Tag Archives: cloud

Announcing the Inaugural Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First cohort

Posted by Yariv Adan, Director of Cloud Conversational AI and Pati Jurek, Google for startups Accelerator Regional Lead

This article is also shared on Google Cloud Blog

Today’s startups are addressing the world's most pressing issues, and artificial intelligence (AI) is one of their most powerful tools. To empower startups to scale their business towards success in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First offers a 10-week, equity-free program for AI-first startups in partnership with Google Cloud. Designed for seed to series A startups based in Europe and Israel, the program helps them grow and build responsibly with AI and machine learning (ML) from the ground up, with access to experts from Google Cloud and Google DeepMind, a mix of in-person and virtual activities, 1:1 mentoring, and group learning sessions.

In addition, the program features deep dives and workshops focused on product design, business growth, and leadership development. Startups that are selected for the cohort also benefit from dedicated Google AI technical expertise and receive credits via the Google for Startups Cloud Program.

Out of hundreds of impressive applications, today we welcome the inaugural cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First. The program includes 13 groundbreaking startups from eight different countries, all focused on different verticals and with a diverse array of founder and executive backgrounds. All participants are leveraging AI and ML technologies to solve significant problems and have the potential to transform their respective industries.


Congratulations to the cohort!

We are thrilled to present the inaugural Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First cohort:

  • Annea.Ai (Germany) utilizes AI and Digital Twin technology to forecast and prevent possible breakdowns in renewable energy assets, such as wind turbines.
  • Checktur.io (Germany) empowers businesses to manage their commercial vehicle fleets efficiently via an end-to-end fleet asset management ecosystem while using AI models and data-driven insights.
  • Exactly.ai (UK) lets artists create images in their own unique style with a simple written description.
  • Neurons (Denmark) has developed a precise AI model that can measure human subconscious signals to predict marketing responses.
  • PACTA (Germany) provides AI-driven contract lifecycle management with an intelligent no-code workflow on one central legal platform.
  • Quantic Brains (Spain) empowers users to generate movies and video games using AI.
  • Sarus (France) builds a privacy layer for Analytics & AI and allows data practitioners to query sensitive data without having direct access to it.
  • Releva (Bulgaria) provides an all-in-one AI automation solution for eCommerce marketing.
  • Semantic Hub (Switzerland) uses AI leveraging multilingual Natural Language Understanding to help global biopharmaceutical companies understand the patient experience through first-hand testimonies on social media.
  • Vazy Data (France) allows anyone to analyze data without technical knowledge by using AI.
  • Visionary.AI (Israel) leverages cutting-edge AI to improve real-time video quality in challenging visual conditions like extreme low-light.
  • ZENPULSAR (UK) provides social media analytics from over 10 social media platforms to financial institutions and corporations to facilitate investment and business decisions.
  • Zaya AI (Romania) uses machine learning to better understand and diagnose diseases, assisting healthcare professionals to make timely and informed medical decisions.
Grid image of logos and executives of all startups listed in the inaugural Google for Startups Accelerator

To learn more about the AI-first program, and to signal your interest in nominating your startup for future cohorts, visit the program page here.

Programmatically access working locations with the Calendar API

Posted by Chanel Greco, Developer Advocate

Giving Google Workspace users the ability to set their working location and working hours in Google Calendar was an important step in helping our customers’ employees adapt to a hybrid world. Sending a Chat message asking “Will you be in the office tomorrow?” soon became obsolete as anyone could share where and when they would be working within Calendar.

To improve the hybrid working experience, many organizations rely on third-party or company-internal tools to enable tasks like hot desk booking or scheduling days in the office. Until recently, there was no way to programmatically synchronize the working location set in Calendar with such tools.


Image showing working locations visible via Google Calendar in the Robin app
Robin displays the working location from Google Calendar in their application and updates the user's Google Calendar when they book a desk in Robin

Programmatically read and write working locations

We are pleased to announce that the Calendar API has been updated to make working locations available and this added functionality is generally available (feature is only available for eligible Workspace editions). This enables developers to programmatically read and write the working location of Google Workspace users. This can be especially useful in three use cases that have surfaced in discussions with customers which we are going to explore together.

1.     Synchronize with third-party tools

Enhancing the Calendar API enables developers to synchronize user’s working location with third-party tools like Robin and Comeen. For example, some companies provide their employees with desk booking tools so they can book their workplace in advance for the days they will be on-site. HR management tools are also common for employees to request and set “Work from home” days. In both situations the user had to set their working location in two separate tools: their desk booking tool and/or HR management system and Google Calendar.

Thanks to the working location being accessible through the Calendar API this duplicate work is no longer necessary since a user’s working location can be programmatically set. And if a user's calendar is the single source of truth? In that case, the API can be used to read the working location from the user’s calendar and write it to any permissioned third-party tool.


Image showing Google Workspace Add-on synchronizing users' working locations in the Comeen app.
Comeen’s Google Workspace Add-on synchronizes the user’s’ working locations whenever the user updates their working location, either in Google Calendar or in Comeen's add-on

2.     Display working location on other surfaces

The API enables the surfacing of the user's working location in other tools, creating interesting opportunities. For instance, some of our customers have asked for ways to better coordinate in-office days. Imagine you are planning to be at the office tomorrow. Who else from your team will be there? Who from a neighboring team might be on-site for a coffee chat?

With the Calendar API, a user's working location can be displayed in tools like directories, or a hybrid-work scheduling tool. The goal is to make a user’s working location available in the systems that are relevant to our customers.

3.     Analyze patterns

The third use case that surfaced from discussions with our customers is analyzing working location patterns. With many of our customers having a hybrid work approach it’s vital to have a good understanding of the working patterns. For example, which days do locations reach maximal legal capacity? Or, when does the on-campus restaurant have to prepare more meals for employees working on-site?

The API answers these and other questions so that facility management can adapt their resources to the needs of their employees.


How to get started

Now that you have an idea of the possibilities the updated Calendar API creates, we want to guide you on how you can get started using it.

  • Check out the developer documentation for reading and writing a user's working locations.
  • Watch the announcement video on the Google Workspace Developers YouTube channel.
  • Check the original post about the launch of the working location feature for a list of all Google Workspace plans that have access to the feature.

