Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

Here’s a brief of what Google Announced at I/O 2021

- By Mahesh De Andrado

Just because there’s a full blown pandemic, that doesn’t mean that life comes to a complete standstill. Companies and people will still go about their day to day activities as much as possible. Google too adopted a similar approach. With their flagship Google I/O not being held last year due to Covid-19, we went on an entire year without hearing about the new stuff Google was working on. But fret not, for Google I/O 2021 took place from the 18-20th of May and along with it, Google finally gave us a peek into what they were working on.

Better ways to work together

Google I/O also gave viewers a brief look into Smart Canvas. With the pandemic, more and more people are opting to work from home. This has its fair share of obstacles to overcome. Smart Canvas makes it easier to work between various Google apps such as Docs and Sheets. You can even bring a Google Meets call to your Google Doc and keep on working. Google hasn’t told us when Smart Canvas will be available but we can keep our fingers crossed.

Android 12 - It’s Big and Bold

In most cases, the primary reason for anyone to watch Google I/O is to see the latest version of Android and the new features it brings. Android 12 boasts a new Material You design language. This basically means you have new ways of customizin­g your phone to make it more “you”. There’s a new dynamic theming option that updates your phone’s color scheme based on the wallpaper you’ve set. Android widgets get a major facelift with the update as well.

There’s also improvemen­ts to device security with Privacy Dashboard, Private Compute Core and clipboard access alerts. You can even use your Android phone to unlock your car (but you’ll need to have a select Pixel or Samsung Galaxy device for this). Developers can also make use of the Performanc­e Class API that can identify how powerful a device is, and scale the features and performanc­e of their apps accordingl­y.

While previous Android betas were available only on Pixel devices, Android 12 beta releases are available from 12 OEMs such as Asus, Oneplus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Tecno, TCL, Vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE.

 ??  ?? Android 12’s new Design You material language is all about making your phone your phone (Image Credits: SlashGear)
Android 12’s new Design You material language is all about making your phone your phone (Image Credits: SlashGear)

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Sri Lanka