Just one day. The usually voluble Google will spend one day at Google I/O 2023 walking the world through a wide array of hardware and software reveals. It’s a new look for the California search giant, which usually spends six hours over two days explaining both near-term releases and moon shots like a voice assistant that can replace customer service (opens in new tab).
Maybe this is a response to the high stakes of the moment. While Google is the undisputed search leader, Microsoft’s Bing embarrassed them recently with Bing AI‘s shockingly good chatbot integration. Google needs to hit back hard with two-to-three hours of exciting, inspiring, and innovative announcements.
Can Google do it? With so many leaks it’s easy to paint a picture of the keynote. Google pre-announced its first foldable, the Pixel Fold. Google first told us about the Pixel Tablet months ago and new leaks have only solidified the details. The Android 14 Beta launched weeks ago. We’ve even heard whispers about a new conversational AI, Magi, and how it might integrate a Bard-like chatbot with Google search. Yes, very much like Bing AI.
Our US Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff is on the ground at Google’s Shoreline Amphitheatre along with Computing Editor Michelle Rae Uy, while teams in London and New York will be keeping you updated throughout the day. Bookmark this page for all the last-minute news ahead of the event, and all the important details once it starts.
How to watch Google I/O 2023
We’ve got a full guide to how to watch Google I/O 2023, including details of all of the various places the livestream will be available. We’ve also embedded the stream below, so you can follow it along with us.
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CURRENTLY RUNNING THIS LIVE BLOG IS:
Phil Berne is a preeminent voice in consumer electronics reviews, having reviewed his first device (the Sony D-EJ01 Discman) more than 20 years ago for eTown.com. He has been writing about phones and mobile technology since before the iPhone, for a variety of sites including PCMag, infoSync, PhoneScoop, and Slashgear. He holds an M.A. in Cultural Theory from Carnegie Mellon University.
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Google’s language model is learning and growing
Google is now discussing advances in its language model, PaLM 2. Sundar Pichai is discussing a number of different AI categories, including AI implementations that will run purely on a mobile device, and other models that will work in medical fields.
Frankly, these are a bit beyond my understanding of Google’s current AI developments, but we’ve seen seven different AI models before we’ve seen a single Pixel device, so that tells you everything about what’s hot for Google right now.
Magic Editor will be even more magic than Magic Eraser
Google Photos will get new editing tools powered by Google’s AI knowledge. Building upon the Magic Eraser feature that we’ve loved on Pixel phones, Google is introducing Magic Editor. Instead of just removing unwanted elements, Magic Editor will be able to creatively rearrange a photo and even add objects that were not present in the original shot.
For instance, Google showed a photo of a child holding balloons, but the balloons were cut off by the side of the frame. When Pichai moved the child to the center, the Magic Editor tool drew the missing portion of the bunch of balloons. Magic Editor then changed the lighting of the sky, and the rest of the photo adjusted to accomodate the new effect.
Let Gmail write those angry emails for you
For the first examples of how AI will enhance Google’s products, Pichai shows us Gmail with AI enhancements. If you get an email saying your flight has been canceled, Gmail can now draft an angry letter demanding a full refund. If the letter isn’t long enough, you can hit a single button to “Elaborate” and make it longer, ensuring you’ll get the refund because nobody wants to read a long email.
Google Maps will also get new immersive views across 15 cities, leveraging the myriad photos and footage Google has taken of cities for Google Maps to create a live and realistic look at big cities as you peruse the maps.
Google puts AI front and center
If there was any question that AI developments are shaping the current tech landscape, Google put them to rest by opening its Google I/O 2023 conference with an aspirational video filled with promises about what it’s AI solutions will do.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has taken the stage, and we expect him to start discussing Bard, Pixel devices, and more Google news. Pichai opens by saying that every single product in Google’s portfolio, including Search, will be enhanced and powered by AI.
It’s almost time
If you want to follow along the Keynote address live, we’ve got instruction above and a link to Google’s YouTube site. There is currently a countdown clock, but we expect the show to start any minute. Of course, we’ll be keeping this Live Blog fresh with all of the Google I/O content, as well as hands-on and maybe even a product review, if we managed to get our hands on something early.
Buckle up, it’s time to get moving.
Pixel Folds, but first lipstick on a duck
We’ve got Dan Deacon making music and art to rhymes, and now, just moments before SVP Osterloh takes the stage, we’ve got a duck. Wearing lipstick. Ducks can’t pucker, but who are we to judge.
We’re hearing that the music on stage at Google I/O 2023 was being generated by Phenaki technology from Google Research, if you’d like to read more about the ways Google is showing off its creativity in advance of the big show.