A vision for more efficient media management

Petit Press’ new open source, cloud-based DAM platform helps publishers get rich media content in front of their audience at pace and scale.

Picture the scene: You’re an investigative journalist that has just wrapped up a new piece of video content that offers incisive, timely commentary on a pressing issue of the day. Your editor wants to get the content in front of your audience as quickly as possible and you soon find yourself bogged down in a laborious, manual process of archiving and uploading files. A process that is subject to human error, and involves repeating the same tasks as you prepare the content for YouTube and embedding within an article.

With the development of a new open source digital asset management (DAM) system, Slovak publishing house, Petit Press, is hoping to help the wider publishing ecosystem overcome these types of challenges.

Striving towards a universal, open source solution

Like many publishers in today’s fast-paced, fast-changing news landscape, Petit Press was feeling the pressure to be more efficient and do more with less, while at the same time maximizing the amount of high-quality, rich media content its journalists could deliver. “We wanted to find a solution to two main asset delivery issues in particular,” says Ondrej Podstupka, deputy editor in chief of SME.sk. “Firstly, to reduce the volume of work involved in transferring files from our journalists to our admin teams to the various platforms and CMS we use. Secondly, to avoid the risk of misplacing archived files or losing them entirely in an archive built on legacy technologies.”

As a publisher of over 35 print and digital titles, including one of Slovakia’s most-visited news portal, SME.sk, Petit Press also had a first-hand understanding of how useful the solution might be if it could flex to the different publishing scales, schedules, and platforms found across the news industry. With encouragement and support from GNI, Petit Press challenged themselves to build an entirely open source, API-based DAM system that flexes beyond their own use cases and can be easily integrated with any CMS, which means that other publishers can adapt and add functionality with minimal development costs.

Getting out of the comfort zone to overcome complexity

For the publisher, creating an open source project requires collaboration, skill development, and a strong sense of purpose. GNI inspired our team members to work together in a positive, creative, and supportive environment. Crucial resources from GNI also enabled the team to broaden the scope of the project beyond Petit Press’ direct requirements to cover the edge use cases and automations that a truly open source piece of software requires.

“GNI has enabled our organization to make our code open source, helping to create a more collaborative and innovative environment in the media industry.” 
– Ondrej Podstupka, deputy editor in chief of SME.sk

Building and developing the tool was difficult at times with a team of software engineers, product managers, newsroom managers, UX designers, testers, and cloud engineers all coming together to see the project to completion. For a team not used to working on GitHub, the open source aspect of the project proved the primary challenge. The team, however, also worked to overcome everything from understanding the complexities of integrating a podcast feature, to creating an interface all users felt comfortable with, to ensuring compliance with YouTube’s security requirements.

Unburdening the newsroom and minimizing costs

The hard work paid off though, when the system initially launched in early 2023. Serving as a unified distribution platform, asset delivery service and long term archive, the single solution is already unburdening the newsroom. It also benefits the tech/admin teams, by addressing concerns about the long-term costs of various media storage services.

On Petit Press’ own platforms, the DAM system has already been successfully integrated into SME.sk’s user-generated content (UGC) blog. This integration allows for seamless content management and curation, enhancing the overall user experience. The system also makes regulatory compliance easier, thanks to its GDPR-compliant user deletion process.

In addition to the UGC Blog system, the DAM system has now launched for internal Petit Press users—specifically for managing video and podcast content, which has led to increased efficiency and organization within the team. By streamlining the video and podcast creation and distribution processes, Petit Press has already seen a 5-10% productivity boost. The new DAM system saves an estimated 15-20 minutes of admin time off every piece of video/podcast content Petit Press produces.

Working towards bigger-picture benefits

Zooming out, the DAM system is also playing a central part in Petit Press’ year-long, org-wide migration to the cloud. This transformation was set in motion to enhance infrastructure, streamline processes, and improve overall efficiency within the department.

Podstupka also illustrates how the system might benefit other publishers. “It could be used as an effective standalone, automated archive for videos and podcasts,” he says. For larger publishing houses, “if you use [the DAM system] to distribute videos to YouTube and archive podcasts, there is minimal traffic cost and very low storage cost. But you still have full control over the content in case you decide to switch to a new distribution platform or video hosting service.”

As the team at Petit Press continues to get to grips with the new system, there is a clear goal in mind: To have virtually zero administrative overhead related to audio or video.

Beyond the automation-powered efficiency savings, the team at Petit Press are also exploring the new monetisation opportunities that the DAM system presents. They are currently working on a way to automatically redistribute audio and image assets to their video hosting platform, to automatically create video from every podcast they produce. This video is then pushed to their CMS and optimized for monetisation on the site with very little additional development required.

Ultimately, though, the open source nature of the system makes the whole team excited to see where other publishers and developers might take the product. “It’s a futureproof way to leverage media content with new services, platforms and ideas that emerge in technology or media landscapes,” says Igor, Head Of Development & Infrastructure. A succinct, but undeniably compelling way of summing up the system’s wide-ranging potential.

A guest post by the Petit Press team

Champion Innovator David Cardozo, based in Victoriaville, Quebec

Posted by Max Saltonstall, Developer Relations Engineer

Google Cloud Champion Innovators are a global network of more than 500 non-Google professionals, who are technical experts in Google Cloud products and services. Each Champion specializes in one of nine different technical categories: cloud AI/ML, data analytics, hybrid multi-cloud, modern architecture, security and networking, serverless app development, storage, Workspace and databases.

In our ongoing interview series we sit down with Champion Innovators across the world to learn more about their journeys, their technology focus, and what excites them.

Today we're talking to David Cardozo, a Machine Learning Scientist, Kubeflow Community member and ML GDE.

Headshot of David Cardozo, smiling

What tech area has you most fascinated right now, and why?

I love all the creative ways people are using Machine Learning (ML) to solve problems. There are a ton of cool applications that I see through my consulting work – counting cranberries from drone footage, tallying fish in fish farms, classifying plastics for recycling – and there's great stuff going on in both the public and private sector.

I'm also digging into the Kubeflow community right now, learning from that group. It's a melting pot of languages: Go, Python, etc. By participating in the working group and meetings I'm understanding so much more about current issues, blockers to progress, and get a deeper understanding of the technology itself. I love gaining that insight.

How do you like to learn new services, tools, and applications?

