Time is approaching May soon, and Google I/O 2025 has quietly entered the countdown. One of the most influential developer conferences in the tech industry, this one will be held offline in Mountain View, California on May 20th, and will simultaneously start global live streaming. Whether you are an Android developer, AI enthusiast, or XR industry observer, this year’s conference is worth paying attention to.
Without a doubt, this year’s I/O will continue the shift from ‘mobile first’ to ‘AI native’, and then move towards’ device integration ‘. It is no longer a single platform functional upgrade, but an ecological linkage between multiple platforms and terminals. Android 16 will officially debut and integrate Gemini’s big model capabilities on a larger scale.
At the same time, the new independent operating system Android XR, released at the end of last year, will also make its debut on the Google I/O stage. Lei Technology has reported that Google AI Glasses and the Project Moohan MR device jointly developed with Samsung will also make their debut.
In the past, Google I/O was mostly the home of Android, but now, AI and multi device collaboration are becoming the main theme. What Google wants to talk about is not just what the next Android is, but also how the next ‘operating system’ should grow. And this conference is the moment when it plays its cards.
Android 16 will have more ‘native’ AI
If Android 15 is Google’s first step in trying to bring Gemini into the system, then Android 16 is truly a leap forward in making AI a native capability of Android.
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Image/Google
According to current known information, the biggest keyword for Android 16 is still “Gemini”. This is not just about building a conversational assistant, but turning the Gemini model into the core infrastructure of Android: from suggestion replies in the notification bar, understanding content between applications, to proactive recommendations in the settings interface, AI is penetrating every interaction node that you can see or not see.
More importantly, Gemini will also open up more system level APIs for developers to call. This means that you are not using an app that “connects to the big model”, but every app can naturally have the ability to “understand you”. For example, booking applications can recognize your current itinerary and directly recommend the most suitable flight; Health apps can remind you to adjust your schedule based on your recent steps and sleep.
In addition to AI, this time Android 16 continues to polish the system experience in two directions:
One is the innovation of visual language. The new Material 3 Expressive design language will officially debut, and Google is no longer satisfied with “uniform beauty”, but encourages “more emotion”. More rich animations, softer colors, and more perceptual details make UI not just about appearance design.
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Another is multi device integration. Android 16 is clearly prepared for a ‘more distributed’ future: it further enhances its adaptability to tablets, wearable devices, and even XR devices. XR is particularly noteworthy, as Google’s Android XR is poised to take off, and Android 16 is likely to be the bridge between reality and virtuality.
Of course, there are also some minor upgrades worth mentioning, such as stronger HEIC image encoding, more precise camera white balance adjustment, more flexible audio sharing mechanism, and smarter permission pop-up design – these may not be dazzling, but each one is improving Android’s stability and user experience.
In short, Android 16 is not a superficial UI update or a single point of feature enhancement, but a comprehensive systematic evolution centered around “AI native”. It attempts to answer a question: If the operating system were born to understand you, what would be the way your phone is used? At this year’s Google I/O, we may be able to get a sneak peek.
Android XR ， Redefining ‘reality’
If Android 16 is an upgrade by Google to deeply embed AI into the mobile system, then Android XR is a deep-water bomb it has dropped on future computing platforms.
This is not another “extended version” of Android, but a standalone operating system tailored for XR (Extended Reality) devices. From the technology stack to the interaction logic, its construction logic is completely different from traditional mobile phone systems. At the end of last year, Google publicly announced the existence of Android XR for the first time, and this year’s I/O will be its true debut in the public eye.
The background color of Android XR is still Gemini. This large model that combines multimodal, contextual understanding, and reasoning capabilities is no longer just a “cheat assistant” in the system, but the core interaction engine of the XR system. From voice control to visual recognition, from environmental perception to real-time translation, Gemini enables devices to not only respond to what you say, but also understand what you see and want to do.
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Google AI Glasses for Demonstration, Image/TED
The most representative of this vision is the AI glasses that Google just showcased earlier. It looks like a pair of regular glasses, but the glasses are embedded with a camera, speaker, and microphone, as well as a micro display and Gemini system support. For example, with just one glance at the menu, glasses can help you identify dish names and recommend healthier options; Or you can walk on the streets of a strange city and whisper ‘What kind of building is this?’ to get real-time voice commentary.