Clearly device hardware will not be the only spotlight shown on the stage today.
Bard visualizations
In the pre-show, we were treated by a series of live videos and visualizations led by composer Dan Deacon and created on the fly by Bard and other generative AI technologies from Google.
It’s another indication that Google plans to make AI a centerpiece of Google I/O. A lot of what we saw was created with a new Google text-to-music model, which is available now for preview access.
What’s not entirely clear is how much of the generative video – which was all pretty bizarre – was created on-the-fly and how much was pre-built and synced to Deacon’s rap.
Deacon also walked us through how Google’s new generative technologies helped him build his new music. We rate the tunes a solid 6.
Our Computing Editor Michelle says she is not really loving this AI generated music, though the music videos are strangely artistic.
We’re less than a half hour from the start of the Google I/O 2023 Keynote address from SVP of Devices and Services Rick Osterloh. What else might Google announce, besides the Pixel Fold, Pixel Tablet, and the rumored Pixel 7a phone? Well, Google has been known to pre-announce devices quite a while in advance.
In fact, we learned about the Pixel Tablet for the first time last year at the Google I/O 2022 conference, and we are just today getting our first hands-on look at the new device. So, it’s possible that Google could announce new products that we won’t see for a year or more. It’s nail-biting tension, but also great fun.
We expect a Pixel 8 family to show up later in the year, if the Pixel phones stay on their regular schedule. It’s possible Google could show off new Pixel devices, or technology that could appear inside those phones. A Pixel Ultra phone has been a long-rumored product that hasn’t taken a bow. Perhaps we’ll see that one today.
With Apple talking up future augmented reality plans, it’s also possible we could learn more about Google’s head-mounted wearable ideas. The company has shown a prototype of a live translation device that shows text on glasses as you have a conversation across languages. We’d love to see more of that today.
Are you hungry for Google news? How about a chicken sandwich, like the one that Google is serving attendees at Google I/O 2023? Looks tasty, just like those new Pixel phones. We haven’t gotten official word from Google about the Pixel 7a, but we know that the Pixel Fold is coming, as Google showed it themselves less than a week ago.
Recent leaks have suggested that the Pixel Fold will be very pricey and very thin. It will cost about as much as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4, unless Sammy drops the price for the Z Fold 5, which seems unlikely in today’s inflationary economic climate.
We’re not sure how thin the Pixel Fold will be, but a recent leak says it will be the thinnest foldable, at least in markets where Google is sold. That leaves out China, so Xiaomi may still be safe with its Xiaomi Mix Fold 2, which is apparently only 5.4mm thin when open. We’ll see if Google can beat that today.
Google’s lead in photo magic (think magic eraser and unblur) is sure to continue with what we expect are some new photo tricks. No one has leaked anything significant, but the buzz is that we’re gonna be wowed.
Naturally, if some new photo tricks fail to materialize, we’ll be disappointed, but it seems almost certain that the entire Pixel phone line will have some new photo powers that, while they may only apply to the latest Pixel 7 and Pixel Fold, could work their way down the line. We do expect the rumored new 7a will have some of these skills, whatever they may be, as well.
Of course, we can’t wait to try out all of the Pixel-exclusive photo editing features on the first Pixel tablet. It’s fun fixing up old photos on a phone screen, but on a tablet we should really be able to get some serious photo work done.
The most important tech launches of the year tend to happen in the last quarter, but the big California companies love to use the late Spring weather to highlight new products. This week it’s Google at I/O 2023. In one month, Apple will host a similar crowd just down the road at its Cupertino HQ. Both Mountain View and Cupertino are suburbs of San Jose, the third-largest city in California.
Our editors are lining up now to hear Google’s keynote address, where Google SVP of Devices and Services Rick Osterloh is expected to give us all the news.
We’re inside the Shoreline Amphitheater. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/DwzViiYf8WMay 10, 2023
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Do we know everything about Google I/O? Not even close (we hope). After all, what’s the fun of ruining all the surprises early? We know about the new phones and the Pixel Tablet, but what about the Pixel Watch 2? We haven’t heard much, so we’re guessing there will be a mention from the stage, but nothing to see on hand. We’d love to be wrong!
There are also plenty of software apps and features that Google could update, outside its most popular Android 14 and Bard developments. There could be additions to Google Maps, Android Auto, YouTube and content creation, or any number of Google channels. Google’s parent Alphabet has its fingers in so many pies, you never know what will stick.
We’ll have hands-on with the new products coming up soon, as soon as Google is done with its spiel. In the meantime, our E-i-C Lance Ulanoff is living it up in cloudy California. Sorry about the weather, Lance.