I read a lot: engineering blogs, books, documentation. Right now I'm learning system design from a variety of Google blogs, which helps me learn how to scale up the things I design. I'm also learning how to make ML models, and how to improve the ones I've deployed.

I'm passionate about contributing to the open source community and actively participate in various projects. Right now with friends in the community we developed Elegy – a high level API for Deep Learning in JAX.

Writing about a topic also helps me learn. Right now, I am working on blogs focused on Kubeflow pipelines in version 2.0 and Vertex AI in Google Cloud.

When I'm diving into a brand new technology I try to join the working groups that are furthering its development, so I get an inside look at how things are moving. Those working groups, their discussions and notes, teach me a ton. I also use the Google Cloud Forum and StackOverflow communities to deepen my knowledge.

What are some exciting projects you have in flight right now?

Getting to play with Generative AI within Vertex (on Google Cloud) has been very fun. I like hearing about what the other Innovators are making; it's a very smart, creative group with cool projects. Learning more about the cutting edge of ML is very exciting.

I'm doing a bit more with Open Source in my free time, trying to understand more around Kubernetes and Kubeflow.

What engages you outside of the technology world?

I stay active: swimming, lots of soccer. I also have been learning about option trading, testing out the waters of active investing. The complexity of those economic systems stimulates my curiosity. I really want to understand how it works, and how to make it useful.

My background is in the social sciences, I'm a bit of a frustrated historian. My interest in school was history, but my family said that I shouldn't focus on social science, so I majored in Math and Physics, but never finished my degree. Right now, after a few life and career pivots, I'm working on completing my Bachelor's through Coursera via the University of London, and earning a history degree requires a lot of reading. This has inspired me to make an AI project that summarizes the knowledge from very long documents, making history research more accessible by giving people a format that's easier to consume.

What brought you into the Innovators program?

I started as one of the Google Developer Experts, but I always wanted more opportunities to talk with Google engineers and get more feedback on the cloud architectures I was building, for myself or my clients. I also wanted to be more involved in the Cloud community.

When I see members of the community encountering challenges, struggling as I did, I feel the pull to help them. As a native Spanish speaker I wanted to make more content in Spanish for folks like myself. I didn't have a mentor as I was learning, and I'd like to fill that gap for others.

So I began organizing meetups in Latin America, and in Spanish speaking communities. I sought out more data scientists. And I went through Qwiklabs and Cloud Skills Boost to learn to improve my own skills.

After I joined the Innovators program, I've had the chance to play with new AI technologies, work more closely with Google experts and received credits for more Cloud experimentation.

What's one thing our readers should do next?

I recommend using some of the open, public teaching resources in Computer Science (CS), especially if you're like me and didn't focus on CS in school. For me, computers came very late to Colombia and I didn't have a chance to major in CS as a student, so I got into it via Math, then information security.

I also suggest taking a look at Elegy, and being involved in solving first issues, providing feedback and also some pull requests :)

I've liked Stanford's course on Neural Networks (CS 231n), as well as MIT's open courseware classes and ML videos on YouTube by Joel Grus.


Each Champion Innovator is not affiliated with Google nor do they offer services on behalf of Google.

What’s new for developers building solutions on Google Workspace – mid-year recap

Posted by Chanel Greco, Developer Advocate Google Workspace

Google Workspace offers tools for productivity and collaboration for the ways we work. It also offers a rich set of APIs, SDKs, and no-code/low-code tools to create apps and integrate workflows that integrate directly into the surfaces across Google Workspace.

Leading software makers like Atlassian, Asana, LumApps and Miro are building integrations with Google Workspace apps—like Google Docs, Meet, and Chat—to make it easier than ever to access data and act right in the tools relied on by more than 3 billion users and 9 million paying customers.

At I/O’23 we had some exciting announcements for new features that give developers more options when integrating apps with Google Workspace.


Third-party smart chips in Google Docs

We announced the opening up of smart chips functionality to our partners. Smart chips allow you to tag and see critical information to linked resources, such as projects, customer records, and more. This preview information provides users with context and critical information right in the flow of their work. These capabilities are now generally available to developers to build their own smart chips.

Some of our partners have built and launched integrations using this new smart chips functionality. For example, Figma is integrated into Docs with smart chips, allowing users to tag Figma projects which allows readers to hover over a Figma link in a doc to see a preview of the design project. Atlassian is leveraging smart chips so users can seamlessly access Jira issues and Confluence pages within Google Docs.

Tableau uses smart chips to show the user the Tableau Viz's name, last updated date, and a preview image. With the Miro smart chip solution users have an easy way to get context, request access and open a Miro board from any document. The Whimsical smart chip integration allows users to see up-to-date previews of their Whimsical boards.

Moving image showing functionality of Figma smart chips in Google docs, allowing users to tag and preview projects in docs.

Google Chat REST API and Chat apps

Developers and solution builders can use the Google Chat REST API to create Chat apps and automate workflows to send alerts, create spaces, and share critical data right in the flow of the conversation. For instance, LumApps is integrating with the Chat APIs to allow users to start conversations in Chat right from within the employee experience platform.

The Chat REST API is now generally available.

Using the Chat API and the Google Workspace UI-kit, developers can build Chat apps that bring information and workflows right into the conversation. Developers can also build low code Chat apps using AppSheet.

Moving image showing interactive Google Meet add-ons by partner Jira

There are already Chat apps available from partners like Atlassian’s Jira, Asana, PagerDuty and Zendesk. Jira for Google Chat to collaborate on projects, create issues, and update tickets – all without having to switch context.

Google Workspace UI-kit

We are continuing to evolve the Workspace UI-kit to provide a more seamless experience across Google Workspace surfaces with easy to use widgets and visual optimizations.

For example, there is a new date and time picker widget for Google Chat apps and there is the new two-column layout to optimize space and organize information.

Google Meet SDKs and APIs

There are exciting new capabilities which will soon be launched in preview for Google Meet.

For example, the Google Meet Live Sharing SDK allows for the building of new shared experiences for users on Android, iOS, and web. Developers will be able to synchronize media content across participant’s devices in real-time and offer shared content controls for everyone in the meeting.

The Google Meet Add-ons SDK enables developers to embed their app into Meet via an iframe, and choose between the main stage or the side panel. This integration can be published on the Google Workspace Marketplace for discoverability.

