Coming soon: new Google Meet Hardware devices

What’s changing

We just announced some new and exciting additions to the Google Meet hardware portfolio for the office or home office.


First, we’re announcing two new all-in-one video conferencing devices to complement our Series One Rooms Kits:
  • New Series One Desk 27 is a premium all-in-one touchscreen Google Meet collaboration device.
Series One Desk 27
Series One Desk 27

  • New Series One Board 65 is an all-in-one 65” 4K video conferencing device that can be paired with an optional stand for ultimate configuration flexibility—turning any room or space into a video collaboration hub in minutes. It also features the Jamboard app built in for easy collaboration with colleagues in the room or remotely.


Series One Board 65
Series One Board 65


We’re also proud to announce new third-party devices coming to the Google Meet hardware ecosystem. Google has certified the Logitech Rally Bar Mini and Rally Bar for Google Meet, which provide complete room solutions for small and mid-sized rooms. Both products will be available in October.

Additionally, Appcessori is launching a new mobile device speaker dock, Rayz Rally Pro, that will automatically launch Google Meet for video meetings and provide an enhanced audio experience from mobile devices. Rayz Rally Pro is also the first product in our “Designed for Google Meet” program, which identifies peripherals designed by partners specifically for and to work with Google Meet. Rayz Rally Pro supports both Android and iOS and is now available.


New third-party devices certified for Google Meet

Who’s impacted
Admins and end users

Why you’d use them
Hybrid working requires more immersive, interactive video-enabled devices to make meetings more inclusive for both in-office and remote workers.

The Series One Desk 27 is perfect for small, shared spaces or your desktop, either in the office or at home. Desk 27 is your personal video conferencing and team collaboration device.

The Series One Board 65 is a meeting solution that gives everyone an equal seat at the table. Now everyone can see, hear, collaborate and participate as if they were in the room. Ideal for team collaboration in small and medium rooms, Board 65 can be wall-mounted or configured with an optional stand for greater mobility.

Additional details

Series One devices:
Both Series One Desk 27 and Board 65 feature collaboration capabilities to help you capture ideas with the Jamboard app built right in.

Optimized for Google Meet, Desk 27 and Board 65 can also be used with any conferencing service through a single USB-C cable from your laptop. Use the conferencing app of your choice on your laptop and enjoy the high fidelity audio and high definition video of the Desk 27 and Board 65. Desk 27 will be available towards the end of the year, and Board 65 will be available at the end of Q1 2022.

New third-party devices certified for Google Meet:
The Logitech Rally Bar Mini and Rally Bar for Google Meet provide complete room solutions for small and mid-sized rooms. Certified Google Meet hardware ensures high-quality video and audio in meetings and are easy to deploy and manage. You can learn more about Google Meet-certified products in Logitech’s September 21 webinar. You can also view our full Google Meet device portfolio and purchase directly from approved resellers by visiting the Google Meet Hardware website.

Getting started

  • Admins: Contact Avocor for more information on pre-ordering the Series One devices. Contact Logitech for more information on their Google Meet-certified devices.

Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Nonprofits, and Education Plus customers.
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Frontline, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.

Resources

 

Google Chat ‘Rooms’ are now ‘Spaces’

Quick launch summary 

In June 2021, we announced that ‘Rooms’ in Google Chat would evolve to become ‘Spaces’. As part of that evolution, starting on September 8, 2021, any user who has enabled Chat in their Gmail settings will start to see the term ‘Rooms’ automatically updated to ‘Spaces’. 

Over the coming months, spaces will be enhanced with a number of new features such as in-line topic threading, discoverable spaces, and enhanced user roles and moderation. Read more about the upcoming spaces experience. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

Roadmap 

Accelerated Kotlin build times with Kotlin Symbol Processing 1.0

Posted by Ting-Yuan Huang, Software Engineer and Jiaxiang Chen, Software Engineer

Accelerated Kotlin build times with Kotlin Symbol Processing 1.0 image

Kotlin Symbol Processing (KSP), our new tool for building lightweight compiler plugins in Kotlin, is now stable! KSP offers similar functionality to the Kotlin Annotation Processing Tool (KAPT), however it’s up to 2x faster, offers direct access to Kotlin language constructs, and offers support for multiplatform targets.