This pair of glasses is not meant to show off skills, but represents Google’s real bet on the form of “AI glasses” – it doesn’t require immersion or emphasize entertainment, but wants to become the AI assistant that is always by your side, able to listen, see, and respond in your life.
Of course, XR’s main equipment will not only be glasses. The Project Moohan, a collaboration between Google and Samsung, will also make its debut at this I/O event. This is the first MR device equipped with Android XR, and its hardware specifications are considered flagship. More importantly, it emphasizes ecological compatibility – users can run apps in the Play Store through the Android XR system.
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Application interface under Android XR, image/Google
Compared to the closed strategy of Apple Vision Pro, Google clearly wants to take a different path. Android XR is open, modular, and deeply integrated with the existing Android development system. You can use Jetpack Compose to write XR apps, or integrate ARCore with Unity without having to rebuild the toolchain.
What Google wants to create is not just an XR system, but also a new platform that continues the spirit of Android. It is not about “remaking a mobile phone system” for headsets, but about enabling all future terminals – glasses, headsets, and even hybrid devices – to have native AI capabilities and cross platform collaboration capabilities.
2025 may be the turning point when Android truly begins to ‘detach from screens’. Google I/O， It is the first act of this story.
Gemini is not only a big model, but also the soul of Google
In the past year, if there is any technology that can truly run through Google’s entire product line and reshape user interaction logic, it is none other than Gemini. It is not an app or a service, but rather a pivot of Google’s top-down AI strategy.
From Android to Search, from Workspace to Chrome, and to the upcoming XR operating system, Gemini is no longer an optional feature, but is becoming a new kernel for Google’s operating system. This year’s Google I/O, Gemini will usher in its most significant public evolution.
Firstly, the evolution of the model itself. Gemini 2.5 will be one of the main characters of this conference, with the main keywords being “speed” and “flexibility”. Especially Gemini 2.5 Flash – a lightweight model optimized for practical application scenarios, users can even set a “thinking budget” for it to use computing power on demand.
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Secondly, there is a comprehensive integration at the system level. If Android 16’s Gemini is more like “embedded intelligence”, then in the XR field of Android XR, Gemini has become the main interaction mode of the entire system. It can not only listen to you speak, but also see where your gaze falls and understand what you want to do next. What Google expects is a computing environment with “zero learning cost” and “fully aware response”, and Gemini is the key to achieving all of this.
Thirdly, Gemini’s development interface is becoming increasingly open. Google’s I/O will officially launch a new version of Gemini API and Gemini Nano (Edge Side Model) toolchain – a complete system for AI native application developers. From text generation to image understanding, from data summarization to multiple rounds of dialogue, developers can call model capabilities like calling network interfaces, truly entering the era of “AI as a platform”.
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Especially for edge terminals such as mobile phones, glasses, and wearable devices, this means that AI is no longer just a cloud privilege, but can enter the local environment and stay with users in their daily lives.
In short, for ordinary users, the changes in Gemini itself may not appear as drastic, but the impact is everywhere. As the core of Google’s AI strategy, Gemini is undoubtedly Google’s first trump card for the next generation platform – AI native, multi device collaboration, and spatial computing.
It is not just a model architecture, but a capability distribution mechanism, a reconstruction of interaction paradigms, and an excellent opportunity for Google to redefine ecological dominance. And Google I/O 2025 will be the stage for its comprehensive explosion.
Write at the end
In the past two years, the entire technology world and Google I/O have undergone tremendous changes, and AI is undoubtedly the core driving force behind these changes. This year’s trend is even more evident, and the protagonist of Google I/O 2025 is obviously not just a certain phone or function, but the bigger problem:
How should AI be integrated into operating systems, and even into our real world?
Android 16 will tell us that AI operating systems can be more “native”; Android XR will tell us that the operating system can detach from the screen; And Gemini will provide an answer about future human-computer interaction. All of this may be officially revealed at Google I/O 2025.