Android 14 was barely talked about at Google’s I/O 2023 keynote

There was a cold marine layer hanging within the air above the Shoreline Amphitheater, however the danceable beats thumped on despite it. Dan Deacon was enjoying a set that had one thing to do with AI, adopted by an individual in a duck costume dancing on stage. Not the type of spectacle you’re sometimes anticipating earlier than you’ve even had your second cup of espresso, however that’s Google I/O, child. 

I/O is, in fact, the corporate’s yearly developer convention, and it formally kicked off on Wednesday morning when CEO Sundar Pichai took the stage, headlining a two-hour presentation that was nearly solely centered on AI. We received a preview of what’s coming to Google Search, Gmail, and Photographs, together with an unappetizing, photo-realistic picture of pizza fondue. It was all AI, prime to backside. We have been reassured, many times, that Google is being accountable with its AI implementation and that the corporate is taking steps to ensure the know-how doesn’t finish life on the planet as we all know it.

However what we didn’t hear a lot about — in actual fact, barely earned a point out on stage — is I/O’s ordinary visitor of honor: Android. Particularly, Android 14, which is in beta now and is anticipated within the fall. There’s lots in regards to the apps and companies that run hand-in-hand with Google’s cell working system, however the platform itself will get little or no time within the highlight.

That’s a significant shift from earlier years. As lately as 2019, the subsequent Android model (at the moment, it was going as Q) commanded a devoted 10-plus-minute section within the keynote highlighting new options. In 2023? Android 14 is talked about nearly in passing an hour and a half into the keynote as new lock display screen customization choices are highlighted. Earlier in this system, we received updates on merchandise monitoring and a heads-up on unknown tracker alerts that can work with Apple’s AirTags. However this stuff have been framed as updates coming to the Android ecosystem, not as Android 14 options. 

That’s not an accident. I requested Sameer Samat, VP of Android ecosystem, why Android 14 particularly received so little airtime. He mentioned that as Google has applied methods for Android units to obtain updates exterior of a once-a-year platform improve, like Play System and app updates, it’s turn out to be crucial to border issues a little bit in a different way. “So this 12 months, we thought it’s essential to point out individuals what’s new in Android from a consumer expertise standpoint, whatever the OS model. Whereas some options that we introduced will launch with Android 14, many will arrive in individuals’s arms by these steady updates,” he says. 

Quite than lumping collectively a whole lot of new options in an OS improve that can roll out slowly (or by no means) to sure units, the corporate is sprinkling options all year long as updates to Google Photographs or Gmail. That’s a great factor, and it’s a facet impact of Google’s efforts to resolve the acquainted issues of Android’s fragmentation. Google has extra levers to drag now to get characteristic updates and safety fixes to Android telephones sooner. It simply means fewer of these options getting constructed into big-numbered variations of the OS.

It additionally signifies that what’s leftover isn’t terribly thrilling. Android 14 has been in beta for some time now, and to date, highlights embody updates that I’d classify as nice-to-haves: a unique search for the again navigation arrow, assist for a brand new backward-compatible HDR picture normal, and lossless audio over USB headphones. Not unhealthy, however not the type of stuff that will get individuals jazzed up throughout a keynote.

There’s additionally the truth that the smartphone market has achieved a type of maturity which means year-over-year upgrades are much less thrilling than they as soon as have been. See additionally: mainly each machine introduced final 12 months. System makers, together with Google, are shifting the main target to the earbuds, watches, and tablets that they promote and the way all of them work collectively to make our lives simpler — so the gross sales pitch goes. Telephones simply aren’t the celebs of the present anymore, and neither is the software program they run on.

That’s how we received to this 12 months’s I/O keynote, which was as a lot a {hardware} launch and AI pep rally because it was a software program showcase. After the principle keynote ended and Pichai walked offstage, we have been inspired to remain in our seats for the subsequent session: the developer keynote. Little tubs of snacks have been distributed as a bribe to maintain us in our seats. 

Nonetheless, nearly all of the group headed for the exits. We have been there for the Fold announcement or to see how Google was responding to the stress of Microsoft’s AI developments. Smaller classes later within the day coated Android in depth, however on the corporate’s largest stage, it performed nothing greater than a supporting function.