3 Things I’m Looking Forward To Seeing At Google I/O 2025
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Google I/O is just around the corner, and I’ll be there in Mountain View, watching the show unfold live. The event will surely feature more AI-centric content than I’d prefer, and we learned late last month that Google is front-loading Android-specific info into a separate live show a week before I/O proper. Still, there’s plenty I’m looking forward to seeing at Google’s annual conference. Here are the three things I’m most excited to hear more about.
1 Android 16
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Google’s streaming The Android Show I/O Edition on Tuesday, May 13, a week before I/O starts. But that’s not all we’ll hear about Android around I/O. President of the Android ecosystem Sameer Samat has framed the pre-I/O live stream as news “to get you ready for I/O” rather than a replacement for Android content at I/O itself. There’s also an hour-long What’s new in Android session scheduled on the first day of the conference.
Google’s I/O page says the session will cover “new Android 16 features and the future of Android development.” It’s a developer-focused event, but it’ll be livestreamed, and it should provide some additional context around the next version of Google’s mobile OS. I’m particularly interested to hear more about new Android 16 features like Live Updates notifications that are meant to show real-time info about ongoing activities.
Android 16 is set for a stable release in the second quarter of this year, which ends on July 1. That’s coming up fast, so I’d be surprised if we didn’t learn an official release date during I/O.
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2 Material 3 Expressive
The next update to Google’s UX design, Material 3 Expressive, has leaked quite a bit in recent weeks. What I’ve seen has me excited: Material 3 Expressive builds on the groundwork of Material Design 3, keeping the playful elements and bold use of dynamic color while introducing new layouts and animations that, ideally, will make Android easier and more fun to use.
It’s possible that aspects of Material 3 Expressive will roll out along with Android 16’s first stable release, which we’re expecting sometime in the next few weeks; a lot of what we’ve seen of the new design language came from folks tinkering in the Android 16 beta releases, after all. That hasn’t been confirmed, though. The session about Material 3 Expressive at I/O will be developers’ official introduction to the new standard, so I have a feeling we may not see Material 3 Expressive on our devices until a future update.
Either way, we’ll be hearing more about Material 3 Expressive at Google I/O this year. I’m looking forward to Android’s new look, and I’m excited to hear what Google has to say about it.
3 Android XR
Jules Wang / AP
We haven’t heard all that much about Android XR, Google’s upcoming mixed reality operating system, first announced late last year. We know the company is working with Samsung to create the first Android XR headset, currently known as Project Moohan, but we don’t know when the headset will launch.
We also know that Google plans to create Android XR-powered smart glasses that look more like typical glasses than a big mixed-reality headset — Android XR head Shahram Izadi showed a work-in-progress pair off at a TED conference last month. But we have no idea when to expect such devices to hit the market, either.
There’s a developer session about creating Android XR apps scheduled during I/O, and Google will surely touch on the new form factor in its keynotes. I’m hopeful we get a better idea of when we should expect to get our hands on devices powered by Android XR — and maybe hear a little more about VR games on Android XR, too.
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Google I/O is just weeks away
Jules Wang / AP
I/O 2025 is coming up fast — the conference opens with a keynote address at Google’s Shoreline Amphitheater at 10 am Pacific on May 20. The things listed here are far from the only topics I/O will cover; we’ll be watching it all, both on the ground in California and on Google’s various livestreams. Check back often over the next few weeks for more about all things Google I/O.
