What to expect from Google I/O 2026

We’re coming to developer conference season and one of the biggest events on the upcoming calendar is Google I/O. This year’s edition will take place on May 19 and 20. As usual, the in-person element will take place in Mountain View, California, although many keynotes and sessions will be livestreamed. Google will surely make its biggest announcements during the opening keynote, which begins at 1 p.m. ET on May 19. A developer keynote will take place later the same day.

As always, the rumor will accelerate as Google I/O approaches. We have some ideas about what Google will discuss at the event. So let’s take a look at what to expect at Google I/O 2026 (we’ll update this story as we hear more credible rumors).

What’s officially on deck

When it confirmed the dates for this year’s I/O, Google revealed a little bit of what it has in store. As you can imagine, AI will be at the center of the event. Google plans to share its “AI breakthroughs and updates across the company’s products, from Gemini to Android, Chrome, Cloud and more,” it wrote in a blog post in February.

There will be news on updates to the Gemini model as well as agent coding. Google will also offer product demonstrations.

The company has released its initial schedule of keynotes and sessions, but it’s not providing us with many details yet. He hosted discussions on what’s new like Google Play, Firebase (a mobile and web app development platform), the Gemma family of open templates, and the Flutter open source app development framework. Interestingly, there is no dedicated session for Android XR in the program yet.

What to expect

There haven’t yet been many credible leaks ahead of Google I/O, but we can make some educated guesses about what to expect from the event. It’s almost certain that we’ll get more details on Android 17 during I/O. Developers need time to polish their applications before the next major OS release rolls out to everyone if they want to take advantage of new features as quickly as possible, and they are invariably notified of I/O ones every year. (That said, Google has moved away from a big annual release approach in favor of juicier Pixel Drops/Android updates, so we may not see some of the new features it unveils during I/O for a while.)

As with other operating systems, Google plans to merge ChromeOS and Android into a unified platform. It appears to be the project called Aluminum OS, which we got our first look at earlier this year thanks to a few leaks. I/O seems like the perfect place for Google to start showing it off to the public.

On the AI ​​front, a Gemini 4 reveal could be on the cards, as well as details on Veo’s latest text-to-video model. Perhaps we will know more about the Astra project, Google’s pitch for a universal AI assistant.

If Google has any consumer hardware to show off at this year’s event, I think it will be one or more Android XR devices, rather than a Pixel phone or watch. It’s possible we’ll get a glimpse of the Google Pixel 11 lineup. But don’t be surprised if we don’t see that or the Pixel Watch 5 before Google’s dedicated hardware event, which has taken place in August or October in recent years (Google will want to stay away from Apple’s iPhone event, which will likely take place in September as usual).

Hoping for one or two big surprises

Of course, Android updates are all great. If Google insists on integrating Gemini and other AI tools into all of its tools and services, we’ll at least listen to what they have to say about all of this.

But I’m crossing my fingers for nice surprises. Give us something new from Google These events are always more fun when there’s something we’re really passionate about, even if it’s a relatively niche but existing topic, like Google Beam 3D video conferencing technology.