I/O 2016
33 announcements tracked. Reality Score: 36% shipped substantially as promised.
Shipped 8
Android N (Nougat)
The next major Android release was previewed with split-screen multitasking, redesigned notifications, JIT compiler with 'seamless updates,' Vulkan graphics, and built-in Daydream VR support.
Android 7.0 Nougat launched August 22, 2016, with all promised features.
Android N split-screen multi-window
Built-in multi-window split-screen mode for phones and tablets, with picture-in-picture support promised for Android TV.
Split-screen shipped in Android 7.0 Nougat in August 2016 and remains a core Android feature.
Android Studio 2.2 + ConstraintLayout
Preview of Android Studio 2.2 with a new visual Layout Editor, ConstraintLayout for flatter view hierarchies, APK Analyzer, expanded Espresso testing, and Firebase plugin integration.
Android Studio 2.2 reached stable release in September 2016 and ConstraintLayout 1.0 followed in early 2017. ConstraintLayout became the recommended default for Android layouts and remains widely used.
Doze on the Go (extended Doze battery saving)
Android N would extend Doze mode — previously only when the device was stationary — to also work when the phone was in a pocket on the move, promising significant battery savings for all users.
Doze on the Go shipped with Android 7.0 Nougat in August 2016 and remains part of Android's power-saving stack, though it has been largely superseded by App Standby Buckets (Android 9+) and adaptive battery features.
Less talked-about today but the underlying mechanism is still in AOSP.
Firebase (relaunch as full app platform)
Firebase was relaunched as a unified mobile/web development platform with Analytics, Cloud Messaging, Crash Reporting, Remote Config, Dynamic Links, and AdMob integration.
Firebase shipped on schedule in 2016 and remains one of Google's most successful developer products. Firebase Analytics was renamed Google Analytics for Firebase in 2017 and folded into Google Analytics 4. Dynamic Links were deprecated in 2025. Crash Reporting was replaced by Crashlytics. At Cloud Next 2025, Firebase was extended with Firebase Studio and Genkit.
One of the rare unambiguous I/O 2016 wins — though several of the specific 2016 sub-products (Dynamic Links, Crash Reporting) have been deprecated or replaced.
Google Cast / Presentation API for the web
New web Presentation API allowing any website to cast to Chromecast and other Cast receivers from Chrome on Android without the Cast extension.
Shipped in Chrome on Android in 2016/2017 and remains a W3C standard.
Older Presentation API methods on insecure origins are deprecated.
Tensor Processing Unit (TPU)
Sundar Pichai publicly disclosed for the first time that Google had been running custom machine-learning ASICs (TPUs) inside its data centers for over a year, with 'an order of magnitude' better performance per watt.
TPU v2 launched in 2017, v3 in 2018, v4 announced at I/O 2021, and v7 'Ironwood' shipped in 2025. TPUs power most of Google's modern AI infrastructure including Gemini.
Arguably the most consequential I/O 2016 disclosure in retrospect.
Vulkan graphics API support in Android
Android N would be the first Android release with native support for the Vulkan low-overhead graphics API.
Vulkan shipped in Android 7.0 Nougat in August 2016 and remains a core graphics API.
Shipped late 2
Android apps on Chrome OS
Google Play Store and Android apps coming to Chromebooks 'starting in June' with three initial models, expanding to most Chromebooks 'later this year' (2016).
Android apps shipped to the first Chromebooks in beta in June 2016, but the promised broad rollout 'later this year' took until 2019. Today all Chromebooks launched since 2019 support Android apps, but the experience never matched the seamlessness of native apps and many enterprise/education Chromebooks block the Play Store.
Promise was broad 2016 rollout; full rollout took ~3 years past promised window.
Android Wear 2.0
Major smartwatch OS update with standalone apps, on-watch Google Play Store, complications, handwriting and QWERTY input, Google Fit integration, and iOS support. Promised for fall 2016.
Wear 2.0 was delayed from fall 2016 to early 2017 and finally shipped February 9, 2017. Android Wear was rebranded to 'Wear OS by Google' in March 2018 with significantly reduced market presence. iOS support has been progressively curtailed over the years. The platform remains a distant third behind Apple Watch and Samsung's pre-2021 Tizen install base.
Delayed ~5 months past promised fall 2016 timing; later rebranded as Wear OS. Promised broad iOS interop has been steadily reduced.
Scaled back 4
Google Play Family Library
New Family Library letting up to six family members share Play Store app, game, movie, TV, and book purchases, with launch promised 'in the coming months.'
Family Library launched July 2016 for movies/TV/books and was extended to apps and games in mid-2016. The feature still exists in 2026 but excludes many app categories (notably in-app purchases and most subscriptions), making the sharing promise narrower in practice than pitched.
Shipped but with significant carve-outs — many paid apps and most in-app purchases / subscriptions are not shareable, undermining the 'family' pitch.
Material Design for wearables / motion guidelines
Extended Material Design guidelines to wearables and added detailed motion principles in collaboration with Google Calendar and Inbox teams, promising a coherent wearables design language.
