Google I/O starts today, and would you believe it? They’re going to talk about AI.
After getting everything Android out of the way in last week’s dedicated Android Show, we’re expecting today’s I/O developer conference keynote to be one big AI show. Gemini, Project Astra, and everything in between are likely to be the focus as Google tries to prove it’s the biggest player in the industry.
Android XR is also set to get a mention, with the promise of new demos and more details. We’re hoping that includes closer looks at Google’s prototype smart glasses and Samsung’s Project Moohan, and maybe even new hardware reveals.
It all starts at 10AM PT / 1PM ET, and you can also follow along with our event liveblog right here.
Read below for all of the news and updates from Google I/O 2025.
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Google is launching a new generative AI tool that helps developers swiftly turn rough UI ideas into functional, app-ready designs. The Gemini 2.5 Pro-powered “Stitch” experiment is available on Google Labs and can turn text prompts and reference images into “complex UI designs and frontend code in minutes,” according to the announcement during Google’s I/O event, sparing developers from manually creating design elements and then programming around them.
Stitch generates a visual interface based on selected themes and natural language descriptions, which are currently supported in English. Developers can provide details they would like to see in the final design, such as color palettes or the user experience. Visual references can also be uploaded to guide what Stitch generates, including wireframes, rough sketches, and screenshots of other UI designs.
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Since its original launch at Google I/O 2024, Project Astra has become a testing ground for Google’s AI assistant ambitions. The multimodal, all-seeing bot is not a consumer product, really, and it won’t soon be available to anyone outside of a small group of testers. What Astra represents instead is a collection of Google’s biggest, wildest, most ambitious dreams about what AI might be able to do for people in the future. Greg Wayne, a research director at Google DeepMind, says he sees Astra as “kind of the concept car of a universal AI assistant.”
Eventually, the stuff that works in Astra ships to Gemini and other apps. Already that has included some of the team’s work on voice output, memory, and some basic computer-use features. As those features go mainstream, the Astra team finds something new to work on.
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Google’s second era of smart glasses is off to a chic start. At its I/O developer conference today, Google announced that it’ll be partnering with Samsung, Gentle Monster, and Warby Parker to create smart glasses that people will actually want to wear.
The partnership hints that Google is taking style a lot more seriously this time around. Warby Parker is well known as a direct-to-consumer eyewear brand that makes it easy to get trendy glasses at a relatively accessible price. Meanwhile, Gentle Monster is currently one of the buzziest eyewear brands that isn’t owned by EssilorLuxottica. The Korean brand is popular among Gen Z, thanks in part to its edgy silhouettes and the fact that Gentle Monster is favored by fashion-forward celebrities like Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Gigi Hadid, and Billie Eilish. Partnering with both brands seems to hint that Android XR is aimed at both versatile, everyday glasses as well as bolder, trendsetting options.
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The Google smart glasses era is back, sort of. Today, Google and Xreal announced a strategic partnership for a new Android XR device called Project Aura at the Google I/O developer conference.
This is officially the second Android XR device since the platform was launched last December. The first is Samsung’s Project Moohan, but that’s an XR headset more in the vein of the Apple Vision Pro. Project Aura, however, is firmly in the camp of Xreal’s other gadgets. The technically accurate term would be “optical see-through XR” device. More colloquially, it’s a pair of immersive smart glasses.
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Google is bringing an “Agent Mode” to the Gemini app and making some updates to its Project Mariner tool, CEO Sundar Pichai announced at Google I/O 2025.
Project Mariner, Google’s AI agent tool that can search the web for you, can now oversee up to 10 simultaneous tasks, Pichai said.
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Writing code is the killer chatbot app, and Google knows it.
In addition to touting Gemini 2.5 as a coding tool, Google just released a public beta for Jules, a “coding agent” that can work in the background fixing bugs and writing new features in your codebase. It’s a lot like what you can do with GitHub Copilot. Jules can even make an audio summary of its changes — so, a podcast about code commits? Jules has been in Google Labs for a few months, and is free to use during the beta period.
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Google is rolling out an updated version of Gemini 2.5 Flash.During I/O, Google DeepMind head Demis Hassabis said the improved 2.5 Flash is “better in nearly every dimension.” The model is also 22 percent more efficient and will be generally available in June.
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Gmail’s smart replies, which suggest potential replies to your emails, will be able to pull information from your Gmail inbox and from your Google Drive and better match your tone and style, all with help from Gemini, the company announced at I/O.
The improvements build on Google’s “contextual” upgrade to smart replies it introduced last year. That change allowed responses to be longer than before, meaning smart replies could be more than a short “Sounds good!” But they could still only bring in information from the Gmail thread you were in. With the changes announced today, smart replies will theoretically be able to include a lot more context than before.
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Google is bringing speech translation to Meet. During I/O on Tuesday, Google revealed a new Gemini-powered feature that can translate what you say into your conversation partner’s preferred language.
Google says the AI-generated translation will preserve the sound of your voice, tone, and expression. In a demo shown by Google, an English speaker joins a call with a colleague who speaks Spanish. Once their colleague turns on Gemini’s speech translation, Meet begins dubbing over what they’re saying with an AI-generated English translation that includes all their vocal inflections — and vice versa.
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Project Starline is now Google Beam.
Google’s futuristic conference-calling experiment has been threatening to become commercially available for a while, and Sundar Pichai just said it’s coming this year through devices from HP. And to be fair, “Google Beam” is a less fun but much more Google-y name than Starline.
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Google’s AI-generated opening video for I/O used a new video generation model, Veo 3, according to the description of the video. The video looked a little rough, if you ask me.
