Duplex and Google Photos AI didn’t live up to the hype

Google’s I/O developer conference kicks off on Tuesday, May 7 and runs through Thursday, May 9. 

As usual, we’re expecting the tech giant to announce a laundry list of updates for its major platforms and services. Everything from Android Q, to the Google Assistant, to new Pixel phones, to Duplex will likely be on deck.

But as we get ready for the barrage of Google news, it’s the perfect time to check in on all the things the company announced at last year’s conference. Did Google deliver on its promises? Let’s take a look.

Consider below a report card for the biggest I/O announcements from last year. Did Google ship on time and how good were they if they launched? We gave each a rating out of five using ?. 

Google Duplex

Google knocked everyone’s socks off with a demonstration of Duplex, a human-sounding AI capable of making phone calls on your behalf. 

But as impressive as Duplex was, it raised many ethical questions. Like should there be some kind of disclosure so that the call recipient knows they’re talking to an AI agent and not a human? Following the backlash, Google caved and said it’d include a disclosure.

Duplex calling restaurant reservations initially rolled out to a small group of Pixel users and in three cities including New York, San Francisco, and Phoenix. Most recently, Google made Duplex available in 43 U.S. states and added support for iOS users via the Google Assistant app.

Unfortunately, using Duplex to make a call isn’t as easy as Google made it seem. There’s no way to know which businesses support Duplex and even if you manage to find one that accepts Duplex reservations, it’s impossible to know how the conversation went because Google doesn’t provide a transcript of the call.

Duplex has a lot of potential, but from the early rollout, it’s clear there’s still a ways to go before it can truly automate our least-favorite phone tasks.

Grade: ??

Android 9 Pie

We learned a lot more about Android 9 Pie (just called Android P at the time) at I/O ahead of its public release in August 2018.

In Android P, Google focused on tightening the nuts and bolts of the operating system. The software update brought with it new features like the “digital wellbeing” dashboard and Wind Down to help user get a better sleep, more AI-infused features like App Actions and Slices to predict what users might do before they even do them, and, of course, a revamped swipe-based UI to take advantage of devices with edge-to-edge displays.

Pie is a solid update, and it shipped on schedule last summer. Unfortunately, like all past Android updates, phone makers have been slow to update their devices. For example, it took six months for Samsung to update the Galaxy S9 to Pie! Some companies like OnePlus, Motorola, and Nokia have picked up the pace with updates, but the most notable phones from brands like LG and HTC still haven’t received it.

Grade: ???

Gmail Smart Compose

Everyone hates writing emails. But what if your email could intelligently predict what you might want to type by automatically completing your sentences?

That’s what Gmail’s Smart Compose feature is, and holy moly, has it been a game changer. This reporter has used it to shave god knows how many hours that would have been wasted typing out the same responses over and over again.

And it’s only become smarter since its first release. In addition to being made available in the Gmail app for all Android devices (iOS support is “coming soon”), Smart Compose now works in Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese.

Smart Compose is a good reminder that sometimes the most useful new features are the ones that aren’t the flashiest.

Grade: ????

Google Maps’ Yelp-like features and AR navigation

What more can we say except Google Maps has become a bloated mess of features nobody wants?

Seriously, for whatever reason, Google thought it was a good idea to shoehorn in a plethora of new features into Google Maps in an attempt to make it more personalized and more collaborative. 

New features like a “For You” tab was added to Maps to show nearby restaurants and attractions based on your search history and a “shortlist” feature was also added to let you share a list of places with your friends.

A quick show of hands from the Mashable Tech Team suggests nobody uses these features. #Fail.

That said, the AR navigation also announced at I/O that superimposes giant arrows on top a view of the real world to guide you to your destination launched in February and genuinely seems dope.

“As a traveler in a new city…this could be clutch,” said Mashable tech reporter Sasha Lekach who used it in San Francisco. “In a quick moment you get oriented and your phone is in sync with you. This could be the end of asking strangers which way to go.”

Grade: ???

Google Lens IRL copy and paste

One of the coolest things announced at I/O 2018 that probably flew right over most peoples’ heads was an update to Google Lens.

If you own a Pixel or another phone with Lens built into the camera app (like some LG phones) you can simply switch over the Lens mode in the camera app and point it at anything with words on it (sign, book, computer screen, etc.) and Google’s AI will magically recognize the text and let you copy and paste, search, translate, and share it. Google Lens also lets you open detected website links. 

I’ve used it to copy phone numbers and addresses and from flyers and signage. The only downside is that the Lens feature isn’t built into all Android camera apps and it’s not even available on iPhone. Still, if you have it, it’s pretty sweet.

Grade: ????

Colorize old photos with Google Photos

Another neat feature that flew under the radar that most people might have forgotten was the ability to colorize old photos using Google Photos.

Google said its AI could restore black and white photos by adding color to them. A year later the feature is MIA and Google has been silent on when it’ll be released. Because it’s a no-show, this announcement gets zero ? and we’ve instead awarded it a ? for being vaporware.

Grade: ?

John Legend as a Google Assistant voice

In what was arguably one of the weirdest announcements at I/O last year, Google said it’d be adding John Legend’s voice to the Google Assistant as one of several new voice options. However, Legend’s voice would only be available in “limited capacities” in certain contexts.

Legend’s voice was supposed to arrive by the end of 2018, but it wasn’t made available until this past April. Better late than never, right?

Grade: ???

Overpromising and underdelivering

Overall, Google did an okay job delivering on its I/O 2018 announcements. Looking back, it’s obvious many of them were overhyped.

Duplex didn’t make quite the splashy public release as many expected it to, Android Pie landed with mostly the usual thud, and other seemingly exciting things like Google Maps’ customized “For You” tab and AR navigation or John Legend’s Google Assistant voice have hardly been groundbreaking.

Instead, the best things announced at I/O seemed to be the ones that were the least sexy to talk about: Gmail Smart Compose and Google Lens IRL copy and paste.

If there’s any advice we’d give Google as it prepares for this year’s I/O conference, it’d be don’t overpromise so much. Announce the stuff that’s ready to go and leave the far flung experimental projects, like the colorization feature for Google Photos, in the oven for longer baking. It’ll spare us all the heartbreak when we return next year to grade this year’s I/O announcements.