May 24, 2016
Beyoncé, Google for Your Home, and More Featured at Google I/O Kick-off
Allo, Duo, and More
Also announced was new messenger app, Allo.  The app has a “great collection of stickers†and provides fun ways for users to express themselves in messages. This includes the Whisper/Shout feature, which lets you make words animate to large or small scale for extra emphasis in a message.
Allo is also capable of automated, so-called “smart†replies. On stage, the Google team demonstrated with a picture of a dog sent via text. Allo recognized that the picture featured a dog, and was able to automatically respond with “Cute dog!†or respond by texting the name of the breed. It was an amazing demonstration of what Pinchai referred to as “advanced natural language processing,â€Â which means the app can understand the content users share and upload.
A new video app, Duo, lets you see a caller live on video before you answer the video call. Google also touched on new features in its soon-to-be released operating system (OS)Â called Android N. Â The new OS will include multitasking and multi-window functions; 72 new emojis, including ones that better represent women in professional roles; and split-screen and picture-in-picture window modes.
Other announcements included the upcoming launch of Android Wear 2.0, it’s software for wearables; a new platform for developing VR content, which will include rebuilding YouTube from the ground up to support VR; and a new Android Instant App feature that will allow developers to let Android devices open app-specific content without requiring the user to install the app.