Google I/O 2013: For the developers

By Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor


“Google I/O is an annual developer conference featuring highly technical, in-depth sessions, and showcasing the latest from Google's product teams and partners.”
   – official description

Google I/O 2013 has just ended, and even more than usual, this one was for you, our developers. This year, we focused on providing new tools and services you’ve been asking for, plus a few surprises that we hope inspired and delighted you.

• Android gets its own IDE: Android Studio, based on IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition.
• Google Play Services 3.1 brings game services, location APIs, Google Cloud Messaging enhancements, and Cross-Platform Single Sign On.
• An updated Google Play Developer Console adds a very cool app translation service, revenue graphs, alpha and beta testing and staged rollouts, optimization tips, and referral tracking.
• We showed off a whole new look for Google Maps and Maps APIs, featuring new base map tiles, a new default marker, a new info window style, and a style refresh for controls.
• In Google Cloud Platform news, we announced that Google Compute Engine is now open to everyone and has sub-hour billing, we’ve added a PHP runtime to App Engine, and we introduced Google Cloud Datastore.
• We showed new Google Wallet features: the Instant Buy Android API, which makes buying in native Android apps fast and easy, and the Wallet Objects API, which lets you connect your loyalty programs, offers and more to Google Wallet.

Although we put developer announcements first this year, we didn’t skimp on the cool stuff for everyone: we refreshed the look of the Google+ stream, launched expanded Hangouts, totally revamped Google+ photos, announced Google Play Music All Access, showed off conversational search, and demoed some amazing Chrome Experiments.

Of course, Google I/O isn’t just about announcements. It’s our chance to share what’s new with you in those highly technical, in-depth sessions and for you to meet and interact with our engineers and other Googlers, in person and via the Internet. Once again this year, all sessions were recorded and are being posted to Google Developers Live (GDL) for you to peruse whenever it’s convenient for you.

We love putting on Google I/O, and that’s one reason we created GDL. With GDL, we don’t have to pack all our presentations into a 3-day conference. You’ll find new programs on GDL every week, from the same people who present at Google I/O. Just like during I/O, you can watch live or see recordings whenever you want. You can subscribe to the Google Developers channel on YouTube to be notified when new programs are posted.

Whether you came to San Francisco, participated in I/O Extended, or watched our live streams, we thank you for your attention and dedication. Here’s to Google I/O 2014!