Partners such as Atlassian, Figma, Lucid Software, Miro and Polly.ai, are already building Meet add-ons, and we’re excited to see what apps and workflows developers will build into Meet’s highly-interactive surfaces.

Image of interactive Google Meet add-on by partner Miro

With the Google Meet APIs developers can add the power of Google Meet to their applications by pre-configuring and launching video calls right from their apps. Developers will also be able to pull data and artifacts such as attendance reporting, recordings, and transcripts to make them available for their users post-meeting.

Google Calendar API

The ability to programmatically read and write the working location from Calendar is now available in preview. In the second half of this year, we plan to make these two capabilities, along with the writing of sub-day working locations, generally available.

These new capabilities can be used for integrating with desk booking systems and coordinating in-offices days, to mention just a few use cases. This information will help organizations adapt their setup to meet the needs of hybrid work.

Google Workspace API Dashboard and APIs Explorer

Two new tools were released to assist developers: the Google Workspace API Dashboard and the APIs Explorer.

The API Dashboard is a unified way to access Google Workspace APIs through the Google Cloud Console—APIs for Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Chat, Slides, Calendar, and many more. From there, you now have a central location to manage all your Google Workspace APIs and view all of the aggregated metrics, quotas, credentials, and more for the APIs in use.

The APIs Explorer allows you to explore and test Google Workspace APIs without having to write any code. It's a great way to get familiar with the capabilities of the many Google Workspace APIs.

Apps Script

The eagerly awaited project history capability for Google Apps Script will soon be generally available. This feature allows users to view the list of versions created for the script, their content, and different changes between the selected version and the current version.

It was also announced that admins will be able to add an allowlist for URLs per domain to help safer access controls and control where their data can be sent externally.

The V8 runtime for Apps Script was launched back in 2020 and it enables developers to use modern JavaScript syntax and features. If you still have legacy scripts on the old Rhino runtime, now is the time to migrate them to V8.

AppSheet

We have been further improving AppSheet, our no-code solution builder, and announced multiple new features at I/O.

Later this year we will be launching Duet AI in AppSheet to make it easier than ever to create no-code apps for Google Workspace. Using a natural-language and conversational interface, users can build an app in AppSheet by simply describing their needs as a step-by-step conversation in chat.

Moving image of no-code app creation in AppSheet

The no-code Chat apps feature for AppSheet is generally available which can be used to quickly create Google Chat apps and publish them with 1-click.

AppSheet databases are also generally available. With this native database feature, you can organize data with structured columns and references directly in AppSheet.

Check out the Build a no-code app using the native AppSheet database and Add Chat to your AppSheet apps codelabs to get you started with these two new capabilities.

Google Workspace Marketplace

The Google Workspace Marketplace is where developers can distribute their Workspace integrations for users to find, install, and use. We launched the Intelligent Apps category which spotlights the AI-enabled apps developers build and helps users discover tools to work smarter and be more productive (eligibility criteria here).

Image of Intelligent Apps in Google Workspace

Start building today

If you want early access to the features in preview, sign up for the Developer Preview Program. Subscribe to the Google Workspace Developers YouTube channel for the latest news and video tutorials to kickstart your Workspace development journey.

We can’t wait to see what you will build on the Google Workspace platform.

Google Dev Library Letters: 21st Edition

Posted by Swathi Dharshna Subbaraj, Google Dev Library

In this newsletter, we highlight the best projects developed with Google technologies that have been contributed to the Google Dev Library platform. We hope this will spark some inspiration for your next project!

Highlights of the Month

In the past two months, we asked contributors to look back, revisit, and update their older Dev Library contributions as a best practice. Most contributors took the time to revise their content and incorporate recent releases. This campaign encourages developers to update their repositories with the latest Google technologies, which is advantageous to users and the broader developer community.

Here are some of the standout up-to-date projects:

  • Sheets Compose Dialogs by Maximilian Keppeler

See how an Android library that offers dialogs and views for various use cases - built with Jetpack Compose for Compose projects. All dialogs and views are easy and quick to implement. 

 

  • Round Corner Progress Bar by Somkiat Khitwongwattana

Progress Bar Animation
Use this extensive “Rounded Corner progress bar” library for your own Android projects. 

During the campaign, we noticed that some new projects were submitted. Here are some of the new projects from our contributors:

  • Android TV sample projects by Ademir Queiroga

Android TV Project
See some of the Android TV sample projects on the main topics around Android TV development, and the project follows Google's best practices with a few experience-based insights.  
 

  • Storage provisioning with Cloud SQL using Workload Identity by Fermin Blanco

Learn how to create a production ready GKE cluster in a matter of seconds. 

Android


Using Android’s new Credential Manager API by Priya Sindkar
 Dive into this blog on how Android's new Credential Manager API provides a seamless way for your app’s users to log in with one-click solutions.  

KStore by Isuru Rajapakse
 Learn how the tiny Kotlin multiplatform library that assists in saving and restoring objects to and from disk using kotlinx.coroutines, kotlinx.serialisation and okio.  

DevBricksX by Nan YE
Discover how DevBricksX is a remarkable remake and extended version of DevBricks, this project covers various aspects of daily development, from low-level database tasks to user interface design, as it eliminates the need for repetitive work.  

Dose app by Waseef Akhtar
 Learn how Dose, a reminder app for people to take their medications on time, was built using Kotlin and Jetpack Compose with MVVM + clean architecture.  

Compose_adaptive_scaffold by Thomas Künneth
 Explore how to write Jetpack Compose apps that support large screens and foldables.  

Cloud


Troubleshooting reachability with a Network Intelligence Center connectivity test by Gaurav Madan
 Learn how network troubleshooting processes become crucial when time is of the essence, and how to do so efficiently.  

From data chaos to data insights with Google Cloud and GitLab CI: A cutting-edge solution by Gursimar Singh
 Take a look at a streamlined, effective approach to acquire important insights from data and learn how to deal with the turmoil of manual data deployment and analysis easily.  

Machine Learning


Client-side in-decent content checking
 Discover a JavaScript library to help you quickly identify unseemly images; all in the client's browser.  

