Your guide to Google I/O 2021 | Bitrise

After taking a year off due to the pandemic, Google I/O will make a comeback in 2021 as a free online event centering around hands-on learning with Google experts, discussions, and their latest developer products.

As we know Google likes to keep a handful of subjects secret until they’re announced, but there are already a few must-watch recommended events from our side.‍

Google I/O is a developer conference and most of the talks deal with technical subjects related to different tools and technologies such as Flutter, Android, TensorFlow, Google Cloud, and more.

A few things changed this year. For example, there’s no Android Fireside chat planned, but the Ask Me Anything – AMA sessions will replace it. 

AMA sessions in Google I/O 2021

Besides that, there are Keynotes, Sessions, Workshops, and Meetups. Also, there are two different Community Lounge areas where you can join the Google developer community around the world for networking, virtual meetups, collaboration, inspiration, and expertise:

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I/O Meetups are led by Googlers, and are an opportunity for attendees to network and meet people with similar interests.

I/O Extended Meetups are led by members of Google Developer Groups and Women Techmaker Ambassadors. These may include speakers from other community groups such as Google Developers Experts with different topics.

If you feel nostalgic about the previous Google I/O, here you can see the Google I/O ‘19 recap.

Let’s get started

Before you can do anything, you will need to register with your Google Account here.

You will even get a cool badge!

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Google I/O sessions you can’t miss out on in 2021

It’s time to build your agenda! We collected a few sessions we believe you shouldn’t miss out on this year. You can add sessions to your agenda by clicking the star icon on their cards.

To save sessions, click on the star icon to add it to your schedule

The keynotes

The Google I/O keynote is the one you can’t miss out on. During this session, you can learn about the latest product and platform innovations at Google. for me I expect Google to announce the Pixel 5a at I/O this year besides announcing improvements to Wear OS, Fitbit OS after Google acquired it, Google Assistant, Google Stadia, and the Android 12 beta release will be one of the key highlights at the event. We’ve already seen a few developer previews of Android 12 the last one was Preview 3, but I expect Google to launch the first beta of the software at I/O 2021.

The second keynote is the Developer Keynote. In this session, you will learn about the latest updates to Google developer products and platforms such as Android Studio, Kotlin, Firebase, and more. Besides that, you can find more details in the what’s new in Android development tools, Android testing tools, design tools, and the Android Gradle plugin sessions. 

What’s new sessions

After the keynote sessions, you will have a bunch of sessions to attend based on your interests, For me, all of them are interesting and will have a lot of updates but here are my top 5 topics:  

3. What’s new in Jetpack Compose: In this session, they’ll walk you through what is included in the toolkit, and some examples to help you get ready to adopt it in your apps. Also in Build beautiful Material Design apps with Jetpack Compose session you’ll learn more about the Material theming components, and dark theme guidance, and how it can help improve your workflow on Android. 
   But if you are not familiar yet with Jetpack Compose you can check the Jetpack Compose basics workshop, in this workshop, they will take you through the basics of building your first app with Jetpack Compose, Android’s new modern UI toolkit that simplifies and accelerates UI development on Android.

4. What’s new in Material Design Learn about the latest design improvements to help you build personal dynamic experiences with Material Design and the Refreshing widgets session will help you learn more about all the ways we’re making it easier to build useful, discoverable, and beautiful widgets on Android and Assistant.

5. Firebase helps you build and run successful apps. Backed by Google, loved by developers. Products & solutions you can rely on throughout your app’s journey because that I’m looking forward to learning more about What’s new in Firebase session and know how Firebase can accelerate your app development. 

But is this only for Android developers? No. iOS developers can also learn more about Firebase from the Firebase for Apple Developers: What you should know? session. During the session, they will discuss the modernization of Swift APIs, how to integrate Firebase with SwiftUI lifecycle, and how to download Firebase using Swift Package Manager.

Google Cloud, Assistant, and Accessibility

Are you interested in other topics like Google Cloud, Assistant, and Accessibility, then you can check the Exposure Notifications: Building infrastructure to serve 1M users session and during this session, you’ll learn how to engineer a secure, rapidly deployable, and globally available system, using only Google Cloud services, how to add voice capabilities to your Android app with Google Assistant, how to use Machine learning for Accessibility or lean how to Drive engagement and boost performance in your app with deep links.

Woo-hoo! You are now ready for Google I/O with a list of awesome sessions. But make sure you have free time for the Ask Me Anything sessions or join the Community for networking, virtual meetups, and collaboration.

Enjoy it to the max, stay safe, and happy learning!