Google announces Brillo, an operating system for the Internet of Things

Google is rejoining the Internet of Things platform wars. Today at its Google I/O conference, the company announced Brillo, the “underlying operating system for the internet of things,” with a developer preview coming in Q3 of this year. Brillo is “derived” from Android but “polished” to just the lower levels. It supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and other Android things.

Additionally there’s Weave, the (cross platform) common language that will let Brillo devices, phones, and the internet all talk to one another — that’s coming in Q4. Android devices will auto-detect Brillo and Weave devices. Here’s a helpful chart to explain the relation:

Up until this point, Google has been somewhat quiet on its smart home / internet of things plans — especially since the company acquired Nest early last year. The name Brillo was mentioned last week in a report from The Intercept about Google developing software that can run on very low-power devices and communicate with other connected devices nearby.

Developing. Check out our Google I/O Live Blog for the latest updates and our Google hub for all the news!