YoloV7 in Tensorflow.js by Hugo Zanini
 Learn object detection using Yolov7 in tensorflow.js, and how it’s trained on the MS COCO dataset to recognizes up to 80 different classes  

Flutter


Exploring Inherited Widget: The powerful state management solution by Muhammad Salman
 Take a deep dive into the backstory of state management in Flutter and explore one of the most important concepts in Flutter state management, the Inherited Widget.  

Control your Flutter app on the fly with Firebase Remote Config by Mangirdas Kazlauskas
Flutter Forward agenda app
Learn the overview of Firebase Remote Config and how to use it to enable real-time features in your Flutter application.  

The ultimate Flutter Navigator 2.0 series using AutoRoute by Cavin Macwan
 Explore the differences between Navigator 1.0 and 2.0 and why you need Navigator 2.0. You’ll also learn how you can implement Navigator 2.0 using the Auto Route package in Flutter.  

Angular


Papanasi (UI library) by Quique Fdez Guerra
 Learn to use this frontend UI library across frameworks.  

How to manage complex forms in Angular by Roland Tubongye Wabubindja
 See how to save and modify data from a form containing several FormArray.  

Community Updates


🚀 Announcing Google Maps Platform added to Dev Library
Progress Bar AnimationGoogle Maps platform in Dev Library

Google Maps Platform has now been officially added to the Dev Library! With these resources, developers can create applications that enable them to visualize geospatial data and build projects ranging from hyperlocal logistics to location-driven app development, and have access to even more resources to take their projects to the next level.

Dev Library contributors will be better able to write and create innovative and useful applications that utilize Google’s mapping, places, and routing data and features.

Visit the Google Maps Platform product page in Dev Library


Browse Dev Library | Google Developers Online on Discord | Newsletter Archives

Developers Share How They Built Their Careers: From Machine Learning to Cloud

Posted by Lyanne Alfaro, DevRel Program Manager, Google Developer Studio

Google Developer Student Club Alums Reflect On Their Journey To Google Developer Experts

Developer Journey is a monthly series highlighting diverse and global developers sharing relatable challenges, opportunities, and wins in their journey. Every month, we will spotlight developers around the world, the Google tools they leverage, and the kind of products they are building.

This month, we spoke with several Google Developer Experts to learn more about their path from being Google Developer Student Clubs leads to connoisseurs of their craft.

Suvaditya Mukherjee

Headshot of Suvaditya Mukherjee smiling
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Google Developer Expert, Machine Learning
Google Summer of Code Org Admin + ML Research Engineer Intern at Ivy
Research Intern at IIIT-Hyderabad

What are some key skills and knowledge you gained as a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead that helped you excel in your role as a Google Developer Expert?

Every day I spent as a lead was a learning experience, but what stood out to me was the holistic learning opportunities that the program brought. For example, as someone specializing in AI, I never found a need to learn Web Development until I had to help audit and create complex web apps for hosting competitions. Additionally, I learned how to absorb newer technical skills as quickly as possible, which proved to be incredibly valuable over time. I also learned the importance of soft skills, which helped me communicate better with my community. As an expert, it’s important to steward your community, and the leadership skills imparted by the program helped me build a deeper understanding of communication, logistics, and team-building.

What has been the impact of being part of the Google Developer Student Clubs community on your personal and professional growth?

As a Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSC) Lead, I benefited from participating in networking opportunities with like-minded folks and potential mentors who helped immensely in my journey. They helped shape my technical skills, and improve my soft skills. I also had the opportunity to speak in front of large crowds, develop content, manage teams, and closely understand what makes a community tick. As a GDE, it becomes important to have a pulse on the community's needs and requirements. The GDSC Program taught me how to measure these metrics at a grassroots level. I have had the privilege of working with the most skilled, dedicated, professional – and most importantly – humble folks as part of the GDSC Community. The program allowed me the privilege of communicating and building friendships with awesome people over time.

What Google tools have you used to build?

I have used quite a few Google tools in different projects and endeavors, including but not limited to Firebase, Flutter, and Android for hackathons. I have also made use of the Google Cloud Platform to develop and host scalable backend infrastructures during projects and internships in different places. But my most used tool is TensorFlow.

Which tool has been your favorite? Why?

As an ML Practitioner, TensorFlow and Keras have been a boon to simplify days of work into potentially hours or even minutes. The power it delivers to end-users in the most open and democratic way possible while constantly innovating for newer advances is something I have always appreciated. One of the biggest reasons I love Keras has to be the awesome community around it that welcomes everyone with open arms.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools.

I have hacked around a few projects over time. The most notable among them was an application I personally call TranscribeMate. Imagine you’re in an ongoing lecture and the professor is going quicker than usual, hindering your ability to take notes. TranscribeMate (built with Flutter, Firebase, and MLKit) allows you to use OCR technology to transcribe notes from simple photos of the classroom blackboard, allow newer annotations as a note-taking application, and save them for later use. This was an application I developed for a college course- but I ended up tweaking it a bit more and making use of it on my personal device as well for more general tasks too.

What will you create with Google Bard?

I have been using Bard for a while now; it has a permanent home on my browser. Bard helps me with random questions I have, and Python-related problems. Bard has helped me find solutions in seconds, compared to hours of work when done through traditional search methods. I have been using Bard's help on several projects I have been working on within my research, in projects at Ivy, and the Keras Team. Stay tuned for what comes next!

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

Seek new experiences to learn. No one can learn by working within a narrow niche. Having a working knowledge of different technologies at once allows you to have a diverse and multi-faceted approach to problem-solving. Optimizations in your systems become far more apparent, and you slowly end up learning how to write better code and design scalable systems with ease. Lastly, find a community. Find like-minded folks, talk to them, share notes on what you're building, and if you find yourself too shy to do so, then try anyway. Start by just showing up for one event near you. Then make it two. Then ask a question. The power of collaborative learning is immeasurable.

Veronica Putri Anggraini

Headshot of Veronica Putri Anggraini, smiling
Jakarta, Indonesia
Google Developer Expert, Android
GDSC Semarang State Polytechnic Lead Alumni (2017)
Google Developer Group
Women Techmakers Ambassador
Software Engineer Android, @ eWIDEPLUS

What are some key skills and knowledge you gained as a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead that helped you excel in your role as a Google Developer Expert?

