Google opened its annual I/O developer conference on Tuesday, using the first day of the two-day event to lay out an artificial-intelligence agenda that stretches from the phone in a user’s pocket to a new generation of wearable hardware.
The conference, held at the Shoreline Amphitheatre near the company’s Mountain View headquarters, runs across Tuesday and Wednesday, with the headline keynote scheduled for the afternoon. Ahead of it, Google confirmed several of the announcements that will anchor the event.
The centrepiece is Gemini Intelligence, described by the company as an agentic layer for Android — software that can carry out multi-step tasks with limited human oversight, rather than simply answering questions. Agentic AI has become the dominant theme across the industry this year, and Google’s rivals have made similar pitches.
Google also previewed Android XR smart glasses, the clearest sign yet of its ambitions in face-worn computing. The glasses carry cameras, microphones and speakers, work in tandem with a paired Android phone, and offer an optional in-lens display that shows contextual information privately to the wearer. They run on the Gemini 2.5 Pro model, which powers real-time translation, navigation and visual recognition.
Rather than build the hardware alone, Google has lined up a roster of partners, including Samsung, the eyewear brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, and the display specialist XREAL. The approach mirrors the licensing model that built Android into the world’s most widely used mobile platform.
A third strand of announcements covers laptops. Google is preparing “Googlebooks,” a category of premium Android-powered portables from manufacturers including Acer, ASUS and Lenovo, with the first models expected this autumn. The push sits alongside the company’s previously reported plans for an Android-based desktop operating system.
Updates to Android 17, the next version of the mobile operating system, are also on the agenda, alongside refreshed generative tools for image and video creation.
The conference carries unusual weight for Alphabet, Google’s parent. The company has told investors it will begin supplying its custom AI chips to outside customers in the second half of 2026, and its cloud division grew 63 per cent year on year in the first quarter, outpacing both Microsoft and Amazon. I/O is the venue where Google must convince developers, and Wall Street, that its AI strategy is converting into products.