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The Coolest Things From Google I/O 2018

If you didn't have time to sit through Tuesday's I/O keynote, here are the highlights.

Chloe Albanesius
by Chloe Albanesius 

Android developers from around the globe descended on Silicon Valley this week for Google I/O, the search giant's annual developers conference.

At the packed Shoreline Amphitheatre in Google's hometown of Mountain View, execs like CEO Sundar Pichai gave attendees (and those on the live stream) a sneak peek at what fans of Android and other Google products can expect in the coming year. If you didn't have time to sit through Tuesday's keynote, though, we've compiled some of the highlights below.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.

Google Assistant Makes Calls for You

Google today showed off a developing product, dubbed Google Duplex, that uses the Google Assistant to make calls for you. We're not talking about just finding and dialing a number, but carrying on a full conversation with the real person on the end of the line. It played two examples, including the one above, in which the Assistant calls a restaurant to make reservations.

Google will start testing Duplex this summer within the Google Assistant, at which point it will be able to help users make restaurant reservations, schedule hair salon appointments, and get holiday hours over the phone.

Gmail Smart Compose

Pichai showed off a feature called Smart Compose, which is essentially an auto complete feature that runs as you type. But rather than serving up auto-complete words in a menu below your email, as you might see today, Smart Compose offers up entire phrases and suggestions on how to complete your sentence. "All you need to do is hit tab and it'll keep autocompleting," Pichai said. Smart Compose arrives this month.

Continued Conversation

In the coming weeks, Google will roll out Continued Conversation for the Google Assistant, which—as its name suggests—will let you ask multiple questions in a row without having to utter the "Hey Google" wake word over and over again.

New Voices for Google Assistant

Google this week rolled out six new voices for your Google Assistant; listen to them above. Later this year, voice options will also get a little star power in the form of musician John Legend.

Google Maps AR Directions

Not sure which way is north? Google demoed an experimental feature for Google Maps that'll tap into your smartphone's camera to tell you which direction to walk. Essentially, it'll meld your phone's camera view with Google's mapping service to point out when you need to turn left or right.

Let's Eat! But Where?

Before you use Maps, though, you need to know where you're going. And an update coming to Google Maps will make it easier to corral a group of friends and figure out where to eat. In the revamped Explore tab, long-press on restaurants you like to add it to a shareable shortlist that friends can edit and vote on. Then use Google Maps to book a reservation.

Google Wellbeing

Google is developing new controls, expected in Android P, intended to pry you away from your smartphone and YouTube. They include an "app timer," a "wind down" feature, and a dashboard that'll tell you how much time you've been spending on your smartphone and in which apps.

Pretty Please

Kids love voice assistants, but parents might cringe when their kids bark commands at the Google Assistant (or Alexa, Siri, or Cortana) without saying please or thank you. Amazon has its own solution via a kids version of Echo Dot, and Google's answer is Pretty Please, which will tap into Family Link to reward kids for polite interactions, starting later this year.

Google Lens Copy/Paste

Google Lens made its debut at I/O 2017, and it essentially lets you point your phone camera at thing you want it to identify. This year, it has a few new tricks, including copy-paste...from the real world.

In the example above, you'd hover your phone over a recipe, copy the words with Lens, and paste them into your phone for safe-keeping. Google also tipped the ability to recognize (and then purchase) clothing.

Google Photos

Google Photos is getting some AI-powered features in the next few months. For instance, the app will recommend adjusting the color with one tap (above) or making one section of a photo pop, like turning the background black and white while making a red jacket even brighter. Or add color to a black-and-white shot. Pichai also teased the ability to turn a photo of a document into a PDF, to the delight of the crowd.

New System Navigation

Say farewell to the three, familiar buttons that appear at the bottom of the screen on Android phones. The upcoming Android P replaces them with a single, pill-shaped on-screen button.

Under the Hood With Waymo

Waymo, the self-driving car division from Google's parent company Alphabet, was at I/O to give us a glimpse of how its autonomous vehicles will handle inclement weather.

"Raindrops and snowflakes can create a lot of noise in sensor data for a self-driving car. Machine learning helps us filter out that noise and correctly identify pedestrians, vehicles and more," Waymo said in a blog post; see more around the 2:53:00 mark in the keynote.

Onstage, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said the company will formally launch a self-driving taxi service later this year in Phoenix, where it's already been testing via an "Early Rider" program. One of those cars was actually involved in an accident recently, but the Waymo vehicle was not at fault, unlike the fatal Uber accident in Tempe.

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