Through GDSC, I learn a lot about Android technology, practice building Android projects, and do workshops for our members every week. This process improves my technical, writing, problem solving and public speaking skills at the same time. I started presenting as a student with a small group workshop of 5-10 people and grew to speaking in front of 1,000 people. This was also one of the necessary criteria to become a GDE.

Can you share some insights on the impact of being part of the Google Developer Student Clubs community on your personal and professional growth?

Exploring different resources while I was a student helped me develop sample app portfolios. I feel like I actually started my professional career as a curriculum developer and trainer for mobile development. I got an offer when I was a speaker at a tech event that discussed Android technology through the GDSC program. In fact, the CEO immediately offered the position after the event ended.

What Google tools have you used to build?

I have a lot of exploration with Jetpack Compose. I currently work closely with the CameraX, AndroidX Library, Google Analytics and Maps API.

Which tool has been your favorite? Why?

CameraX is one of my favorites, because it automatically manages camera resources and avoids unnecessary background work, so I got better performance.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools.

At my current company, we build a digital bank app product natively. This allows users to use Liveness as a verified onboarding process, QRPay, personalize promo campaigns, and other financial services that we build using Google tools.

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

Gain experience in dealing with issues in the stack that serve as a focus. Be consistent in learning, and don't give up easily when stuck. In other words, be the person that says: "Challenge Accepted".

You should know that learning together is more fun than learning alone, so join the community and learn everything you need and extend your network.

Anubhav Singh

Headshot of Anubhav Singh, smiling
Prayagraj, India
Google Developer Expert, Firebase
GDSC NSEC Kolkata Lead Alumni (2019-20)
GDG Cloud Kolkata Organizer & TFUG Kolkata Co-Organizer
Co-founder, Dynopii

What are some key skills and knowledge you gained as a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead that helped you excel in your role as a Google Developer Expert?

A major part of being a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead was to enable growth for those around me by learning together. I would often find myself guiding club members on various fronts – sometimes by taking knowledge-sharing sessions on technical topics, sometimes by diving deep into their projects’ code to help them overcome challenges they were facing and sometimes creating videos or written content for them to be able to follow along later.

Through partaking in these activities, I learned public speaking skills, mentoring, and how to be helpful to others experiencing roadblocks. These skills have proved important in my role as a Google Developer Expert.

What has been the impact of being part of the Google Developer Student Clubs community on your personal and professional growth?

Being a GDSC Lead helped me further steer teams with the same passion I have for building communities. As a GDSC Lead, you get to connect with a lot of amazing people. The community itself is highly diverse and vibrant. When I was organizing a workshop for the club during my time as a GDSC Lead, I was fortunate to meet two individuals who later became the co-founders of my startup. In that same club, three of our members became Google Developer Experts in the fields of their interest. Thus, being a GDSC Lead has had a very positive impact on both my professional and personal growth.

What Google tools have you used to build?

I’ve been working in the software development field for almost 12 years now and have used several Google tools over the years, including some that no longer exist. Some of the currently available tools that I most often work with are:

  1. Google Cloud Platform: Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Workflows, GKE, GCE, App Engine, Vertex AI and other AI based products, etc.
  2. Google Postmaster Tools, Search Console Tools, Analytics, Pagespeed Insights
  3. TensorFlow, Keras
  4. Google Maps API
  5. Firebase
  6. reCaptcha

Which tool has been your favorite? Why?

Firebase, hands down. As someone who loves building solutions that are useful to people, Firebase has been my go-to tool for prototyping solutions and MVPs rapidly. I’ve used it to build some simple tools which have been used by thousands of people over the years - all hosted for free and delivered with blazing speed! Even today, during my sessions as a GDE, I always use Firebase to build the UI part of the demo applications I present during the talk.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools.

I built Fireshort - a URL shortener solution running purely on Firebase. This project is completely open source and has been used by several companies as a base for their in-house URL shortening needs. I’ve been working on the next version of this project at Linkborg.

I’ve also built several real-time updating monitoring products using Firebase and Pub/Sub, mostly for enterprise clients.

As a proof of concept, I also built KolPay, which is a completely event-driven clone of EasyCard - RFID based payment wallet using Firebase, Pub/Sub, Cloud Firestore and Cloud Functions, along with hardware components like Raspberry Pi, RFID Reader/Card.

What will you create with Google Bard?

Building with Google Bard is an exciting prospect. It will be fun to no longer have to write the repetitive parts of code which I need whenever I am setting up a new project or a module within an existing project. Since I spend a lot of my day coding, I will be very happy to automate parts of it and having an AI do that would be amazing!

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

Starting a developer journey can be a daunting prospect - everyone’s talking about AI and everyone wants to build the next viral thing. If you are new to this field, step back, relax and start building a solution to any problem that has irked you for a long time. While you’re at it - read a lot of tech blogs about solving that problem, become a part of developer communities, either virtual or in person, and meet people who will share their insights about building similar products.

Kartik Derasari

Headshot of Kartik Derasari, smiling
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud
GDSC Silver Oak University Lead Alumni (2020-2021)
Google Developers Group Cloud Organizer
Full-Stack Engineer at Persistent

What are some key skills and knowledge you gained as a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead that helped you excel in your role as a Google Developer Expert?

As a GDSC Lead, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with Googlers, Google Developer Experts, and Google Developer Groups Community Leads on various projects which helped me explore different technologies and choose what’s best for me. Knowledge sharing and public speaking is what I learned from the Google Developer Experts. Since then, I started my journey as a Technical Speaker where I share my learnings on Machine Learning & TensorFlow, Web, Firebase, and Google Cloud. I also had the opportunity to share my learnings across conferences like DevFest, Google Cloud Community Days, and GDSC WOW. These are some of the learnings that really helped me shape as a Google Developer Expert and excel in my journey.

Can you share some insights on the impact of being part of the Google Developer Student Clubs community on your personal and professional growth?

Being a GDSC Lead created a positive impact in my personal and professional journey. I came in touch with the tech community and I learned about Google Developer Groups & Google Developer Experts programs. I started volunteering for the GDG Cloud Ahmedabad chapter during my GDSC tenure and later I became one of the Community Organizers. I also started collaborating with Google Developer Experts on Web, Firebase, and Machine Learning projects and made some open-source contributions.