Over the past few months, KSP has gone through 32 releases with over 162 bugs reported from the community and fixed by our team. If you were waiting to adopt it, now is the time to check it out.

Why we built KSP

On the Android team, we regularly ask developers: what are your biggest frustrations with writing apps today? One of the top issues that comes up repeatedly is build speed. Over the years we’ve been making steady improvements to the Android build toolchain, and today we’re excited to add to those improvements with KSP. KSP is the next generation of annotation processing in Kotlin: it will dramatically improve build speed for Kotlin developers, and unlike KAPT, it offers support for Kotlin/Native and Kotlin/JS.

Why is KSP faster?

The Kotlin Annotation Processing Tool (KAPT) works with Java’s annotation processing infrastructure to make most Java language annotation processors work in Kotlin out of the box. To do this, KAPT compiles Kotlin code into Java stubs that retain information that Java annotation processors care about. Creating these stubs is costly though, and means the compiler must resolve all the symbols in your program multiple times (once to generate stubs, and then again to do the actual compilation).

KSP moves away from the stub generation model by working as a Kotlin compiler plugin — it allows annotation processors to read and analyze source programs and resources directly in Kotlin instead of requiring you to depend on the Java annotation processing infrastructure. This both dramatically improves build speed (up to 2x faster for Room's Kotlin test app) and means that KSP can be used for non-Android and non-JVM environments like Kotlin/Native and Kotlin/JS.

How to get started

To start using KSP, download the KSP playground project from GitHub, which shows how to use KSP both as an annotation processor and as a consuming app/library:

  • Annotation processor: A toy test-processor library that implements the builder pattern as a KSP processor
  • Consuming library: A workload directory that shows how to use the builder processor in a real-world Kotlin project

If you’re an app developer, check out the list of supported libraries and the quickstart guide for moving a module over from KAPT to KSP.

Using Moshi or Room with KSP

If you’re using Moshi or Room in your project, you can already try out KSP by making a quick fix to your module’s build file. For example, to use the KSP version of Room in a Gradle module you can simply replace the KAPT plugin with KSP and swap out the KSP dependency: 

apply plugin: 'com.google.devtools.ksp'

dependencies {
  ...
  implementation "androidx.room:room-runtime:$room_version"
  kapt "androidx.room:room-compiler:$room_version"
  ksp "androidx.room:room-compiler:$room_version"

}

Check out the Room release notes for more info.

Conclusion

With the 1.0 release of KSP you will start to see improved build times for your Kotlin projects as you migrate away from libraries based on KAPT. We have also updated a number of Android specific libraries which are ready for you to try today and offer significant performance improvements.

Chromebook keeps important files at your fingertips

We’ve all taken a screenshot, only to have it disappear in a sea of icons on our desktop. Or downloaded a file to a computer…and struggled to find it again. And it can be hard to stay on task when you have to dig to find the document you need.

That’s why earlier this year, we introduced Tote – a holding area on your Chromebook shelf that keeps your important files right at your fingertips. Since we launched Tote, we’ve made it even better, with updates like access to files you’ve scanned, diagnostic reports, saved PDFs and more.

Here are a few tips to keep yourself organized and productive with Tote:

Pin important files for quick access

When you open Tote from your Chromebook’s shelf, you’ll find recent screenshots and downloads – files most people will want access to right away. If you want to keep a specific file handy indefinitely, click to “pin” it to Tote. 

If you’re working on a project for a few weeks and know you’ll want to add the same logo across several presentations, spreadsheets and emails – just pin it. When you need the logo, drag and drop it from Tote into your document. It’s much faster than searching through your files every time. Plus, you can select and share multiple files from Tote at once.

