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Google I/O 2017 By the Numbers: 2 Billion Android Devices, 500 Million Photos Users, and More

Google I/O 2017 By the Numbers: 2 Billion Android Devices, 500 Million Photos Users, and More

By Sanket Vijayasarathy | Updated: 18 May 2017 15:43 IST

Highlights

Android now has over 2 billion active devices
Google Drive hits 800 million active users
Over 500 million active users for Photos

It's no secret that Google is huge. It has the Android platform - the biggest, most widely used mobile platform in the world. And to reaffirm its position, Google CEO Sundar Pichai dished out some massive numbers during at the the Keynote address kicking off Google I/O 2017. We take a look at some of the stats that Google has accomplished so far.

Google I/O 2017: Android now over 2 billion devices

As Android is the company's biggest product, Google was proud to say that its mobile OS is now active on over 2 billion monthly active devices as of last week. Pichai credits the milestone to the rise of smartphones. Google at the Keynote also indicated that it is moving from mobile first to AI first and it sees its Android platform driving that change through Google products that are now integrating AI and machine learning to continually improve its services and become smarter.

Android O, as you may know by now, is the next major Android OS and Google announced on Wednesday that it will be rolling it out to beta users globally. Android O promises a more fluid experience for users and some of the features such as picture-in-picture, notification channels and improved keyboard navigation were already known when the company announced the first developers preview in March.

During the Keynote, Google announced some more new features coming to Android O such as Smart Text Selection that improves copy and paste through the help of machine learning, and Notification Dots for developers to notify users about about activity on the app, driving engagement.

Android O Wasn’t the Star of Google I/O 2017 and That’s Just Fine

Google I/O 2017: Google Drive has over 800 million active users

Google's cloud storage and backup service, Google Drive, is the next big product that is being used by over 800 million active users. Launched five years ago, Google Drive is one of the most popular services from that company and sees over 3 billion uploads every weeks.

Although the company did not have any mention any Google Drive-specific new feature at the Keynote, the cloud service has been getting regular updates over the past few months. In March, Google announced new tools such as File Stream, Team Drives, Google Vault for Drive, and Quick Access for Google Drive that were primarily focused on enterprise customers.

Google I/O 2017: Google Photos crosses 500 million active users

The Internet search giant has been working hard to push its Photos app as the preferred default app for everyone. The company has already integrated AI and deep learning to recognise, improve and enhance images as well as offer features like movies and album suggestions, among other things. And it seems to have worked out well for the company as it has managed to cross the 500 million mark for daily active users on Google Photos. Additionally, the company also mentioned that these users are uploading a combined total of 1.2 billion photos everyday.

Google Lens Visual Search Service Unveiled

Google by no means is resting on these impressive numbers, and announced some more new features coming to Google Photos such as Suggested Sharing, Photo Books, and Shared Libraries that depend on AI and deep learning, which is something the company is really pushing for across its products.

Google I/O 2017: Other figures announced

Pichai also mentioned some more interesting numbers. Over 1 billion users currently use each of Google's major products including Search, Chrome, YouTube, Maps and Gmail. YouTube, for example, registers over 1 billion hours of video watched everyday. For Maps, users navigate over 1 billion kilometres everyday. And around 82 billion apps were installed from Google Play in 2016.

Notably, Google's AI Assistant will expand its reach to a 100 million devices as it now comes to the iPhone and will be available for Android phones in Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, and Japanese.

We discussed everything that was announced at Google I/O 2017 on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast. You can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, or just hit the play button below to listen to this episode.

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