Google will sell its own Daydream VR headset
When Google developed its popular line of Nexus phones and tablets, it didn’t just give the reference designs to third parties and hope for the best: It built and sold its own hardware to showcase just what those designs could achieve. The company announced on Thursday that it will take the same tack with its newly unveiled Daydream VR hardware. That’s right, Google is going to build its own line of Daydream headsets and controllers to show third-party developers how it’s done.
Since the Daydream is an evolution of the Cardboard headset — albeit a heck of a lot easier to wear — it’s not going to have any onboard processing power, instead relying on the user’s phone. To that end, Google’s already in the process of certifying handsets from LG, Samsung, HTC, Xiaomi, Alcatel and others. And you can bet the Nexus line will be among them.
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Source: Google (Twitter)
Why Google can’t stop making messaging apps
Google has announced three new communication apps this week: Spaces, Allo and Duo. That’s in addition to the three it already has. To understand why it’s doing this, and why it’ll do it again, we only need to look to its past.
Twelve years ago, Google began its shift from being “just” the world’s most popular search engine to something much more: It released Gmail. Soon, the company was offering several options for communication. By 2009 Google users had a pretty robust set of tools at their disposal. Gmail for email, Talk for real-time text and voice chats, Voice for VoIP calling, and Android to facilitate everything else. Unfortunately, this simple delineation would quickly disappear as the company launched more and more services.
Google Wave was the first addition. Announced in mid-2009, it mashed together elements of bulletin boards, instant messaging and collaborative editing to pretty awesome effect. It grew a small but fervent community — I was a big fan — until Google halted development.
Then came Buzz. Launched in 2010, it was Google’s first attempt at a bona fide social network. It failed miserably, not least due to complaints about the way Google forced it upon users and some valid privacy concerns. Although neither Wave nor Buzz really competed with what the company was already offering, that would change when Google launched its next attempt at a social network, Google+.
In addition to standard social networking, Google+ also had two features that facilitated direct communication with individuals and groups: Hangouts and Huddles. Not to be mistaken with the current app, Hangouts at the time offered multiuser video chat for people in the same Circle. Huddle, on the other hand, was an instant messaging app for talking with other Google+ users.
Huddle would soon become Google+ Messenger, offering the same functionality as Google Talk, while Hangouts would expand to seriously encroach on Google Voice. Within a year, Google had added the ability to make “audio-only” calls by inviting users to join Hangouts over a regular phone line.
Google now had two apps for everything, coupled with the problem that many users — even on its Android platform — were still using SMS to communicate on the go. It began work to rectify this and unify its disparate platforms. In 2013 we got an all-new Hangouts, available cross-platform and on the web. It merged the functionality of Hangouts and Messenger, and it also replaced Talk within Gmail if you opted to upgrade. Voice was still out in the cold and SMS wasn’t integrated, but the company was moving in the right direction.
In late 2013, Google added SMS to Hangouts, and in Android 4.4 it replaced Messaging as the OS default for texting. By Oct. 2014 Google had integrated VoIP into Hangouts as well. It finally had one app for everything.
You could assert that Hangouts was a better app because of the confusing mess that preceded it. Google tried lots of things and put the best elements from all of its offerings into a single app.
That arguably should have been the end of the story, but it’s not. For whatever reason — probably because it figured out that a lot of Android users didn’t use Hangouts — Google released another app in Nov. 2014 called Messenger. This Messenger had nothing to do with Google+ but instead was a simple app focused on SMS and MMS. Hangouts could and can still handle your texts, but Messenger is now standard on Nexus phones and can be installed on any Android phone from the Play Store. This confusing muddle means that if you have, say, a new flagship Samsung phone, you’ll have two apps capable of handling your SMS (Samsung’s app and Hangouts), with the possibility of adding a third with Messenger.
Hangouts, for the most part, has been doing a fine job.
Still, SMS isn’t exactly a burning priority for most people, and Hangouts, for the most part, has been doing a fine job. I can’t say I use it that often — my conversations are mostly through Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, because that’s where my friends are — but when I do, it’s a pleasant-enough experience. The same can be said for Google+: It’s actually a great social network now, aside from the fact that barely anyone uses it.
That’s the issue that Google faces today and the reason why these new apps exist. More people are using Facebook Messenger than Hangouts. More people are using WhatsApp than Hangouts. More people are using Snapchat than Hangouts. And everyone uses everything other than Google+.
