Google I/O returns as an in-person event on May 11-12

By Cristina Alexander Published March 16, 2022

Google I/O, the tech giant’s largest annual developer’s conference, will return as an in-person event at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, from May 11-12. Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai made the announcement on Twitter on Wednesday.

The conference won’t be a fully in-person event, however. The event will be held fully online, with most of it being livestreamed in front of a limited live theater audience, much like Apple’s Peek Performance event last week. According to a Google statement shared with Axios’ chief technology correspondent Ina Fried, that limited audience “will primarily be Googlers, as well as some partners.”

Recommended Videos

We'll be back live from Shoreline Amphitheatre for this year's #GoogleIO! Join us online May 11-12 https://t.co/KgNKbaLeym pic.twitter.com/NUodJb7UCi

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) March 16, 2022

According to the company’s FAQ page, Google I/O is completely free, so everyone will be able to watch the event if they want to. Registration for the event is also free, and it will open up later this month.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Google to completely cancel the Google I/O conference to protect its employees and audiences who registered for the event — it even went so far as to cancel the online version of the conference. Last year, the conference returned in a fully digital format, which automatically sent invitations to those who originally registered to attend the 2020 event. Although people missed attending the event in person, they were still able to catch some of the best tech announcements, including Android 12 and its Material You design, Google’s collaboration with Samsung to create the unified Wear platform (formerly known as Wear OS), and an immersive videoconferencing experience courtesy of Project Starline, which is used exclusively in Google offices.

What kind of exciting new Android products will Google announce at this year’s Google I/O conference? We’re going to have to hold our breath for the next two months. In any case, it’s nice to see that the pandemic has waned enough for the conference to come back to its in-person format — at least in a limited capacity.

Cristina Alexander

Gaming/Mobile Writer

Cristina Alexander is a gaming and mobile writer at Digital Trends. She blends fair coverage of games industry topics that…

Topics

Phones

Apple has built a device that can inspect an iPhone without opening its box

Think you can fool Apple with a tampered iPhone box? Think again

iPhone, Box, Apple

Apple is rolling out a new tool to help retail stores tackle iPhone return fraud and reduce wasted inventory. Some buyers reportedly remove accessories, strip components from devices, or take the phones themselves before returning the packaging, sometimes reselling the parts through aftermarket channels.

To prevent this, store employees have been opening even sealed boxes to verify their contents, but doing so can make otherwise sellable products require additional processing. Apple’s new device can scan an iPhone inside its sealed box and run diagnostics to check whether it is intact. Built on its Presto technology, the tool is now reaching retail stores.

Phones

Vivo X500 Pro Max first impressions: Vivo came to play, and the competition should be nervous

Vivo X500 Pro Max

Vivo could have played it safe with the X500 series. Give the phones a slightly faster processor, slap on a new coat of paint, throw around a few AI buzzwords, and call it a day. Nobody would have been particularly surprised. Thankfully, Vivo seems to have had other ideas.

The new X500 lineup consists of three phones: the X500, X500 Pro, and X500 Pro Max. But don't let the names fool you into thinking these are simply three sizes of the same phone. Each model has its own identity, with differences in display size, processing power, and camera hardware. The X500 gets a 6.59-inch display and the Dimensity 9600M, while the compact X500 Pro packs a 6.36-inch screen and the flagship Dimensity 9600 Pro. Then there's the X500 Pro Max, the big boss of the family, with a larger display, upgraded cameras, and the same flagship silicon.

Phones

Google Messages is getting a powerful new weapon against sneaky text scams

Google Messages is getting smarter about scams, with Gemini helping catch threats before you fall for them.

Scam Detection in Google Messages

Scam messages aren't always as obvious as a suspicious link or a text claiming you've won a lottery you never entered. Some scammers are clever enough to start perfectly normal conversations, gradually earn your trust, and only reveal what they're after when it's too late.

Google wants to make those tricks harder to pull off. Earlier this month, the company announced a new Enhanced Protection mode for Google Messages, and it's now starting to roll out to Android users. The optional setting adds more powerful AI-based scam detection, smarter checks for suspicious links, and extra warnings designed to keep you from making a costly mistake.