Everyone from the community was so welcoming and helpful. I’d highly recommend everyone join these developer programs by Google and get the best out of it. I also received mentorship from GDG Community Leads and Google Developer Experts for my professional career. They helped me connect with the right set of people and guided me to kick-start my professional career with MediaAgility, which is part of the Google Cloud Partner ecosystem. Since then, I have been working on Web & Google Cloud in my professional capacity and in my personal capacity as well.

I was motivated by the Google Cloud ecosystem in India and I cleared six Google Cloud Certifications, which created a huge impact in my personal and professional growth.

What Google tools have you used to build?

I started using Firebase as a Web Engineer. It has been very helpful when it comes to adding Authentication, storing application data in Firestore, and hosting web-app front-end static files over a CDN using Firebase Hosting. While building a set of web apps, I started exploring Machine Learning and used TensorFlow for building ML models for different use cases. Since then, I started using Google Cloud ML APIs and Cloud Functions for adding more functionalities to my web apps.

While working on these projects, I came across the Google Cloud Partner ecosystem and joined MediaAgility (now part of Persistent Systems) as a Full-Stack Engineer. Since then, I have been working on Google Cloud with Google Cloud PSO and enterprise customers.

Which tool has been your favorite? Why?

Cloud Run is something that I really like as an Application Developer. Since it’s a serverless compute platform, I can spend more time on building my application rather than worrying about my infrastructure. Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, and Cloud Storage are also tools that I really love. They help me create full-stack apps and ship faster to production.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools. What will you create with Google Bard?

Since we’re in the wave of Generative AI right now, I have been working on building a number of apps using Google Cloud Run, BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Generative AI studio, Model Garden on Vertex AI and PaLM models. Recently, I built a chat application interface which provides insights from structured enterprise data warehouse and unstructured files, along with enterprise-grade data governance and security.

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

Be a consistent learner and a persistent explorer. It’s great to cultivate a learning habit, which will help you all the way in your personal and professional journey. This will not only help you explore new things, but it will also help you master something that you really love to do. As a beginner, it would be good to start with something that you find interesting, and then you can add a flavor of other things. For example, if you find building web apps interesting, try it. When you think you’re good at it, you can add a flavor of Machine Learning to it. That’s how you explore new things and experiment with what you know.

Register for Google Cloud Next ‘23 and get some sweet perks

Posted by Brian Hall, Vice President, Product and Industry Marketing, Google Cloud & Max Saltonstall, Developer Relations Engineer Google Cloud Next is coming to San Francisco, August 29-31, 2023

Developers - it’s finally here . . . the Google Cloud Next ‘23 session library is live!

So many awesome sessions to choose from, it's tough!

Of course we start with the big story of the year, the thing on everyone's (everything's?) mind: AI!

Machine learning and AI

Check out "5 practical considerations for adopting AI" to get started or "Build your organization’s future on Google AI and machine learning infrastructure" for teams that are looking to expand into cross-functional AI-powered innovation.

Building modern apps

Sometimes you've got an awesome idea, and you are looking for a way to speed up getting it to market. We can help. Attend "Building fast, scalable and reliable apps with Firebase and Cloud Run" to learn about serverless, accessible and language-agnostic tools to enable higher cloud velocity. Or come to "Build your first event driven app in less than 5 minutes" and walk away with a reference app for your own event-driven architecture use later on.

Lots of folks take a measured approach to public cloud adoption, especially with how rapidly technology is changing. This is especially true in corporate IT, where change can be tough. Check out "The future of modern enterprise applications with GKE" to learn more about moving your company's apps and workflows to the cloud.

Data insights and analytics

We're all drowning in data these days, and cloud offers many (MANY!) tools to help. Learn where you can get a handle on your data, analytics and insights with "What's next for Data and AI?" and then point your data engineering teams to "What's new with BigQuery" for the latest advances.

Cloud migrations

If you are looking at how you secure your own migration to cloud-based apps and services, make sure you attend "What’s new in cloud-first CI/CD" to get up to speed on Cloud Build, Artifact Registry, Cloud Deploy and more. These interconnected tools can accelerate development, help with segmentation of roles and responsibilities, and allow for zero to worldwide scale with very little operational overhead.

Industry Solutions

For developers building apps for specific industries, we've got a wide variety of sessions from Retail to Games to Public Sector to Manufacturing. Come learn from customers about AI applications in automation and personalization in "From vision to practice: AI applications in financial services" and take advantage of the latest tools. Or you could dive into the latest craze with "Media’s AI frontier: Navigating the future of entertainment” and start to answer the question we've all been asking: was this blog written by a person or an AI?

Amazing experts

There are sessions for every flavor of developer, architect, designer and operator, and so many opportunities to engage with experts from industry. So join us at Google Cloud Next to learn about key topics from speakers like Gerrit Kazmaier, Dave Nettleton, Keelin McDonnell, Donna Schit, and more.

And that's not all! You can find a series of training workshops available for all skill levels, and a dedicated learning and certification booth to help you on your way to your new cloudy career and skilling journey. Plus we've got a set of lightning talks to give you bite-sized chunks of knowledge across every cloud topic.

Oh no, I'm out of time and I haven't even gotten to the return of Drone Racing League at Next. Guess you'll just have to come and find out. See you there!

Register for Google Cloud Next ‘23 now: August 29-31 in San Francisco.

Google I/O 2023 recap: Updates across mobile, web, AI, and cloud

Posted by Jeanine Banks, VP & General Manager of Developer X & Head of Developer Relations

Thank you for another great Google I/O! We’re continuing to make deep investments across AI, mobile, web, and the cloud to make your life easier as a developer. Today you saw many of the ways we’re using generative AI to improve our products. We’re excited about the opportunities these tools can unlock and to see what you build. From simplifying your end to end workflows to improving productivity, catch up on key announcements below.


AI

Making it possible for everyone to build AI-powered products in the most productive and responsible way.