So we now have three new apps from Google, each performing pretty different tasks. The first is Spaces. Think of it as Google+ redux redux redux. It takes the service’s fresh focus on communities and collections and puts it into an app that exists outside the social network. The end result is a mashup of Slack, Pinterest, Facebook Groups and Trello. It’s promising, but, as of writing, it’s very much a work in progress.
Next up is Allo, a reaction to Facebook Messenger and Microsoft’s efforts in the chatbot space. It uses machine learning to streamline conversations with auto replies and also offers a virtual assistant that’ll book restaurants for you, answer questions and do other chatbotty things. Just like Spaces exists outside Google+, Allo exists outside Hangouts. You don’t even need a Google account to sign up, just a phone number — much like how WhatsApp doesn’t require a Facebook account.
Finally we have Duo, which is by far the most focused of the three. It basically duplicates Hangouts’ original function: video calling. According to the PR, it makes mobile video calls “fast” and “simple,” and it’s only going to be available on Android and iOS. Both Duo and Allo also have the distinction of offering end-to-end encryption — although Allo doesn’t do so by default — the absence of which has been something privacy advocates have hated about Hangouts.
This summer, when Duo and Allo become available, Google users will be at another confusing impasse. Want to send a message to a friend? Pick from Hangouts, Allo or Messenger. Want to make a video call? Hangouts or Duo. Group chat? Hangouts, Allo or Spaces. It’s not user-friendly, and it’s not sustainable.
Sure, Facebook sustains two chat services (WhatsApp and its own Messenger) just fine, but it bought WhatsApp as a fully independent, hugely popular app and has barely changed a thing. Google doesn’t have that luxury. Instead, it’ll borrow another Facebook play: Test new features on a small audience and integrate. Over the past couple of years Facebook has released Slingshot, Rooms, Paper, Riff, Strobe, Shout, Selfied and Moments. I’m probably missing a few.
All of these apps were essentially built around a single feature: private chats, ephemeral messaging, a prettier news feed, selfies, etc. The vast majority won’t get traction on their own, but their features might prove useful enough to fold into the main Facebook and Messenger apps. And if one of them takes off, no problem, you’ve got another successful app.
This has to be Google’s strategy for Allo, Duo and Spaces. We don’t know what Google’s communication offerings will look like at the end of this year, let alone 2017. But chances are that Google will continue to float new ideas before eventually merging the best of them into a single, coherent application, as it did with Hangouts. And then it’ll start the process again. In the meantime, Google will spend money developing x number of duplicate apps, and users will have to deal with a confusing mess of applications on their home screens.
‘GunJack Next’ coming to Google’s Daydream VR platform
Google yesterday revealed a brand new VR platform for Android called “Daydream,” and now we know of at least one game for it. CCP, which developed Eve Online and Gunjack for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR, will make a sequel tentatively named Gunjack Next exclusively for Daydream. The original title was a VR shooter set in the space world of Eve Online, where you defend your ship by blasting enemies from a gun turret, arcade-style.
Google’s Daydream is a software and hardware virtual reality platform for Android N that includes a Gear VR-like headset and handheld controller. The search giant is partnering with smartphone manufacturers including Samsung, Xiaomi and HTC, along with content providers like Netflix and HBO. It calls Daydream a “high-quality VR platform” and will certify partner handsets to make sure that’s so. The best way to do virtual reality on mobile at the moment is with Samsung’s Gear VR, which is powered by Oculus software.
CCP shouldn’t have much trouble creating a game for the Daydream Android platform, because it originally built Gunjack for the Gear VR, then later adapted it for the Rift and Vive. The company also released Eve Valkyrie, a dogfighting game set in the Eve Online universe, to the Oculus Rift and plans to release it on the HTC Vive and Sony Playstation VR headsets later this year.
Please don’t send me Smart Replies
Yesterday, Google announced Allo, a new AI-powered messaging app. One of its key features is Smart Reply, which makes use of Google’s machine learning tech to suggest responses if you don’t feel like typing for whatever reason. Similar to the Smart Reply feature in Inbox, it’s apparently clever enough to learn from your behavior, allowing it to make better and more relevant suggestions over time. While this seems like a neat feature at first, I ultimately wouldn’t want any of my friends to use it in a conversation with me. In fact, I’d feel pretty insulted.
See, I think having Smart Replies completely misses the point of a messaging app. I can understand canned responses like “Be right there!” or “I’ll be late!” if you’re in a car and only have a few seconds to reply before you have to get back to the business of driving. But if you aren’t behind the wheel and already have your full attention on the app — which should be the case anyway, because distracted driving is bad — then Smart Replies seems like an unnecessarily lazy way to have a conversation.