I’m here! Pay no attention to the stretched face on my badge. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/fgbSaEiYSUMay 10, 2023
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Get excited, folks! We’re now only two hours away from the start of Google I/O 2023. As a reminder, proceedings kick off at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (or at 3am AEST on Thursday, for those in Australia), and you’ll be able to watch along via the video link embedded at the top of this page.
TechRadar’s US Editor in Chief, Lance Ulanoff, is on the ground in California alongside Computing Reviews editor Michelle Rae Uy, and we’ve got teams on both sides of the Atlantic ready to bring you the latest from Google’s annual product showcase.
Much has been made of the phone-related announcements expected to come from this year’s Google I/O showcase, but things have been far quieter on the audio front. If Becky Scarrott, TechRadar’s Senior Audio Staff Writer, had her way, though, Google would unveil the Google Nest Audio Gen 2 at Google I/O 2023:
“The headline product reveal at I/O 2023 – in my dreams. I know I’m in the minority here (as woman in tech journalism, for starters) but I liked the inaugural September 2020 Nest Audio, a friendly cuboid that aimed to hold sound quality in even higher esteem than voice smarts. A noble aim; one I also aspire to.
It didn’t work out like that of course. A quick glance at our Google Nest Audio review reveals a speaker that excelled in smarts but missed the mark in terms of detail through the mids and trebles, also sounding harsh at higher volumes.
But come on Google, you’re giving up after one redesign? Surely not. That pebble-colored, fabric-swathed second-gen. speaker had promise! And not once was it ever mistaken for an air freshener in my home (yes Google Home, I’m looking at you) so look how far you came already! I say give it another shot – maybe look at the driver array and integration. You got this.”
The Google Pixel 7a is expected to replace its predecessor, the Google Pixel 6a, as one of the best cheap phones to buy in 2023 – but the presumed affordability of Google’s next mid-ranger doesn’t mean it’ll skimp on features.
We trawled through the phone’s various leaked specs to examine the Google Pixel 7a vs iPhone 14, and the former handset could well challenge Apple’s latest vanilla iPhone in several important areas.
For instance, while the Google Pixel 7a looks likely to boast a similar 6.1-inch OLED display to the iPhone 14, rumors suggest it’ll actually sport a superior battery (4,410mAh vs 3,279mAh) and main camera (64MP vs 12MP). Your move, Apple.
Google’s AI-powered chatbot, Bard, had this to say when TechRadar’s Computing Reviews editor, Michelle Rae Uy, asked what we what we should expect to see at this year’s Google I/O showcase:
“Here are some of the things you can expect to see at Google I/O 2023:
- New versions of Android, Chrome, and other Google products
- New hardware products, such as the Pixel Fold
- Updates to Google’s cloud computing services
- Announcements about Google’s AI and machine learning efforts
- Opportunities to learn from Google engineers and developers”
And for the updates expected to come to Chrome, specifically, Bard said…
- “First, we can expect to see further improvements to Chrome’s performance and security. Chrome is already one of the fastest and most secure browsers available, but Google is always working to make it even better.
- Second, we can expect to see new features that make Chrome more user-friendly. For example, Google may announce a new feature that makes it easier to find and install extensions.
- Third, we can expect to see new features that make Chrome more accessible to people with disabilities. For example, Google may announce a new feature that makes it easier to use Chrome with a screen reader.
- Finally, we can expect to see new features that make Chrome more integrated with other Google products. For example, Google may announce a new feature that makes it easier to share links between Chrome and Gmail.”
And now let’s touch on the power behind these devices – Android 14. Though none of them will run Android 14 at launch, all three new devices will be eligible for a day one update, as will current Pixels going all the way back to the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5.
Google typically doesn’t let us know the big Android changes till IO, though developer and public beta releases have already given us a slight peek at what to expect. Other than improvements for tablets and foldables, Google says that multi-device experiences are going to be a big part of Android 14.
Are we going to see Apple-style cross-device features make their way to Android at long last? With Nearby Share coming to Windows and ChromeOS, Google’s already built some semblance of Apple-like integration. Now, with a near complete hardware slate (RIP Pixelbook), the company has a chance of making it work.
Let’s not forget the Pixel Tablet. Google’s third Pixel tablet had already been announced at last year’s Google IO, and now it’s likely to be made available for pre-order shortly after this event if our instincts are right.
Google is no stranger to tablets; the Pixel C preceded Pixel phones and the Pixel Slate was a well-built one. Google’s tablet ambitions were neutered by poor software in both instances, and that’s an area where the Pixel Tablet will hopefully do better.
The company has promised us a treat with Material You’s customization, Android 13, and the new Tensor G2 processor to keep it all flying.