Pin as many files as you’d like, and once you’re done with them, you can un-pin or remove them from Tote altogether with a right-click.

A zoomed in look at Tote, which has several files pinned, including a Logo, a zip file, and a GIF.

 In Tote, you can pin files that you want to access frequently and easily.

Easily accessible (and shareable) screenshots

Tote also integrates well with other Chromebook features, like Screen Capture, to help you use your content right away. After taking a screenshot you can drag and drop straight from Tote, or find it saved in your clipboard alongside the last five items you copied. By pressing Everything Button + V you can paste the screenshot into a document or message – no dragging required.

Or if you need to make edits or annotations to your screenshot, just open it from Tote and get started. Any changes you make will be saved to the screenshot in Tote, so you can add more edits later if needed.


Automatically save scans 

Now when you use the Scan app to scan and save files to your Chromebook, they will also appear in Tote under “Downloads.” Our team likes to use the scanning tool to digitize old family recipes or upload a new lease agreement. Now that scanned files go directly to Tote, it’s even easier to open  or share them right away.

Along with new scans, other Chromebook downloads like the results of a Diagnostics test or downloads from an app will also save to Tote. 

A zoomed in look at Tote, with a file called “Lease_Agreement.pdf” in the “Downloads” section.

Now scanned files and reports from the Diagnostic App on Chromebook will automatically appear in Tote, under “Downloads.”

Shortcut to downloads

Tote was designed to keep your most recent files – the ones you’re most likely to use – easy to find and use. But if you need to find an older download, like a receipt or budget tracker from last week, Tote can help with that, too. 

The arrow next to “Downloads” in Tote is a shortcut to the Files app. With a click, the downloads section of the Files app will open, and you can scroll until you spot your lost budget tracker. To keep it on hand, right-click and select “pin to shelf” or drag it to the Tote icon on your shelf.

A GIF that shows a user right clicking on a spreadsheet and saving it to Tote.

From the Files app, right click or drag a file to Tote to pin it.

See Tote contents at a glance

Tote is built right into your Chromebook shelf, so you have easy access to your files when you need them, and it’s not in the way when you don’t.  On your shelf you’ll also notice up to three circles showing a preview of any recently added screenshots or downloads, so you have a visual reminder of what content is in Tote without needing to open it. If you want to get rid of the preview circles on your shelf, right-click on them and opt to hide previews.

Later this year, we’re also adding your file’s download status in both the shelf preview and in Tote. With a quick look you’ll be able to see how close your file is to being ready.

In Tote, two files are in progress downloading, one video and one spreadsheet.

 Soon you’ll be able to see download status for files in Tote.

Keep an eye out as we continue to add even more helpful productivity tools to Chromebooks. 

Using Saliency in progressive JPEG XL images

At Google, we are working towards improving the web experience for users. Getting images delivered fast is a crucial part of the web experience and progressive images can help getting the salient parts, detected by machine learning, first. When you look at an image, you don’t immediately look at the entire image, but tend to gaze at the most interesting, or “salient”, parts of the image first. When delivering images over the web, it is now possible to organize the data in such a way that the most salient parts arrive first. Ideally you don’t even notice that some less salient parts have not yet arrived, because by the time you look at those parts they have already arrived and rendered.

We will explain how this works with the new open source image format JPEG XL, but we’ll start by taking a step back and describing how images are currently delivered and rendered on the web.

How partial images are displayed on the web

It’s important that web sites including images load quickly, because waiting for images to load causes frustration. Two techniques in particular are used to make images appear fast: One is showing an approximation of the image before all bytes of the image are transmitted, often known as “progressive image loading.” Another is making the byte size of the image smaller by using strong image compression.

What is progressive image loading?

Some image formats are implemented in a way that does not allow any kind of progressive image loading; all the bytes of the image have to be received before rendering can begin. The next, most simple, type of image loading is sometimes called “sequential image loading.” For these images, the data is organized in a way that pixels come in a particular order, typically in rows and from top to bottom.