At yesterday’s keynote, for example, Google gave a demonstration on how you could respond with “Cute!” to a photo of a puppy or “Yum clams!” to a photo of clam linguine. Are you so devoid of creativity that you can’t think of “Yum clams!” by yourself? Is typing so much of a hassle that you can’t enter in “Cute!” before hitting send?
Further, I don’t care how intelligent these Smart Replies are: They can never capture the personality and character of a real human conversation. My colleague Mat Smith discovered this when he allowed Google’s autoreply to respond to his emails for a week. Instead of saying “Cute!” to that puppy picture, for example, I might’ve typed “Ugh, disgusting.” Not because I don’t actually like dogs (I do!) but because I have a tendency to be sarcastic. Having the option of Smart Replies encourages me to give a more straightforward response rather than coming up with something that’s perhaps more emblematic of my real personality. It’s dehumanizing.
But more than that, using Smart Replies instead of your own words and thoughts robs your friend of you. It means that you don’t value the friendship enough to fully engage in the conversation. You’d rather have a robot do all the talking for you instead of spending time and energy on them. That’s terrible.
I know, I know, Smart Replies are optional. You don’t have to use them. But if we’re any kind of friends at all, I sure as hell hope you don’t.
What the hell is Google Assistant?
Google Assistant is a conversational successor to Google Now. But it’s also a competitor to the chatbots we’re seeing from Microsoft and Facebook. And of course, it’s also being positioned to take on Amazon’s Alexa and its Echo speaker. Assistant in many ways looks like the future of Google, but at this point it’s also pretty confusing. Engadget’s Chris Velazco tries to figure sort out what it means in the video above.
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Google has big plans for Daydream VR but not much to show
Google revealed the Daydream VR platform at its I/O conference yesterday, and even though the company is definitely building a headset itself, there’s nothing for us to get our hands on just yet. Daydream is a complete VR ecosystem from Google, starting with software baked into Android N and ending in partnerships with Samsung, HTC, LG, Alcatel and other major brands. Google has drawn up reference designs for Daydream hardware, including a Wiimote-like controller with a clickable touchpad. Engadget’s Chris Velazco walks through the Daydream details in the above video.
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Android apps will know when you need them and open automatically
That slab of plastic and glass in your pocket might be called a smartphone, but Google is hoping to make the applications running on it smarter yet. The folks in Mountain View hope to achieve that by giving them access to contextual data like time of day, where you are, what you’re doing, the weather and if you have headphones plugged in. Oh, and if there are any Physical Web devices (beacons) near by. A post on the Google Developers blog says that combining the aforementioned data would allow an app to, say, suggest a playlist when you plug in headphones and go for a run.
That’s because the new framework takes that recipe, or “fence” in Google’s parlance, and can use it to ping an app even if it isn’t open. Thus, Spotify triggering some workout jams when you’re out for a jog. Maybe future implementations could trigger WebMD to open when you hit the local pizza buffet for the third time in a week. You know, to remind you that maybe you’re not making the most healthy decision for lunch.
On a more serious note, TechCrunch writes that this could also trigger your camera app to be open and waiting when you go outside, based on the amount of nature snapshots you’ve taken. What’s more, the weather info could be baked into a photo’s metadata so you’d be able to search Google Photos for pictures that were only taken on hot summer days, for instance. Developers can sign up for early API access right now, but when users will see apps supporting the feature isn’t clear.
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Via: TechCrunch
Source: Google Developers
YouTube is Google’s not-so-secret weapon in the VR wars
If virtual reality is going to take off the way Google, Facebook, Samsung, Sony and a host of other smaller players think it will, it’s going to need great content. Video games, Oculus’s first focus, are a logical place to start, but it’s clear now that VR will also need mainstream video content if it’s going to be a hit. That puts YouTube — and by extension, Google — in a pretty strong position of power. When the company’s just-announced Daydream VR experience starts arriving in the hands of consumers later this year, a brand-new YouTube VR app will be front and center.
It took a year for Google to make YouTube more VR friendly. Updates included 360-degree video (both pre-recorded and live), spatial audio and the ability to view any video on YouTube when using Cardboard — all things that Google is drawing on in its new YouTube VR app. “What you’re seeing now is our next step, which is taking all these early bets we made on the technology and bringing them to life in an experience built from the ground up for VR,” says YouTube VR product manager Kurt Wilms.
