Without a doubt, 2020 has been one of the most peculiar years in recent history. Because of the pandemic that has now spanned two-thirds of the year, most hardware and software events and conferences have been shifted to a virtual venue or flat out canceled. Google was one of the first companies to lead the charge of long-term work-at-home movement and that shift included the cancellation of the annual I/O developer conference. Subsequently, Google took to the interwebs in late July to tease the announcement of the company’s newest Pixel phone that came a few days later with a simple declaration on The Keyword. No virtual event. No hoopla.
It’s safe to assume that Google will also forego its annual October hardware event but we are still hopeful that a virtual event could happen. Google teased two more phones that will be headed this way this fall and the launch of the latest Chromecast/Android TV dongle with a remote is inevitable. The device, codenamed ‘Sabrina’, was recently listed in the internal inventory system of a retailer and we’re confident that this points to a release in the very near future. Oh, and let’s not forget that somewhere in a warehouse, Google has some new Nest Home speakers waiting to launch. Did you forget about that? I didn’t, Google. I’ll just leave this right here.
All this to say, Google is on the cusp of dropping a decent variety of hardware and an announcement from Google Developers could give us a hint as to when we could expect such an event. Dubbed “Assistant Developer Day,” the virtual event is slated for October 8th. As the name implies, this will be an event geared towards developers and partners that use Assistant integration but it’s free to register and anyone should be able to attend the online event.
Join us live on October 8th for the virtual Google Assistant Developer Day, where we’ll announce new features and tools and showcase highlights and use cases from our partners. We will also host interactive sessions for you to connect with the Google Assistant team, including a fireside chat to answer top questions we hear from developers.
Google Assistant Developer Day
Clearly, this event won’t be aimed at consumers and it is unlikely that we’ll see any hardware announcements. However, the mention of new Assistant features sounds very much like Google’s usual M.O. when it comes to launching new software features in conjunction with new hardware. Additionally, the October 8th date coincides with one of the original dates that were leaked for the release of the Pixel 5 phone. Again, I don’t think we’ll see the hardware at this event but I suspect that this developer day could be a complement to a hardware event that happens earlier that same week. How much earlier? If I had to guess, I’d put my money on Tuesday, October 6th.
Historically, Google has held its hardware events on the first or second Tuesday of October with the exception of 2017. This is purely speculation on my part and I don’t have any solid evidence to support it other than a gut feeling. All I know is that Google is seriously overdue for some hardware drops and keeping with the company’s tradition of an early October event seems like as good a time as any to get some new products on the market. I suppose we’ll just have to wait a few more weeks to find out. If you want to register for the Assistant Developer Day, you can do so here.
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