Next week Google will hold its annual technology conference, Google I/O 2022. Expectations are high for the launch of the new Android. Rumors also indicate that the company will announce a watch to compete with the Apple Watch and a new cell phone.
The event, aimed at developers, will take place on May 11 and 12 in California, United States, and will be live streamed. In Brazil, the conference will start at 2 pm Brasília time.
Tilt made a list of what is most expected, according to the latest rumors. The following will also give you information on how and where to track Google I/O 2022:
The event
It seems that Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, will be part of the presentation of some of the company’s news.
The first day of the event will be dedicated to the announcement of the new Android operating system and products. The second day will focus more on holding workshops for application developers.
Android 13
Google will officially release the Android 13 version of its operating system.
A radical change in design and features is not expected, but the update should be responsible for improving the performance of devices with larger screens, such as foldable phones and tablets.
Some of the bets that can come with Android 13 are:
Bluetooth Audio Low Energy (BLE), a type of Bluetooth that consumes less energy — about 10% different from the classic signal transfer system. It streams lower bitrates without losing quality. Themed icons of specific apps. Better support for multilingual users (no detailed information about this yet). All apps will have to ask for permission to send notifications, something that already exists in iOS, but that is new to the Google system. In other words, every application that is adapted to Android 13 will have to ask for permission to trigger the alerts. The Google search bar will also change. When opening the app drawer, the bar will now be at the bottom of the screen, easier to access on large screen phones. In addition, it will no longer serve just to do searches in the search engine or look for applications. Soon, it will also locate information and files within apps or groups (as already happens on the iPhone).
consumption alert
The new Android 13 will also alert you when an app that is in the background and infrequently used is consuming too much battery, so you can close it and make the device last longer charged.
This feature has been around on Android for years, but before that it alerted you to any app — even the ones you’ve just used — and popped up all the time. Now the notification will be more targeted and will not be as frequent: once it appears on the screen, it will only appear again after 24 hours.
Pixel Watch watch
Pichai has already indicated that new devices from the Pixel family would appear soon. One of the bets is that this year’s Google I/O will present the brand’s smart watch, Pixel Watch
The device is believed to have been released last year along with the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones.
In addition to the Pixel Watch, the company is also expected to announce the Wear OS 3 update, the Android operating system version for smartwatches.
Pixel 6a
The presentation of a new cell phone is also not ruled out. According to rumors, it is possible that Google will announce the Pixel 6a phone, not as advanced as its 2020 brothers, but with competent configurations.
A recent leak suggests, for example, that the Pixel 6a won’t support the same camera features as the Pixel 6 flagships. Still, the expectation is that this phone could be one of the most cost-effective Android handsets of the year.
Smart home
Google has been making a lot of changes to its Google Home app, revamping the UI elements to make it easier to use, as well as optimizing features to streamline connections between devices.
Among the recent news are, for example, the expansion of Google Fast Pair, a quick pairing feature that makes it easier to connect two different devices via Bluetooth.
The expectation is that the company will bring more increments to the system, such as a new screen with a design similar to that of a tablet.
how to watch
The Google I/O 2022 conference can be followed for free through the official event page. There you can check the schedule for the two days.
Some of the featured lectures are: News from Android, from Google Cloud (the company’s cloud service), from the Chrome browser, Flutter (for creating applications), among others.
*With text by Leticia Marques.