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Google’s I/O keynote is about to start.
The show starts at 1PM ET / 10AM PT.
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All about AI.
This year’s Google I/O kicks off in less than an hour, and AI is going to take center stage. Similar to last year’s event, Android will likely take a backseat as Google reveals a bunch of AI-related updates across its products and services.
Allison Johnson -
Reporting for live blog duty, it’s your I/O crew.
Minus Allison, who is gonna be snapping some killer photos for us from a more optimal position.
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We’re back at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, for Google I/O. This year, we’re not expecting much hardware, but we’re naturally expecting a lot of AI news. The pressure is on to prove that ChatGPT won’t make Google Search obsolete, and that Google has what it takes for Gemini to become a household name.
Since last year’s I/O, Google has shipped many AI models, including the latest Gemini 2.5 release that is widely seen as industry-leading. The company has announced its largest acquisition ever, teased plans for AR glasses, and seen early traction with its self-driving cars. It’s also fighting not to be broken up by the US government, which has ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly in search and advertising technology.
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We’re out here at I/O and we did our best Dieter impression by getting in line first. Or at least the press line to get into the amphitheater. We’ve got our seats locked down and the countdown to the keynote is on so stay tuned!
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A few things to look out for at Google I/O today:
- The pre-show musical guest, which in previous years has been fun / totally unhinged.
- Any inkling that Google might be making its own smart glasses.
- Google’s response to its search antitrust trial — one reason to bet on AI is to try and move beyond whatever the government’s about to do.
- Whether Google knows and cares that some people are annoyed by Gemini, or is just going to keep shoving it in our faces.
- Sundar Pichai’s outfit. He has a long history of very strong jacket game.
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We’re kicking off the I/O pre-show with… live vibe coding.
I don’t know how I feel about this, but I’ll tell you it’s no Mark Rebillet firing T-Shirt cannons and making AI music. Then again, I’m not sure how any keynote pre-show will ever top that.
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Google’s annual I/O developer conference is almost here, and all eyes will be on the company’s opening keynote. But for the first time in years, we know there’s little reason to hope for major Android OS announcements, since Google already did that last week.
Instead, we’re expecting I/O’s keynote to be (almost) all about AI, though we do know there’ll be at least a little time devoted to XR.
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Android is getting its biggest visual update in years, and rather than unveiling it for the first time at its big annual developer conference, Google announced Material Three Expressive at a pre-show event broadcast on YouTube the week before. If a major design language shift for the world’s most popular mobile OS doesn’t qualify as a headliner at I/O, then what does? You guessed it: AI.
We expect Google to talk all about Gemini during I/O, which kicks off on Tuesday, and how it’s improving it and bringing it to products in areas that consumers will see even more.
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A year after launching its Find My Device location tracking network, Google is adding support for ultra wideband (UWB) for more precise tracking using compatible phones and trackers. The network and its Android app are also getting a new name: Find Hub.
Google says that UWB will be enabled “later this month.” UWB provides more accurate tracking at close range than Bluetooth, reporting both distance and direction so you can find a missing tracker quicker once you’re in the vicinity. Apple’s AirTag has supported the tech since its launch in 2021, as have Samsung’s SmartTags. Tile’s is now the only major tracker network to lack a UWB option, since the UWB-enabled Tile Ultra it first announced way back in 2021 never actually launched.
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After a few years of iterative updates, Wear OS 6 is shaping up to be a significant leap forward. For starters, Gemini will replace Google Assistant on the wrist alongside a big Material 3 Expressive redesign that takes advantage of circular watch faces. Oh, and for the third year running, the latest Wear OS will also come with some battery life improvements.
“Over the past couple of years, we really completely reimagined Android with Gemini right at the center, and now we’re expanding Gemini beyond the phone,” says Jaime Williams, Wear OS’ product manager.
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Google just announced a bold new look for Android, for real this time. After a false start last week when someone accidentally published a blog post too early (oh, Google!), the company is formally announcing the design language known as Material Three Expressive. It takes the colorful, customizable Material You introduced with Android 12 in an even more youthful direction, full of springy animations, bold fonts, and vibrant color absolutely everywhere. It’ll be available in an update to the Android 16 beta later this month.
Support for the Live Updates feature that Google introduced in an earlier Android 16 beta is nestled among the new design flourishes. It’s Android’s take on Apple’s Live Activities, showing time-sensitive updates in a persistent notification bar. Unlike Apple, Android limits its use to food delivery, navigation, and rideshare apps.
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Google just announced that it will host a separate event ahead of I/O to discuss updates coming to Android. The Android Show: I/O Edition will land on YouTube and the Android website on May 13th at 10AM PT / 1PM ET and will feature Android ecosystem president Sameer Samat. That’s a full week ahead of Google I/O, which kicks off on May 20th.
It’s not terribly surprising, given that the company has spent less time talking about Android at I/O. And it’s probably a big hint that we’re going to hear a lot more about Gemini and Google’s other AI efforts throughout the developer conference. Maybe we’ll even get an update on its Project Astra.
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Google’s next I/O developer conference will take place on May 20th and May 21st, the company announced today. The event will be “open to everyone online” and will include “livestreamed keynotes and sessions,” according to an FAQ. Like past years, there will also be an in-person component at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.
The news comes after Google launched a fun puzzle game to help reveal the date of the event. (The company loves to release puzzles ahead of announcing its I/O dates.) This year’s show will run in the middle of Microsoft’s Build conference, which takes place from May 19th through May 22nd.
