;-) Google assistant, on your behalf, will now be able to make appointments or reserve seats at a restaurant and is way more human than before with the utilization of words like “hmmm” and “ah!’.
[1] Smart Compose
Because, honestly we all struggle at times !!!
Smart compose with AI, will now help users draft mails from scratch using machine learning to complete phrases in real time as users compose emails. But also, as it is in the experimental stage, Google also warned that “Smart Compose is not designed to provide answers and may not always predict factually correct information”.
[2] Dashboard for fighting phone addiction
Yea, it came to that!!
Are you ever caught between repeatedly unlocking your phone for viewing notifications of mindlessly toggling between apps? With this new update, Google wants you to find the right balance with technology. There will be a dashboard that will not only show what apps demand most of your attention but also, how much time you spend on those apps. It will also enable you to add a timer to limit the time that is spent on the apps.
[3] Adaptive battery
Three-quarters of people spend more time worrying about battery life than looking around while on holiday! Whatttt!The idea with Smart battery is with the help of machine learning, allow users “limit battery usage” by taking into consideration which apps are used and how frequently they are used! Apps that are almost never used will be restricted access to system resources, hence prolonging battery life and diminishing “low battery” anxiety.
[4] Google maps
Abolishing the biggest issue of not knowing where the damn blue dot is headed!
We’ll at some point of time have had problems discovering which direction is northwest, I can bet. Well, no more! Point the camera to a direction and combining artificial intelligence with street view, google maps will provide you with an interactive Augmented reality experience.
[5] Google Lens
The ultimate dream come true moment for instagram and pinterest fans!
Point your smartphone at any object, whether it’s the leaning tower of Pisa or the building right next to you that you know nothing about and gain more information on them. Also, it helps people find out where they can buy items similar to images that they captured on their device ( A shopper’s paradise, right? ). It will also enable you to point your camera at a text and paste that text directly into a text field on your device.
[6] Pretty please, with a cherry on top
Striving for a more polite world, Google has your back !
Google’s new Pretty please mode for google assistant will try to ensure that everyone in the household learns to say “Please” and “Thank you”. With the uttering of these words, Google assistant will respond with lines like “thanks for saying please,” or “what a nice way to ask me.”, hence, encouraging politeness and chivalry.
[7] Adieu “Hey Google”
The whole idea is to make Google more conversational. Now, you can ask Google Assistant multiple questions at once, For ex : Which year titanic was released and did Leonardo DiCaprio win an academy award for “ Titanic” ? and Google will answer both these questions simultaneously. Also, Google’s voice Holly will be joined by 6 more voices, one of them being that of everyone’s favorite John Legend.
[8] Smart editing
The recipe to happiness!
Google photos can now separate the subject from the background and pop the colour or turn the background black and white. It can even colorize B&W photos. Also, swiping through the gallery will encourage google to suggest improvements in the pics, like, increase brightness or decrease contrast.
[9] Careful, Yelp!
On the basis of the rate users put against restaurants or shops plus the knowledge Google already has about the neighborhood area, they will now give local purlieus a score. The new “ For you ” tab will let you follow the trending places in a neighborhood specifically customized according to your preferences.
To watch the entire event, please visit the link.
