Written by Jason Cipriani,
Google I/O 2022 is underway. During the event, we expect to hear from Google about new tools for developers, improvements included in Android 13 and maybe some new hardware. In the past, Google I/O’s opening keynote has also included presentations surrounding Chrome, Chrome OS, Android TV/Google TV and Google Assistant. We’ve also seen previews of futuristic technology during the keynote.
Below you’ll find everything Google has announced so far during the opening keynote.
Google Translate gets new languages
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai took to the stage to kick off Google I/O with a great joke by making sure his microphone wasn’t muted, after spending the last two years always starting his meetings on mute. Pichai then went into random product updates, giving highlights such as the number of air raid alerts Google has sent in Ukraine and noted that Google Translate is gaining 24 new languages.
Google Maps gets a new immersive view that makes street view look pretty lame
Pichai also demonstrated a new Immersive Mode in Google Maps that allows you to check out select cities that looks like Google Earth imagery combined with Street View, but on steroids. Not only can you check out cities, but you can even look at the inside of businesses. It looked pretty cool.
YouTube auto-generated chapters, transcriptions
Google has been able to auto-generate chapters for YouTube videos, but through improvements to the service, Google is planning to automatically add chapter markers to 80 million videos by the end of the year. Google will also roll out automatic transcriptions for videos, making it easier to read through the audio that’s in the video. This is also a big accessibility feature.
Google Docs gets auto-summary
Here’s a cool one: Google Docs will soon have a summary feature that gives you the cliff notes version of a long document so you can get the gist of what’s included in just a few seconds. This is especially helpful for those who often receive meeting notes or minutes and don’t want to wade through all of the fluff.
Google previews the future of Search
Search is arguably Google’s most important product, and during Google I/O the company demonstrated new tools and features that are coming to Search. For example, you can take a picture of a part you need for a home repair then add the term “near me” to the query, and Google will find that part, in stock at a local business. The same goes for taking a photo of a plate of food. Multisearch Near Me will launch, globally, later this year for English users.
