Google I/O Is In the House: Major Announcements Made in 2018

Silicon Valley is at it again. Big changes are a-coming, and Google appears to be at the forefront of these advances.

The 2018 Google I/O event has been nothing short of spectacular with the industry titan announcing some exciting news about state-of-the-art products and services they are currently working on.

While your Cobalt Digital Marketing team may not be there in the flesh, we are definitely there in spirit. And we’ve got our eyes on a couple of the major announcements made at this year’s conference.

1. Google’s Android P update is in public beta.

In case you aren’t familiar with Android P, it’s the next version of Android that features navigation design changes, improved shortcuts, an adaptive battery life enhancement, app actions, visual tweaks, and a bevy of other changes.

The public beta was released immediately after the Google I/O 2018 keynote and the final version is likely to come out sometime in August of this year.

2. Gmail knows how to write emails (kind of).

Google has worked on improving Gmail by creating a Smart Compose feature. While the feature won’t literally write out an entire email for you, it can predict and recommend complete sentences for you. Think of it as another level of auto-complete, but instead of one word at a time, it’s going to handle an entire thought.

Scary? Maybe. Cool? Most definitely!

3. Google Duplex is making some important calls.

Google Duplex - Google’s new chatbot - is on the verge of a whole new level of helpfulness; it’s becoming able to make calls for you, schedule an appointment, and share the details.

Google Duplex isn’t designed to work with personal calls but to carry out specific tasks (e.g. making a dinner reservation) in what Google has called “closed domains”. It’s amazing technology that we are looking forward to using soon.

4. Google Maps wants to compete with other local business apps like Yelp.

Google Maps is going to be seeing some new enhancements soon including a new “For You” tab that allows you to find trending restaurants and businesses near you. With this tool, Google is hoping its Google Maps app becomes an invaluable tool for local businesses and customers alike.

But that’s not the only thing Google Maps has cooking up. Google is working on using augmented reality to help you find your way around town. You’ll simply point your camera towards the street and Google will use AI with Street View data to give you an overlay that will guide you along your path with arrows and other helpful map keys.

This one might not come around for some time, though.

5. Google Lens wants to do more in the real world.

Google Lens has a couple of improvements that are sure to make life just a little bit easier (and shopping a little more fun). One of those features is Google Lens’ ability to copy text from the real world straight into your phone. This can be helpful for a number of tasks such as copying a password written down by hand and pasting it online.

Google is also introducing a Google Lens feature that will allow you to scan an item with your camera and help you to locate it (and buy it) from an online retailer. This particular improvement can prove to be absolutely game-changing for e-commerce sites and online businesses.

As Google I/O continues on, you can depend on Cobalt Digital Marketing to keep you up-to-date on the latest info and important news that affects digital marketers and the digital world alike.

Sources:

https://www.cnet.com/news/duplex-android-p-and-assistant-everything-important-from-google-io/

https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/google/136940-google-i-o-2018-all-the-announcements-that-matter

https://www.techradar.com/news/google-io-2018

https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/8/17328828/google-io-keynote-summary-highlights-news-recap-2018