Today at Google I/O, Google announced a developer preview of the next version of Android, the M release. The company also announced the 'Project Brillo' OS for IoT devices, Android Pay, virtual reality projects and Google Photos. Sundar Pichai, Google's SVP , talked about the evolution of Android, which is found on your phone, your tablet, your wrist, in your car and in your living room, and moves between each. He said that by the end of this year, 35 car models will offer Android Auto, helping you access Search, Maps, music and other information through your car’s controls. And the first sets running Android TV have also arrived, such as the nw Nvidia Shield Android TV.

With the Android M, Google has gone back to the basics, according to Google SVP Sundar Pichai. "We've really focused on polish and quality, we've literally solved thousands of bugs." While there's still no firm release date for Android M, developers can give it a spin today with a special preview release for the Nexus 5, 6, 9 and Player set-top box.

Among the highlights, Google has improved battery life and streamlined permissions for apps to make it easier for you to decide what information the apps on your phone can use. Google also previewed Android Pay, which lets you pay for things with your phone, without even opening an app.

By releaseiong the M Developer Preview, Google will provide a timeline for testing and feedback plus more updates to the preview build.

For develpoers and users, Android M offers:

• Permissions - Google is giving users control of app permissions in the M release. Apps can trigger requests for permissions at runtime, in the right context, and users can choose whether to grant the permission. Making permission requests right when they’re needed means users can get up and running in your app faster. Also, users have easy access to manage all their app permissions in settings. On M, as a developer, you should design your app to prompt for permissions in context and account for permissions that don’t get granted. As more devices upgrade to M, app permission behavior will be a critical development flow to test.
• App links - Google is making it even easier to link between apps. Android has always allowed apps to register to natively handle URLs. Now you can add an autoVerify attribute to your app manifest so that users can be linked deep into your native app without any disambiguation prompt. App links, along with App Indexing for Google search, make it easier for users to discover and re-engage with your app.
• Battery - Google is making Android devices smarter about managing power through a new feature called Doze. With M, Android uses significant motion detection to learn if a device has been left unattended for a while. In this state, Android will exponentially back off background activity, trading off a little bit of app freshness for longer battery life.

Google also announced a couple of new features:

• Now on tap - Google is making it easier for Android users to get assistance with Now on tap. For example, if your friend texts you about dinner at a new restaurant, without leaving the app, you can ask Google Now for help. Using just that context, Google can find menus, reviews, help you book a table, navigate there, and deep link you into relevant apps. The new Android feature will be activated by holding down the device's home button or speaking, "OK Google," into the microphone. That action will prompt Now on Tap to scan the screen in attempt to figure out how to be the most helpful. Or, if speaking, users can just say what they are seeking, such as "Who sings this?"
  
• Android Pay & Fingerprint - Google has built on its work with Near Field Communications (NFC) in Gingerbread and Host Card Emulation in Kitkat to develop Android Pay. Android Pay will enable Android users to use their Android phone to pay in stores or in Android Pay partner apps. With M, native fingerprint support enhances Android Pay by allowing users to confirm a purchase with their fingerprint. Moreover, fingerprint on M can be used to unlock devices and make purchases on Google Play. With new APIs in M, it’s easy for developers to add fingerprint authorization to their apps and have it work consistently across a range of devices and sensors. Android Pay will replace Google Wallet for making mobile purchases in stores and applications. Google Wallet, which came out in 2011, will still work for sending payments from one person to another. Like Apple's system, Android Pay can be used to store major credit and debit cards in smartphones that can be used to pay merchants equipped with terminals that work with the technology. Android Pay will also work on devices running on the KitKat version of Android released last year.

The M preview is available for download today.

