The Google I/O 2018 ticket sign up registration is now closed, but there's something else on the I/O website that should grab your interest: the event schedule is now up and you can see that there might be two main keynotes on May 8, one from 10am to 11:30pm and one from 12:45pm to 1:45pm. I don't think this format was used in the previous years: it used to be one long main keynote.
Aside from the main event, the schedule has a long list of sessions to look through just to try to gauge a bit what the next focus points for Google will be over the next year. There's never anything super juicy there or any large slip, as Google often tends to leave a few sessions out from the schedule because their name is reliant on something being announced in the main keynote. But still, I took a quick look and found a few interesting/telling sessions:
- What’s new in Android Wear - it's nice to see a sign of Google reaffirming its commitment to Wear.
- What’s new in Android accessibility - from what I hear, Android lags behind iOS in terms of accessibility, so this might be a welcome change.
- What’s new in Android apps for Chrome OS - one can hope this will be preceded by the announcement that all old Chromebooks will get Android apps. Get on it, Google!
- Design Actions for the Google Assistant on smart displays - this is an obvious one as the Smart Displays that were announced at CES are said to be coming in the summer, which makes I/O the ideal time to discuss them further with devs.
- Integrate your Smart Home device with the Google Assistant - of note is the mention of "new device types, APIs, and traits." Maybe we'll officially see smart locks, security systems, and other device types properly supported in Assistant.
- For developers: Grow and optimize your subscriptions with new Google Play features and New and advanced Google Play tools for game developers.
And there are many sessions for developers about Kotlin, Firebase, Flutter, Instant apps, AR/VR, developing for the web, Google Pay, Assistant, and some sessions about understanding memory usage and battery drain in apps. All in all, it's the usual except for two main missing topics: no Android TV, no Android Auto. Google sometimes adds more sessions as we approach I/O and even adds more sessions after the main keynote event, so there's hope for them still, but this is where things are at for now.
Source: Google