We’re out here at I/O and we did our best Dieter impression by getting in line first. Or at least the press line to get into the amphitheater. We’ve got our seats locked down and the countdown to the keynote is on so stay tuned!
7
Verge Score
It’s gorgeous and fun to use, but is calling it Ultra a little much?
Google is celebrating another RCS milestone, and this one’s a doozy: one billion messages sent in the US every day. Considering RCS had just reached one billion total monthly users at the end of 2023, it’s a big jump. That’s no doubt thanks to Apple turning on RCS support in iOS 18 and making it the default protocol when you’re not on iMessage. Sure doesn’t hurt!
Everyone pretend like we didn’t just see it all last week.
We’re expecting to see Google’s colorful new design language as part of the Android pre-I/O show. New colors are fun! Fun is good! But I’m not sure Google can show us something “cool” enough to win the hearts of iPhone-loving teenagers.
Google’s designers want to capture the youth demo with a vibrant new OS treatment, but there’s only so much they can do.
Android whisperer Mishaal Rahman has a thorough writeup for Android Authority detailing some of the potential UI changes he’s found under the hood in Android 16’s beta releases. One that caught my eye: the ability to resize quick settings tiles and a new tile editor organized by category, which is all very iOS 18. There are other visual changes afoot too, like more use of background blur on screens like the app drawer and the multitasking view. No doubt we’ll find out more soon.
