On Tuesday in San Francisco, California, Google I / O began, the series of conferences that Google organizes every year to present the news on software for developers, that is, those who are involved in making applications and programs. As for several years now, Google I / O began with a long opening event, where details were presented on the next version of Android, the new Google News and many news related to artificial intelligence systems starting to appear inside. of the many Google products.
Android P
The most interesting novelty of the new version of Android is a section that according to Google should help reduce your dependence on your smartphone. For some years now, studies and research have been circulating on how applications and notifications create a strong addiction, with the result of leading to compulsive use of one's mobile phone, often losing time, sleep and productivity. The new section of Android P tries to alleviate the problem by showing:
• how many minutes the smartphone was used during the day,
• how many notifications were received,
• how long a single application was used and at what times of the day.
A graph helps you to quickly get an idea of your relationship with the smartphone, especially with regard to the excessive and unjustified use of some applications.
The new tool also gives you the option of setting yourself limits on the use of individual apps. If, for example, you are one of those who regularly end up on Instagram and then turn around empty several times, Android P gives you the possibility to set a maximum time beyond which you will no longer be able to use the application during the day. After the time available, the icon on the Android home becomes gray and no longer accessible, it also stops showing notifications. If you try to start it, a message says that the maximum daily usage time has expired: the only way to extend it is to go to the settings and change the duration of the limit. Google has tried to make the reactivation process cumbersome to encourage virtuous behavior on the part of users, but in the final version of Android P the system could be made less uncompromising.
Google has added a feature similar to the one available on Apple's iOS for some time to indicate what time you want to go to sleep and sleep hours. When you arrive at the indicated time, the system sends an alert and activates the “Do not disturb” mode, which excludes the receipt of any notification and call, except for the exceptions indicated by the owner of the telephone for emergencies. In addition, the screen turns completely gray, to remind the smartphone owner to respect their commitment to put the phone away and sleep. The trick of the gray screen takes up the advice of several researchers, who have found that the lack of colors reduces visual stimuli and helps to detach more easily from the smartphone.
Other innovations within Android P concern the addition of artificial intelligence systems to simplify the use of the smartphone. As you use it, it learns from your habits trying to anticipate users' needs. The system makes the apps most likely to be used at a given time of day more easily accessible, closes background apps that are not in use and can unnecessarily drain the battery, dynamically reduces the screen brightness depending on the hours of the day. day and your habits, always to reduce energy consumption.
Google has worked hard to refine the graphics of Android P, but there are still no huge differences from the previous version of the operating system. Some solutions are very similar to what iOS has been offering for almost a year already, as an easier and smoother way to view open applications and switch between apps.
Android P will be available later this year, but more experienced users can already experience it by downloading a trial version. The spread of updates to new versions of the operating system is Google's real weakness: unlike iOS, which must work with a small number of smartphones all produced by Apple, Android must work on hundreds of different smartphones on the market and it is up to to individual manufacturers to adapt the new operating system so that it can be compatible with their latest phones. The fact that the current trial version is available for a dozen smartphones still bodes well for the possibility of having a faster update, at least among the most popular mobile phone models.
Gmail
In addition to showing the features of the new Gmail, which has been available for a few days to most of the subscribers to the service, during the presentation in San Francisco it was presented “Smart Compose”, a system for receiving suggestions in real time on the sentences to be written in the reply emails. While you are typing, “Smart Compose” displays a complete sentence and simply press the “Tab” key (the one above the shift key on the left of the keyboard) to accept the suggestion. The idea is to offer a tool to write responses more quickly, especially to business emails where recurring phrases are often used or that echo what the sender has already written. For now, the function is being tested and works in English, but Google is working to make it available in countries other than the Anglo-Saxon ones.
Google Photos
The service for saving your photos online will be enriched in the coming months with new tools, also in this case based on artificial intelligence systems. Among the most promising there is one for automatically coloring old photographs in black and white; the system could also be used for scans of old yellowed color photographs, but the level of accuracy of the results is still unclear.
Other tools will automatically suggest changes to exposure and other parameters to improve the image. Google Photos AI can be used to separate subjects in photographs from backgrounds. Google Photos has long been considered one of the biggest hits among the online services offered by Google, but the company has not announced when the new features will be made available to its millions of subscribers.
