Posted by Jason Titus, Senior Director of Engineering
This morning, we kicked off our 8th annual Google I/O conference, joined by 5,600
developers at Moscone Center, 530 I/O Extended communities around the world, and millions via
the I/O Live stream. This year’s event is focused on delivering incredible experiences on
mobile and helping developers build successful businesses through these key themes: Develop,
Engage, and Earn.
During the keynote, we had a number of announcements that covered the evolution of
the mobile platform, tools for Android, iOS, and Web developers, and the push towards more
immersive mobile experiences with VR. Here’s a closer look at the news:
Google
Play services 7.5 — Check out new features like Smart Lock for Passwords,
new APIs for Google Cloud Messaging and
Google Cast, and the Google Maps API on
Android Wear devices.
Android
Studio 1.3 — Preview Android Studio v1.3, now with improved Gradle build
speed, a new memory profiler, and full editing and debugging support for C/C++.
Polymer
1.0 — As the first production-ready release for the web components
library, we’re also adding new product lines of elements. Features range from toolbars and
menus to offline caching.
iOS
& CocoaPods — Access your favorite libraries via CocoaPods, the
official distribution channel for Google SDKs on iOS.
Cloud Test
Lab — Building on the technology from our acquisition of Appurify, cloud
Test Lab automates the testing of your mobile apps.
Firebase — Firebase makes it easy
to build apps quickly, without spinning up servers or writing server-side code.
Engage
App
Indexing — Index your app’s content into Google Search, just like you
would with a website. Available for Android, and now piloting on iOS.
Google Cloud
Messaging — As one of the most popular ways to send messages from the
cloud to user's devices on Android and Chrome, GCM is now also available on iOS.
Engagement on the Web — Access previously unavailable native
functionality on the web with push
notifications from your mobile website and add
to homescreen.
Empowering
successful global businesses on Google Play — Get new and powerful tools
to help you further grow your business, improve decision making based on smarter insights, and
engage and retain a valuable user base.
Universal
App Campaigns coming soon — Set up app install ads with just a few inputs
like your budget and the cost you’re willing to pay per user--we take care of the
rest.
Measure
App Installs Ads with Google Analytics — Measure app install campaigns
based on engagement and lifetime value. On iOS, Google Analytics is now integrated with 20+ ad
networks making it easy to understand how to spend your acquisition budget.
Earn
AdMob
— Monetize your apps intelligently on a single platform, so you can gain insights about your
users, drive more in-app purchases and maximize your ad revenue.
What’s Next
Android
Nanodegree — Enroll in the industry's first Android Nanodegree, developed
in collaboration with Udacity. The curriculum was built from the ground up s to meet the high
standard we have for Android development. The Nanodegree covers everything from fundamentals
to advanced development skills, as well as Google Play services and Material Design.
Cardboard
SDK — The Cardboard SDK for Unity now supports both Android and
iOS.
