Google I/O 2025 preview: Android 16, smarter Gemini, and more
What's the story
Google's much-awaited I/O 2025, the flagship developer conference, is just a few days away.
Scheduled for May 20 and May 21 at Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheater, the event promises a ton of product announcements from Google's massive portfolio.
Attendees can expect news related to Android, Chrome, YouTube, and Google's AI-powered chatbot Gemini.
AI advancements
New AI models could be unveiled
Google has been making major strides in AI, and the tech world is eagerly waiting for updates on Gemini.
Recent leaks indicate that an updated Gemini Ultra model could be unveiled at I/O 2025.
The company currently offers a premium tier, Gemini Advanced for $20/month, but there are speculations about two new plans: Premium Plus and Premium Pro.
The benefits and pricing details of these plans remain undisclosed.
AI projects
Astra and Project Mariner
Google is likely to talk about Astra, its effort to build AI apps and agents for real-time understanding.
Another project on the list could be Project Mariner, which involves AI agents capable of navigating and acting across the web on users' behalf.
"Computer Use" has been spotted in the code for Google's AI Studio developer platform, which could be related to Mariner.
OS updates
Android Show: A sneak peek into Android 16
This year, Google is hosting a separate event for Android updates: The Android Show on May 13.
Scheduled a week before I/O, this virtual event will be all about the latest version of Android, Android 16.
The new version is expected to bring improved notifications and a new design language called Material 3 Expressive.
According to a leaked blog post, Material 3 Expressive will be more responsive with action elements popping.
Feature enhancements
Quality-of-life updates and new features
Android 16 is mostly a quality-of-life update, bringing support for Auracast to enable seamless switching between Bluetooth devices.
It will also include lock screen widgets and a few new accessibility features.
Google could also demonstrate capabilities in the latest versions of Android XR, its mixed reality operating system, and Wear OS, the software for wearables.
What's more?
What else is expected?
Google will have plenty to discuss following The Android Show and I/O keynote.
Sessions on Chrome, Google Cloud, Google Play, Android development tools, and Gemma are expected.
Last year, Google surprised attendees with several AI-related announcements, including LearnLM, a set of models tailored for education.
This year, a possible surprise could be an upgrade to the AI-powered podcast tool NotebookLM.
Leaked code hints at a new "Video Overviews" feature, likely designed to generate video summaries using Google's Veo 2 model.