PaLM API and MakerSuite
Build generative AI applications with access to Google’s state-of-the-art large language model through the PaLM API. Quickly create and prototype prompts directly in your browser with MakerSuite — no machine learning expertise or coding required. 
Firebase AI extensions
Developers can now access the PaLM API with Firebase Extensions. The new Chatbot with PaLM API extension allows you to add a chat interface for continuous dialog, text summarization, and more.
MediaPipe Studio and solutions
MediaPipe is an open source cross-platform framework for building machine learning solutions on mobile, desktop, and the web. You can try nine new solutions, like a face landmarker, running locally on-device in the browser with MediaPipe Studio. 
Tools across your workflow
From datasets and pre-trained models with Kaggle to easy-to-use modular libraries for computer vision and natural language processing with KerasCV and KerasNLP, we’re proud to power end-to-end experiences with a diverse set of tools across your workflow.


Mobile

Increase productivity with the power of AI, build for a multi-device world, and do more faster with Modern Android Development.

Studio Bot
We’re introducing Studio Bot, an AI-powered conversational experience in Android Studio which makes you more productive. This is an early experiment that helps you write and debug code, and answers your Android development questions.
Going big on Android foldables & tablets
With two new Android devices coming from Pixel - the Pixel Fold and the Pixel Tablet, Google and our partners are all in on large screens; it's a great time to invest, with improved tools and guidance like the new Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet emulator configurations in Android Studio Hedgehog Canary 3, expanded Material design updates, and inspiration for gaming and creativity apps.
Wear OS: Watch faces, Wear OS 4, & Tiles animations
Wear OS active devices have grown 5x since launching Wear OS 3, so there’s more reason to build a great app experience for the wrist. To help you on your way, we announced the new Watch Face Format, a new declarative XML format built in partnership with Samsung to help you bring your great idea to the watch face market.
Modern Android Development
Several updates to Jetpack Compose make it easier to build rich UIs across more surfaces like Compose for TV in alpha and screen widgets with Glance, now in beta. Meanwhile, the new features in Android Studio help you stay productive, including added functionality in App Quality Insights and more.
Flutter 3.10
Tap into Impeller for enhanced graphics performance. The latest version of Flutter now includes a JNI bridge to Jetpack libraries written in Kotlin, enabling you to call a new Jetpack library directly from Dart without needing an external plugin.
Geospatial Creator
Easily design and publish AR content with the new Geospatial Creator powered by ARCore and 3D maps from Google Maps Platform. Geospatial Creator is available in Unity or Adobe Aero.
 

Web

Experience a more powerful and open web, made easier and AI-ready.

WebAssembly (aka WASM) - managed memory language support
WASM now supports Kotlin and Dart, extending its benefit of reaching new customers on the web with native performance while reusing existing code, to Android and Flutter developers.
WebGPU
This newly available API unlocks the power of GPU hardware and makes the web AI-ready. Save money, increase speed, and build privacy-preserving AI features with access to on device computing power.
Support for web frameworks
Chrome DevTools has improved debugging for various frameworks. Firebase Hosting is also expanding experimental support to Nuxt, Flutter, and many more. Angular v16, includes better server side rendering, hydration, Signals, and more. Last, Flutter 3.10 reduces load time for web apps and integrates with existing web components.
Baseline
We introduced Baseline, a stable and predictable view of the web, alongside browser vendors in the W3C and framework providers. Baseline captures an evergreen set of cross-browser features and will be updated every year.
 

Cloud

New generative AI cloud capabilities open the door for developers with all different skill levels to build enterprise-ready applications.

Duet AI
Duet AI is a new generative AI-powered interface that acts as your expert pair programmer, providing assistance within Cloud Workstations, Cloud Console, and Chat. It will also allow you to call Google trained models and custom code models, trained directly on your code.
Vertex AI
Vertex AI lets you tune, customize, and deploy foundation models with simple prompts, no ML expertise required. Now you can access foundational models like Imagen 2, our text-to-image foundation model, with enterprise-grade security and governance controls.
Text Embeddings API
This new API endpoint lets developers build recommendation engines, classifiers, question-answering systems, similarity matching, and other sophisticated applications based on semantic understanding of text or images.
Workspace additions
New Chat APIs in Google Workspace will help you build apps that provide link previews and let users create or update records, generally available in the coming weeks. And coming to Preview this summer, new Google Meet APIs and two new SDKs will enable Google Meet and its data capabilities in your apps.
 

And that’s a wrap

These are just a few highlights of a number of new tools and technologies we announced today to help developers more easily harness the power of AI, and to more easily create applications for a variety of form factors and platforms. And we’re not done yet. Visit the Google I/O website to find over 200 sessions and other learning material, and connect with Googlers and fellow developers in I/O Adventure Chat.

We’re also excited to come to you with four Google I/O Connect events, which will bring Google experts and developers together for hands-on demos, code labs, office hours, and more. In addition, you can join one of the more than 250 I/O Extended meetups taking place across the globe over the next few months. We can’t wait to see what you will build next!

Get ready for Google I/O

Posted by Timothy Jordan, Director, Developer Relations & Open Source

I/O is just a few days away and we couldn’t be more excited to share the latest updates across Google’s developer products, solutions, and technologies. From keynotes to technical sessions and hands-on workshops, these announcements aim to help you build smarter and ship faster.

Here are some helpful tips to maximize your experience online.


Start building your personal I/O agenda

Starting now, you can save the Google and developer keynotes to your calendar and explore the program to preview content. Here are just a few noteworthy examples of what you’ll find this year:

What's new in Android
Get the latest news in Android development: Android 14, form factors, Jetpack + Compose libraries, Android Studio, and performance.
What’s new in Web
Explore new features and APIs that became stable across browsers on the Web Platform this year.
What’s new in Generative AI
Discover a new suite of tools that make it easy for developers to leverage and build on top of Google's large language models.
What’s new in Google Cloud
Learn how Google Cloud and generative AI will help you develop faster and more efficiently.

For the best experience, create or connect a developer profile and start saving content to My I/O to build your personal agenda. With over 200 sessions and other learning material, there’s a lot to cover, so we hope this will help you get organized.

This year we’ve introduced development focus filters to help you navigate content faster across mobile, web, AI, and cloud technologies. You can also peruse content by topic, type, or experience level so you can find what you’re interested in, faster.


Connect with the community

After the keynotes, you can talk to Google experts and other developers online in I/O Adventure chat. Here you can ask questions about new releases and learn best practices from the global developer community.

If you’re craving community now, visit the Community page to meet people with similar interests in your area or find a watch party to attend.

We hope these updates are useful, and we can’t wait to connect online in May!