The guidelines shipped on material.io in 2016, but the wearables design system never gained meaningful traction outside Google's own Wear OS apps — most third-party Wear OS apps still feel unpolished. Material Design has since evolved through Material 2 (2018), Material You / Material 3 (2021), and Material 3 Expressive (2025), which largely supersedes the 2016 wearables work.
Guidelines existed but wearables-specific Material was effectively abandoned and re-done under Material 3 Expressive. The Wear OS ecosystem never achieved the promised design coherence.
Project Soli
ATAP's miniaturized radar chip for touchless gesture recognition, demonstrated for smartwatches and other devices.
Soli shipped in the Pixel 4 (October 2019) as 'Motion Sense' but was dropped from Pixel 5 and never returned to a Pixel phone. Soli was embedded in the 2nd-gen Nest Hub (2021) for sleep tracking and the Nest Thermostat (2020), but the original smartwatch/touchless-gesture vision was never realized at consumer scale.
Shipped in one phone, then largely retreated to smart-home sleep tracking — far from the smartwatch/wearable vision pitched at I/O 2016.
Seamless (A/B) system updates
Android N would introduce seamless background updates using A/B system partitions, eliminating the 'Android is upgrading' wait screen for all Android users.
Seamless updates shipped in Android 7.0 on Pixel/Nexus only. For years (2016–2020) most major OEMs including Samsung, the largest Android maker, refused to adopt A/B updates due to storage overhead. Broader OEM adoption only became near-universal around 2021 once Project Mainline pressure mounted. The promise of universal seamless Android updates took ~5 years to roughly materialize.
Pitched as the new Android default; was effectively Pixel-only for years and Samsung in particular held out. Eventually broadly adopted but well past the implied I/O 2016 timeline.
Rebranded 2
Firebase Analytics
Free, unlimited mobile analytics product integrated with Firebase and AdWords campaign measurement, billed as the new heart of Firebase.
Firebase Analytics shipped at I/O 2016 and was renamed 'Google Analytics for Firebase' at I/O 2017. The underlying tech became the foundation for Google Analytics 4, which fully replaced Universal Analytics in July 2023.
Live and bigger than ever — but no longer carries the Firebase Analytics name.
Google Play Awards
New annual awards program for top apps and games across categories like Best Use of Material Design, Best Indie, Standout Family App, etc.
Play Awards returned at I/O 2017 and 2018, then transitioned to the 'Best of Play' end-of-year awards that continue annually.
Still running, just under the 'Best of Play' branding rather than the original I/O-event format.
Vapor 2
Project Ara
Modular smartphone with hot-swappable components. Google explicitly promised a developer edition shipping in Q4 2016 and a consumer device in 2017.
Project Ara was cancelled outright on September 2, 2016, less than four months after I/O. No developer kit was ever shipped to outside developers and no consumer device was ever produced.
Killed faster than almost any other I/O 2016 announcement.
Project Bloks
Tangible programming research project (Google + IDEO + Stanford) using Raspberry Pi 'Brain Boards' and modular 'Pucks' to teach kids to code physically. Reference kit promised to researchers.
Project Bloks was announced as a research effort. After a small reference kit and some research papers, the project went silent and never shipped a consumer product.
Quietly abandoned; no formal shutdown was announced.
Killed 15
Allo
A 'smart messaging app' with built-in Google Assistant, smart replies, image recognition, expressive 'shout/whisper' text sizing, and an optional end-to-end encrypted Incognito mode. Promised for summer 2016.
Allo launched September 21, 2016 on Android and iOS. It never achieved meaningful traction (under 50M downloads total) and Google paused development in April 2018. Google announced the shutdown in December 2018 and Allo was killed March 12, 2019.
One of Google's most-mocked messaging app failures.
Allo Incognito Mode (E2E encryption)
Optional end-to-end encrypted 'Incognito' mode in Allo using the Signal Protocol, with expiring messages and private notifications.
Incognito Mode shipped in Allo on September 21, 2016, exactly as promised, but was criticized by EFF and Snowden for not being default. It died with Allo on March 12, 2019.
Snowden famously tweeted 'don't use Allo' over the non-default E2E.
Android Auto standalone phone app
Google said Android Auto would be released as a standalone smartphone app, bringing the in-car experience to any phone.
The Android Auto for phones app launched November 2016. Google deprecated it in 2019, replacing it with Assistant Driving Mode, and fully decommissioned the app in June 2022. Driving Mode was itself killed in 2025.
Replaced by Driving Mode, which was itself killed in 2025.
Android Instant Apps
Technology to run small parts of an app instantly from a URL without full installation. Promised 'native Android app experiences with the reach of the web.'
Reached limited developer availability in 2017 and general release at I/O 2017. Adoption was weak; Google announced in 2025 that Instant Apps would be discontinued, with publishing and APIs ending in December 2025.
Required developers to ship sub-15MB modules; few bothered.