That “ground-up” experience is built on three things. The first is surfacing VR-ready content, with the home screen featuring personalized recommendations for VR videos as well as content with spatial audio. The second pillar is that all of YouTube will be available — all of the videos as well as the features that are familiar to users. “Watching any video, browsing the home screen, the ability to sign in, your subscriptions and recommendations are all available,” Wilms says.
The last major component of YouTube VR is that the app was designed to make viewing sessions as comfortable as possible. “Unlike Cardboard, which we think of as ‘snackable video,’ this is built for longer sessions,” says Wilms. This means there’s a lot of customization to make the video “screen” fit your field of view properly. The app is also fully integrated with the Daydream remote, which means you won’t have to use your head’s movement to navigate through the interface (which is how Cardboard currently works).
Nothing here seems wildly transformative, but Wilms stressed that Google went through a ground-up rethinking of how YouTube should be experienced when viewing it in VR. “The analogy I use is it’s building an experience like we did for the living room,” he explains. “YouTube on smart TV is obviously different than using it on your phone.” The content may be the same, then, but each experience necessitates a different approach to how you use the app.
That principle of building an experience specifically designed for VR applies to videos as well as the app itself. As I said earlier, content is king, and YouTube has a lot of it. You can watch anything on YouTube using a Daydream headset, and you can also watch any VR video from a phone or browser. The experience obviously won’t be as immersive, but if users find content that excites them on their phone, they might be more inclined to upgrade to a VR headset down the line.
“Instead of having an admittedly narrow [virtual reality] audience that we have today, you actually have the opportunity to reach a much broader audience,” says Jamie Byrne, a director in YouTube’s creators program. “What that’s going to do is encourage people to continue investing in the space.” Byrne believes that YouTube has “probably the deepest content library available to anyone who buys a headset,” and that content continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Case in point: The number of VR uploads to YouTube is doubling every three months right now.
Byrne also thinks we’re in the early days of virtual reality experimentation, much like we were with user-uploaded video on YouTube a decade ago. It remains to be seen what types of content end up being the most compelling to VR users YouTube is trying to solve that puzzle. “We want to work with creators, from the biggest partners to the smallest to help them learn and experiment,” Byrne says. “We want to help discover what’s the ‘beauty tutorial’ or the ‘let’s play’ [gaming] videos of VR that no one could predict today,” he continues, referencing two of YouTube’s most popular categories.
To that end, Google says it’s working with creators to help them get their hands on VR-capable rigs like the GoPro Odyssey, not to mention Google’s own Jump Assembler software for stitching together VR footage. Additionally, YouTube’s LA and NYC studio spaces are now equipped with Jump gear, and creators can apply to book time there. Byrne says there are plenty of enthusiasts building their own VR rigs, but YouTube wants to make shooting and processing complicated VR footage much easier. After all, the more people out there are making VR video, the better off YouTube will ultimately be.
See Google’s version of a VR future in today’s live stream
It’s day two of the Google I/O developer conference and by now we’ve gotten a taste of the company’s plans for the future of messaging apps, home assistants and virtual reality. Today, VP of Virtual Reality Clay Bavor takes the stage for a deep dive into Google’s VR history and its plans going forward. Perhaps we’ll hear more about Android N’s VR mode, Google’s Daydream VR platform or its hardware goals. The show kicks off at 12PM ET in the video embedded below.
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Google is working with IMAX on a cinema-quality 3D camera
Remember last year’s I/O, when Google revealed JUMP? It was a VR content creation system consisting of a camera rig made of 16 GoPros (called, appropriately, the “Odyssey”) and some incredibly smart cloud-based processing and sharing software. Now, a year later, Google’s Clay Bavor revealed at the company’s developer conference that Hollywood was fascinated by JUMP too — that’s why Google’s working on a cinema-quality 3D camera rig in partnership with IMAX.
“IMAX, of course, is known for incredibly immersive capture and audio,” Bavor said. “And they’re going to be bringing their decades of experience with camera design, optics, sensors and more to JUMP.”
There was no indication about when the fruit of Google’s and IMAX’s efforts would see the light of day, or even how far along the two have come. Still, it’s hard not to get excited about what this partnership could mean. Bavor rightfully pointed out how stunning good at audio and video capture IMAX can be, and that expertise should propel mobile VR experiences (like the ones Google is building as part of its Daydream project) further than we’ve seen. That’s not to say VR video efforts have been altogether lacking; we’ve seen cinematic, 360-degree projects before. The Fast and the Furious and Star Trek director Justin Lin tried his hand at one of Google’s Spotlight Stories last year, and with any luck, Google and IMAX’s work could make that sort of high production value VR video the rule, not the exception.
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