{"id":604429,"date":"2026-04-14T23:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T23:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/604429\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T23:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T23:25:12","slug":"what-to-expect-from-google-i-o-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/604429\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect from Google I\/O 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">We&#8217;re sliding into developer conference season and one of the biggest events on the upcoming calendar is Google I\/O. This year&#8217;s edition is <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/general\/google-io-2026-is-set-for-may-19-and-20-200805024.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\" data-ylk=\"slk:taking place on May 19 and 20;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;taking place on May 19 and 20&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">taking place on May 19 and 20<\/a>. As usual, the in-person element will happen in Mountain View, California, though many of the keynotes and sessions will be livestreamed. Google will surely make its biggest announcements during the opening keynote, which will start at 1PM ET on May 19. A developer keynote will take place later the same day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">As ever, the rumor mill will pick up speed in the leadup to Google I\/O. We do have some ideas about what Google will discuss at the event. So let&#8217;s take a look at what to expect at Google I\/O 2026 (we&#8217;ll update this story as we hear more credible rumors).<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s officially on deck<img alt=\"Google I\/O logo\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"812\" height=\"457\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"fig-image-round\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/io_2382.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Google I\/O logo (Google)<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">When it confirmed the dates for this year&#8217;s I\/O, Google revealed a little bit about what it has in store for us. As you might imagine, AI will be a major focus of the event. Google plans to share its &#8220;AI breakthroughs and updates in products across the company, from Gemini to Android, Chrome, Cloud and more,&#8221; it wrote in a <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/developers.googleblog.com\/get-ready-for-google-io-2026\/\" data-i13n=\"cpos:2;pos:1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:blog post;cpos:2;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;2&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;blog post&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\">blog post<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">There will be news on Gemini model updates as well as agentic coding. Google will have some product demos too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">The company has released its <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/io.google\/2026\/\" data-i13n=\"cpos:3;pos:1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:initial schedule;cpos:3;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;3&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;initial schedule&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\">initial schedule<\/a> of keynotes and sessions, but it doesn&#8217;t provide us with a lot of specifics as yet. It has lined up discussions on what&#8217;s new in the likes of Google Play, Firebase (a mobile and web app development platform), the Gemma open model family and the open-source app development framework Flutter. Interestingly, there isn&#8217;t a dedicated session for Android XR on the schedule just yet.<\/p>\n<p>What to expect<img alt=\"Leaked image of Google's Aluminium OS\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"fig-image-round\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/aluminium_os_7020.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Leaked image of Google&#8217;s Aluminium OS (9to5Google)<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">There haven&#8217;t been many credible leaks ahead of Google I\/O as yet, but we can make some educated guesses about what to expect from the event. It&#8217;s all but certain that we&#8217;ll get more details about Android 17 at I\/O. Developers need time to tweak their apps ahead of the next major version of the operating system rolling out to everyone if they want to take advantage of new features as soon as possible, and they invariably get a heads up about those at I\/O every year. (That said, Google has been moving away from a big annual release approach in favor of juicier Pixel Drops\/Android updates, so we may not see some of the new features it unveils at I\/O for some time.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">As for other operating systems, Google is planning to meld ChromeOS and Android <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/mobile\/google-exec-says-the-company-will-unify-android-and-chromeos-120053895.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:4;pos:1\" data-ylk=\"slk:into a unified platform;cpos:4;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;4&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;into a unified platform&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">into a unified platform<\/a>. This seems to be the project that&#8217;s being referred to as Aluminium OS, which we got <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/computing\/our-first-look-at-googles-android-for-pc-interface-leaks-in-a-bug-report-133006008.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:5;pos:1\" data-ylk=\"slk:a first glimpse of earlier this year;cpos:5;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;5&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;a first glimpse of earlier this year&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a first glimpse of earlier this year<\/a> thanks to some leaks. I\/O seems like the perfect venue for Google to start showing that off to the public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">On the AI front, a reveal of Gemini 4 could be on the docket, along with details of the latest Veo text-to-video model. Maybe we\u2019ll hear more about <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/project-astra-googles-vision-for-a-universal-ai-assistant-is-pulling-into-focus-174539875.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:6;pos:1\" data-ylk=\"slk:Project Astra;cpos:6;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;6&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Project Astra&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Project Astra<\/a>, Google\u2019s pitch for a universal AI assistant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">If Google has some consumer hardware to show off at this year&#8217;s event, I suspect it&#8217;ll be an Android XR device or devices, rather than a Pixel phone or watch. There is a chance that we&#8217;ll get a tease of the Google Pixel 11 lineup. But don&#8217;t be surprised if we don&#8217;t see that or the Pixel Watch 5 until Google&#8217;s dedicated hardware event, which has taken place in August or October in recent years (Google will want to stay well away from Apple&#8217;s iPhone event, which will likely take place in September as usual).<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s hoping for a big surprise or two<img alt=\"A banner image with the Google Beam logo on the left and a person sitting in front of the Beam screen talking to another person, who appears to pop slightly out of the screen.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"541\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"fig-image-round\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/8d71c7a0-3508-11f0-bffc-52702e915a19.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Google<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Sure, Android updates are all well and good. If Google insists on cramming Gemini and other AI tools into all of its tools and services, we\u2019ll at least listen to what they have to say about all that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">But I have my fingers crossed for some cool surprises. Give us something new from Google X (Alphabet\u2019s moonshot factory, not the thing that was once Twitter), an idea that could be a net benefit for humanity and boost the company\u2019s bottom line at the same time. These events are always more fun when there\u2019s something for us to get genuinely excited about, even if it\u2019s something relatively niche but out there, like the <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ar-vr\/google-is-bringing-beam-its-3d-video-conferencing-tech-to-deployed-service-members-174500517.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:7;pos:1\" data-ylk=\"slk:Google Beam;cpos:7;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;7&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Google Beam&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google Beam<\/a> 3D video conferencing tech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We&#8217;re sliding into developer conference season and one of the biggest events on the upcoming calendar is Google&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,228428,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-604429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-developer-conference","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}