Google Lens
One of the most difficult things for computers is to be able to see inside the images, that is to understand what they show without there having to be an intervention human to make suggestions. The development of AI in recent years has made these automatic recognition systems more and more accurate, especially in the case of Google which has used them to improve the “Images” part of its search engine. Google Lens is an app that serves precisely to recognize the things that are photographed: soon – instead of being an application inside Google Photos – it will be inserted directly into the Android camera.
In a few weeks, a new Google Lens feature called style match will help you look up visually similar furniture and clothing, so you can find a look you like. # io18 pic.twitter.com/mH4HFFZLwH
– Google (@Google) May 8, 2018
Google Lens is activated when the app to take photos is launched and scans in real time everything that the lens catches, trying to interpret it. If you are framing a poster, a tab appears showing information about that film, if you are framing some text, the automatic recognition transcribes it making it available for copy / paste in other apps. Within certain limits and with some shortcomings, Lens can also recognize objects, including clothes, offering suggestions about their brand and the sites where they can be purchased.
Google Assistant
Google has announced six new entries for its automatic assistant, which can be used via smartphone and its Google Home home device. The new voices include that of singer John Legend, which was synthesized from some recorded phrases. With the new voices the quality has improved a lot, but the progress mainly concerns the English version, while we will have to wait a while for improvements with the Italian and other languages.
Google also introduced Duplex, a new function that is used to delegate phone calls to its Assistant to book visits, restaurant tables and such like. The demonstration during the presentation on Tuesday was surprising, both for the quality of the synthetic voice to appear practically human, and for the Assistant's ability to understand the nuances in the interlocutor's sentences, answering various questions. You can hear the demo audio below.
http://www.gstatic.com/bg/DMS03IIQXU3TY2FD6DLPLOMBBBJ2CH188143148.mp3 In a long post published on its blog dedicated to artificial intelligence, Google illustrated how Duplex works and how it can independently manage phone calls and conversations to make appointments. The system is still in an experimental phase and will require some further adjustments, but the results achieved so far are very promising, and perhaps even a little disturbing.
Google is aware that it cannot rely on its Google Homes alone to spread its Assistant in homes. For this reason, it is collaborating with several other manufacturers of home products, who are making home devices with the virtual assistant inside. In the coming months, various types will be put on sale – some will even allow you to make video calls – made by Lenovo, JBL, Sony and LG.
Google Maps
Having failed the Google+ project, in recent years Google has worked hard to insert typical social network features directly into its services. YouTube is where this solution has been most successful, which Google will now try to repeat in its Maps service. In the coming weeks a new tab will be added called “For you” and which will show recommendations for nearby places, based on your preferences. The suggestions will mainly concern clubs and shops, which can be saved in your favorites and voted, in order to show your liking (the function of votes with stars has already existed for some time, now Google wants to highlight it more and encourage its use) .
Coming soon, we're adding a new tab to @googlemaps called “For you.” Designed to tell you what you need to know about the neighborhoods you care about, see new places that are opening or whats trending, personal recommendations and more. # io18 pic.twitter.com/CtqQsWFyot
– Google (@Google) May 8, 2018
On the smartphone app of Google Maps will also arrive a new function to get directions in real time with augmented reality. The directions will be shown on the screen as the phone returns to the road, making them easier to understand. Augmented reality can also be used to more easily recognize places, through virtual labels.
Google News
Between applications and sections of its search engine, Google has long had various services for finding and reading the news published by information sites, with an often chaotic and inconsistent offer. The new Google News just presented has the task of putting everything in order and unifying everything under one great service, which works with artificial intelligence systems to make a more accurate and personalized selection of news. Google News has a new “For you” section which collects the five most important news of the day, based on your interests and browsing habits (which news sites you read most often, for example). The section then gives the opportunity to learn more about the news by consulting multiple sources on the same topic. The graphics have also been revised and cleaned up, giving more prominence to the images and where present the videos.
During the presentation, the managers of Google did not directly refer to the topic much discussed about fake news, but the fact of having worked a lot on AI systems indicates the desire to improve the content offer, even if we will be able to understand only in a few months with what results. The new Google News will replace the existing Google Play Newsstand and Google News and Weather starting next week, both on desktop and on Android and iPhone smartphones.
