Here’s your up-close and personal look at Google’s Android experience at CES
Your favorite tech companies are kicking off 2023 withCES in Las Vegas. The entire show is a spectacle, with participating companies showing off the latest tech of all kinds — from everyday products likephonesandtabletstoslightly stranger farelike a connected urinalysis device and battery-powered TVs.
Google didn’t have all that much new to show this year, but it set up an Android showroom outside the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center where most of the action has been this week to highlight what’s been going on in the world of Android lately. If you’re curious what it’s like inside, you’re in luck: we took a ton of photos, and you can see them all right here.
Google’s “booth” is actually a freestanding structure just outside the convention proper. It’s veryGoogle,featuring slickly designed, minimalist staging areas for demonstrations of a bunch of Android ecosystem features.
The exterior of the building features a billboard-size display that cycles through a bunch of cutesy Android graphics. Inside, the showroom is modern and spacious — though the crowds that have filled it all week make it feel a little less roomy. It’s chock-full of Google gadgets, obviously, but there are third-party devices sprinkled throughout, too. Google’s really trying to drive home the idea of Android as a cohesive ecosystem this year.
There’s a bunch of cool Android-themed decorations around, including a blue, camouflage-patterned bugdroid hanging from the ceiling and a very charming topiary. Google also put some smaller embellishments in less obvious places, like the little illuminated Androids you can see here that are near the floor.
Smart home and media control
Much of the space is dedicated to showing how you’re able to easily control media and smart home devices using Google products. There are staging areas for automations, Chromecast audio switching, Google TV, and more.
A lot of what Google’s showing here has been around for a while, but it found clever ways to highlight the functionality. One area demonstrates how you can tie automations to alarms to do things like turn on lights or coffee makers automatically when you wake up; another shows how easy it is to move audio streams between different Assistant devices.
There are a couple of new tidbits, though. While it’s already possible tomove your YouTube Music stream between Assistant speakersright from the notification panel, Google’s announced that that functionality is soon coming to Spotify, where it’ll work with both Assistant and Spotify Connect-enabled speakers. You’ll also eventually be able to receive preemptive notifications about switching your media playback to the nearest speaker so you don’t have to dig through any apps to make your music move with you.
Android Auto
Google is talking upAndroid Auto’s big new redesignat CES. The company officially announced the update way back at I/O 2022, but it’s finally rolling out to everybody.
Google’s offering in-vehicle demos, and the cars it brought to do it are pretty flashy. There’s a BMW i7, plus Volvo’s unreleased electric SUV, the 2024 EX90.
The two cars have different display form factors, so they’re a good way to show just how adaptable Android Auto is. The wait to get into either vehicle has been long, though.
There’s a handful (wristful? No? Sorry) of Wear OS demos set up, showcasing both new and existing features.
There’s a station where you’re able to take a selfie on an Android-themed bench using a Wear OS watch (not pictured here, unfortunately), one where you can get info about the Pixel Watch’s Fitbit integration, and a demonstration about controlling smart home devices through the relatively new Wear OS Google Home app.
The biggest news here is probablyWatch Unlock, a Pixel Watch feature that keeps your phone unlocked only when you’re wearing the watch, as opposed to the existing Smart Lock option that lets you bypass your lockscreen any time your watch is connected (whether you’re wearing it or not). It’s a more secure setup, but certain things like contactless payments will still require unlocking your phone manually. We don’t know exactly when Watch Unlock will roll out, but given it’s being shown off at CES, hopefully it’s coming soon.
…And the rest
There are demos of a few more existing features, too, plus the obligatory display of Google hardware.
One interesting display is about an accessibility feature calledSound Notifications, which lets your phone listen for sounds of your choosing to receive notifications. It’s primarily meant to help people with hearing loss — for example, if you have trouble hearing your doorbell, you can configure Sound Notifications to deliver a notification when it rings. There’s a list of preprogrammed sounds, or you can configure custom notifications for anything you need to be aware of by recording your own sounds for it to listen for.
Google is also demoing Nearby Share in an area where you could design your own custom bugdroid (mine’s the blue one in the ballcap) and then send it wirelessly to a number of nearby tablets in a few taps. There’s even a functioning slot machine themed around Fast Pair. You can’t actually try Fast Pair — there are dozens and dozens of phones around and they’d all see the notification — but the machine dispenses green M&Ms and jelly beans, which is a fun touch.
Even if there wasn’t much new for Google to show off at the convention, its showing this year is still a lot of fun. Want more CES? Check out ourfavorite new gadgets from the show.
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This article is sponsored by Total Wireless.
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