Android VR Mode
New low-latency VR Mode added to Android N, dropping motion-to-photon latency below 20ms, with eight phone-maker partners building Daydream-ready devices.
VR Mode shipped in Android 7.1 and Daydream-ready phones launched. The mode was effectively orphaned when Daydream was killed in 2019; Android 11 removed the VrListenerService and dedicated VR support.
Died alongside Daydream.
Awareness API
Two unified APIs (Snapshot and Fence) for apps to access seven context signals — location, weather, headphones, activity, beacons, time, and place.
Shipped June 27, 2016 in Google Play Services 9.2 as promised. Has been formally deprecated, with Google announcing Play services will stop supporting it by January 2027.
Officially deprecated with a sunset date set; developers are being told to migrate.
Daydream VR platform
A mobile VR platform built into Android N, with reference designs for headsets and controllers, and 'Daydream-ready' phones from Samsung, HTC, LG, Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE, Asus, and Alcatel.
The Daydream View headset launched November 10, 2016 at $79. Adoption never materialized; the Pixel 4 (Oct 2019) shipped without Daydream certification and Google stopped selling the View headset that same month. The platform's software was effectively shut down by 2020.
Google cited 'no broad consumer or developer adoption.'
Duo
A simple one-to-one video calling app for Android and iOS with a 'Knock Knock' feature showing live preview of the caller, designed as Google's answer to FaceTime.
Duo launched August 16, 2016. In 2022 Google announced it would merge Duo into Google Meet; the standalone Duo app was effectively retired in 2022–2023. Legacy Duo features inside Meet were fully sunset by March 2026.
Merged into Google Meet; the Meet-as-Duo replacement is functionally different.
Google Assistant
Sundar Pichai unveiled Google Assistant as a 'conversational, two-way' AI helper that would be 'an ambient experience that extends across devices' and the successor to Google Now.
Google Assistant launched October 2016 with the Pixel and rolled out broadly through 2017. The 'ambient' multi-device promise was only partially realized — it was hollowed out as Google shifted to Gemini. In March 2025, Google announced Gemini would replace Assistant on mobile devices. The transition continued through 2025 and 2026, with Google confirming Assistant is being decommissioned as the default assistant across phones, tablets, watches, and Google Home in favor of Gemini.
Replaced by Gemini, not merely rebranded — different architecture, different capabilities, abandoning many original Assistant integrations.
Google Cardboard (continued investment)
Continued promotion of Cardboard as the gateway to mobile VR alongside Daydream, with 50M+ Cardboard apps installed and education partnerships highlighted.
Google open-sourced the Cardboard SDK in November 2019. Google stopped selling Cardboard viewers in the Google Store in March 2021, ending official hardware support.
Open-source code is still on GitHub but Google no longer ships or sells it.
Google Expeditions
Education-focused VR app letting classrooms take virtual field trips using Cardboard / Daydream headsets, expanding nationwide rollout to schools.
Expeditions launched broadly in 2016 and saw real classroom adoption. Google announced shutdown in 2020 and discontinued the app on June 30, 2021, migrating tours to Google Arts & Culture.
Content survives inside Arts & Culture but the VR classroom product is gone.
Google Home
Google previewed Google Home, a Wi-Fi speaker powered by Google Assistant designed to compete with Amazon Echo, with launch promised for later in 2016.
The original Google Home launched November 4, 2016 at $129. The Google Home brand was retired in 2019 and folded into Google Nest. The original 1st-gen Home was discontinued, replaced by Nest Audio in October 2020. A new 'Google Home Speaker' name was revived in 2025 for a Gemini-powered speaker, but the 2016 product itself was discontinued.
The original product was discontinued; the 'Google Home' name re-emerged in 2025 for an unrelated Gemini speaker.
Google Spaces
A group-sharing app for small groups of friends, built around topics with integrated Search/YouTube/Chrome. Used at I/O 2016 itself for session discussions.
Spaces launched May 16, 2016. It was made read-only March 3, 2017 and shut down completely on April 17, 2017 — less than 11 months after launch.
Almost a footnote in the I/O 2016 keynote but worth flagging for speed of death.
Project Jacquard
ATAP's smart fabric platform with touch-sensitive woven threads, debuting in a Levi's Commuter Trucker Jacket. Promised broad expansion to clothing partners.
The Levi's Commuter Trucker Jacket with Jacquard launched October 2017. A handful of follow-on products (Saint Laurent backpack, Samsonite, Adidas) shipped 2018–2021. Google announced the Jacquard app shutdown March 2023; support ended April 24, 2023, making existing Jacquard garments non-functional.
Shipped well after I/O 2016, then quietly abandoned.
Project Tango
Google promoted Tango, its AR platform requiring depth-sensing hardware, with the first consumer Tango phone (Lenovo Phab2 Pro) due summer 2016 and broader rollout planned.
The Lenovo Phab2 Pro launched November 2016; the Asus ZenFone AR followed in 2017. On December 15, 2017, Google announced Tango would be killed effective March 1, 2018, and replaced by ARCore.
Replaced by ARCore.