Google’s week of launches

  Week of launches gave I/O a run for its money by Google

The number of announcements which Google made in the past week or so truly felt like I/O. Gemini 1.0 was the highlight and most consequential for Google. This foundational model will power many features and products going forward. The announcement could have used a bit more exciting than just the virtual go through of blog posts, videos and interviews to better reflect the magnitude. After all, it’s hard to make an online announcement, which have feel of different in the modern era.

The launch was more than redeemed by Google immediately rolling out Gemini after detailing it. There was Bard with Gemini Pro and Gemini Nano on the Pixel 8 Pro. The momentum continued with NotebookLM dropping its waitlist. Besides getting updated to use Gemini Pro, the UI, which was quite barebones, looks quite polished. It will be very interesting to see whether it ends up becoming its own product or gets integrated into something in the Workspace portfolio.

Pixel, Android 14 QPR1 with the December Feature Drop brought a slew of features, though the biggest additions across AI and the camera were reserved for the flagship model. But everyone can benefit from the webcam support, contextual replies in Call Screen, Direct My Call + Hold for Me for non-toll-free numbers and weather in Google Clock. Rounding things out on the hardware front is Google Home finally adding custom clips and support for the first-gen Nest Cam Outdoor, as well as AI-powered garage door detection. The Home app on Wear OS is also having a number of updates.

An even more consequential release came a week before with Google Messages. Besides the new app name, the slew of new expressive features were received quite well. The launch to beta, with an explicit encouragement to join the program, was quite unexpected. Meanwhile, the compose field redesign went unannounced. Continuing on the messaging front, many of the Google Chat changes announced earlier, also rolled out in the past week, from the new icon to a wild bottom bar.

Save for the AI-related announcements, the explanation for these features coming in quick succession is the push to launch before the holidays. Whatever the reason, this flurry is exciting from an end user/consumer perspective and approaches an I/O-level of news. More functionality was actually available for people to use in the past few days, and that sure beats previews of what’s coming next. The past week of Google making so many announcements made the company feel much more cohesive than usual.