Google also made available new tools for app developers:

• Android Studio v1.3 Preview - Most notable featureis the addition of code editing and debugging for C/C++ code. Based on JetBrains Clion platform, the Android Studio NDK plugin provides features such as refactoring and code completion for C/C++ code alongside Java code. Java and C/C++ code support is integrated into one development experience free of charge for Android app developers.
• Android Design Support Library - Making Material design apps gets even easier with the new Android Design support library. Gogole has packaged a set a key design components (e.g floating action button, snackbar, navigation view, motion enabled Toolbars) that are backward compatible to API 7 and can be added to an app to create a modern Android app without building everything from scratch.
• Google Play Services - Google is releasing v7.5 of Google Play services which includes new features ranging from Smart Lock for Passwords, new APIs for Google Cloud Messaging and Google Cast, to Google Maps API on Android Wear devices.
  

Google also announced Project Brillo, an operating system that's designed specifically for devices known as the internet-of-things. Based on Adnroid, Project Brillo is "light" enough to run on a wide variety of day to day - doorbells, baby cameras, ovens and so on that speak to each other via Bluetooth and WiFi.

As part of Brillo, Google is introducing a communications protocol (Weave) developed in partnership with Nest, a set of developer APIs, a core set of schemas and a certification program to ensure device and app interoperability.

The developer tools for Project Brillo won't be available until Q3 this year. Weave will follow a month or two later.

Moving on, Google Photos is a new, standalone product that Google hopes it will become a home for all your photos and videos. Google Photos can be accessed from any device, and they are automatically backed up and synced. The service offers unlimited storage space for photos and videos, for free. It will maintain the original resolution up to 16MP for photos, and 1080p high-definition for videos, and store compressed versions of the photos and videos in print-quality resolution.

Google Photos automatically organizes content by the people, places, and things that matter. When you want to find a particular shot, with a search you can instantly find any photo. The app can also help you enhance photos - make adjustments tuned to the photo’s color, lighting, and subject. In addition, you can create create your own collages, animations, movies with soundtracks, and more. Through an Assistant view, the app will suggest new things made with your photos and videos, such as a collage or a story based on a recent trip you took.

With Google Photos, you have the choice to share your photos and videos however you want across any service you choose, from Hangouts to Twitter to WhatsApp. You can take any set of photos and videos, or any album, and create a link to share hundreds of photos at once. The recipient can see what you shared without a special app or login, then immediately save the high-quality images to their own library with a single tap.

Google Photos will be available later today across Android, iOS and the web.

At last year’s I/O Google introduced Cardboard, which lets you turn your phone into a virtual reality experience. Today Google announced iOS support for developers and debuted Google Expeditions, which lets students take virtual trips with Cardboard to places like the moon and underwater.

Google is also considering to make it easier to create virtual reality videos and to find virtual reality content to watch on YouTube. Through a project called Jump, Google is looking to make it easier to record, process, and watch videos in virtual reality. It has designed a rig that will allow people to record 360-degree video. People will be able to build their own rigs, but Google has also worked with GoPro, which will sell its own Jump-ready camera outfit. GoPro's 16-camera rig for VR content is basically 16 GoPros attached together. The firmware loaded onto each one is designed so that the cameras works together — each camera turns on at the same time as well as stop and start instructions are synchronized.

GoPro’s 16-camera weighs around six pounds, so it could be hardly strapped onto a drone. It will mostly be used for stationary shots with the array attached to a tripod.

Starting this summer, Google will give a select group of developers access to its software for stitching the video from all these cameras together into a single experience. The finished products will be available to view on Cardboard viewers through YouTube.

Other announcements made today by Google include updated to Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and Google Maps.

Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is a service for both Android-powered devices and Chrome instances to send and receive message data from servers. The service now pushes notifications to iOS devices as well. The Cloud Messaging update also introduces topics, so an app can ask you about getting only the notifications you care about. A news app can send you notifications about world news, for instance, while skipping entertainment.

Sometimes you still need navigation and destination info when you're offline. Google is delivering that with offline Maps. Even when you're not connected, the app will still provide information on places in your searches. In addition, voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation is included as well for maps that you've saved for offline use. All these will arrive "later this year."