Going back to Android 13, Google has done a lot of work to make its Android look good on large screens. Areas like the home screen, the lock screen, and the notification center now work better on tablets. Beyond that surface level, the company has even updated several of its apps (opens in new tab) from Google Photos to Google TV to take advantage of the large-screen canvas you’ll be getting. With Android 14, Google plans to improve that, though how exactly, we’ll have to wait to find out.
Another one of the gadgets we expect to see at Google I/O is the Google Pixel 7a, the next entry in Google’s more budget-friendly line of smartphones. According to leakers who have got their hands on the device early it’ll have a 6.1-inch OLED display, a 64MP main camera, and is powered by Google’s Tensor G2 chip.
If that sounds pretty exciting to you and you can’t wait to pick up Google’s next smartphone for yourself then you might be in luck. Several people are seemingly selling the Pixel 7a early on the US Marketplace platform Swappa (opens in new tab), though you might want to wait.
That’s because the cheapest listing price for the Google Pixel 7a at the time of writing is $460, slightly more expensive than the $449 we expect the device to sell for in the US. In the UK and Australia, we expect the handset to cost £399 / AU$749 respectively, but we’ll have to wait and see what Google announces at I/O later today.
As well as all the exciting Pixel Fold and Pixelbook goodies being unveiled during I/O, don’t forget about the next iteration of Google’s Pixel Watch.
The rumor mill has been quiet on this for a long time. Since the first Google Pixel Watch launched last year, weren’t sure if a Pixel Watch 2 announcement was coming during Google I/O, or even if one would arrive at all this year. Would the Pixel Watch follow in the Apple Watch’s footsteps with an annual release, or would it share more than software with Fitbit and bring out new models only every few years?
Now I/O is here, it’s looking likely the Pixel Watch 2 will be revealed during the keynote. Leaker Evan Blass tweeted the name “Pixel Watch 2” recently, hinting that at least an announcement, if not a full demonstration, is imminent. Last year, Google teased the Pixel Watch months before its full October release date, and we’re betting the sequel will follow a similar pattern.
Ever wondered what the ‘I/O’ bit in ‘Google I/O’ stands for? Google has helpfully answered that very question this morning, posting a blog entry (opens in new tab) where it explains how the event got its name.
The post is a long and interesting dive into the history of Google I/O, which celebrates its 15th birthday this year. I recommend reading the whole thing if you have an interest in all things Google, but the short answer is that I/O is actually 1/0: the characters are supposed to be the first two digits in a googol, the number that gave the company its name. So there you go!
Sticking with Google’s first foldable phone, a last-minute Google Pixel Fold teaser video has shown it off in full.
The video – which we’ve included above, assuming Google hasn’t removed it yet – shows the phone being used by various NBA stars. It’s not clear whether Google meant to share it ahead of I/O, but it’s out in the wild now anyway!
Among the reasons to be cheerful about the Pixel Fold are the fact that it’s rumored to have a bigger battery than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4. We don’t yet know exactly how big it will be, of course, but it’s been tipped to have a capacity of between 4,500mAh and 5,000mAh. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 (pictured), in contrast, has only a 4,400mAh cell.
A bigger battery doesn’t always equal better battery life – the size of the screen, efficiency of the processor and lots of other factors can influence that – but it’s a good start. And given that Google is apparently pitching the Fold as having “Beyond 24-hour battery life”, we’re optimistic about this one.
So, what’s the device that we’re most excited about (hopefully) getting a big reveal later today? Personally, it would be the Google Pixel Fold. We know this will definitely feature at I/O 2023, after Google itself teased the Fold on Star Wars Day. And we also think we know quite a bit about the device after months of rumors and leaks.
The biggest of these came from Jon Prosser of FrontPageTech a few weeks ago. He released a seven-minute video teasing full details about the Pixel Fold, and if the details he shared are accurate then there’s reason to be very excited indeed.
While we wait for the festivities to begin, we can satisfy ourselves with this tasty Google I/O 2023 primer. It covers all the big announcements we’re expecting, including the Pixel Fold, Pixel Tablet, and what could be a very popular Pixel 7a. It’s easily the most anticipated mid-range Android phone of the season.
While the Bard updates and Pixel Watch 2 might be speculative, Android 14 is a lock as one of the stars of the development show. We do wonder, though, if Google can do enough to make Android cool again.
Good morning, and welcome to our Google I/O 2023 live blog. Marc McLaren here in the UK to get this show on the road. The action gets under way at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST today, which means we have plenty of time to discuss everything that we expect to see later today.
Keep this page bookmarked for all the last-minute rumors and news ahead of the keynote, then stick with us once the event gets going for all the big reveals as they happen.