Formats with this kind of image loading include PNG, webp, and JPEG. The JPEG format allows more sophisticated forms of progressive images. Here, we can organize the data so that it comes in multiple scans, with each scan showing more detail than the previous one.

For example, even if only approximately 15% of the data for an image is loaded, it often already has decent results. See the following images comparing no progression:

100% of bytes loaded, original image
100% of bytes loaded, original image

15% of bytes loaded, no progressive image loading
15% of bytes loaded, no progressive image loading

15% of bytes loaded, sequential image loading
15% of bytes loaded, sequential image loading

100% of bytes loaded, original image
15% of bytes loaded, progressive JPEG

In the first scan, the progressive JPEG only has a small amount of information available for the image, (e.g. only the average color of 8x8 blocks). Known as the DC-only scan, because the average color of each 8x8 block is called DC-component in the discrete cosine transform, it is the basis of JPEG image compression. Check out this computerphile video on JPEG DCT for a basic introduction. Instead of displaying an image that consists of 8x8 blocks, JPEG rendering in Chrome and Firefox choose to render the preview with some smoothing, to provide a less distracting experience.

Progressive JPEG XLs

While the quality (and therefore byte-sizes) of the individual scans in a progressive JPEG image can be controlled, the order within a scan is still top to bottom, like in a sequential JPEG. JPEG XL goes beyond that by making it possible to send the data necessary to display all details of the most salient parts first, followed by the less salient parts. For example, in a portrait, we can decide to first send the bytes for the face, and then, for the out-of-focus background.

In general, progressive JPEG XL works in the following way:
  • There is always an 8x8 downsampled image available (similar to a DC-only scan in a progressive JPEG). The decoder can display that with a nice upsampling, which gives the impression of a smoothed version of the image.
  • The image is divided into square groups (typically of size 256 x 256) and it is possible to provide an order of these groups during encoding. In particular, we can order the groups by saliency and choose an order that anticipates where the viewer might look first, while not being disturbing.
While the format allows for a very flexible order of the groups, our current encoder chooses a starting group and then grows concentric squares around that group. This is because we expect that this will be less distracting to the user. To make successive updates even less noticeable, we smooth the boundary between groups for which all the data has arrived and those that still contain an incomplete approximation. One requirement of this technique is a good way of identifying where the salient parts of an image are, which is needed when encoding an image. This information is typically represented by a saliency map which can be visualized as a heatmap image, where the more salient parts are redder.

Original image next to saliency map image
Original image.                                                                                                             Saliency map.

Smooth DC-image next to image with group border
Smooth DC-image.                                                                                                  Image with group order.

Stay tuned for videos showing progressive JPEG XL in action.

How to find good saliency maps for images

Saliency prediction models (overview) aim at predicting which regions in an image will attract human attention. To predict saliency effectively, our model leverages the power of deep neural nets to consider both high level semantic signals like face, objects, shapes etc., as well as low or medium level signals like color, intensity, texture, and so on. The model is trained on a large scale public gaze/saliency data set, to make sure the predicted saliency best mimics human gaze/fixation behaviour on each image. The model takes an image as the input and output a saliency map, which can serve as a visual importance map, and hence help determine the decoding order for each region in the image. Example images and their predicted saliency are as follows:

Example images and their predicted saliency

At the time of writing (July 2021), Chrome and Firefox did not yet support decoding JPEG XL image progressively in the way we describe, but the spec does allow encoding arbitrary group orders.

Different users have different experiences when it comes to looking at images loading on the web.We hope that this way of progressively delivering images will improve user experience especially on lower-bandwidth connections.

By Moritz Firsching and Junfeng He – Google Research

Using Saliency in progressive JPEG XL images

At Google, we are working towards improving the web experience for users. Getting images delivered fast is a crucial part of the web experience and progressive images can help getting the salient parts, detected by machine learning, first. When you look at an image, you don’t immediately look at the entire image, but tend to gaze at the most interesting, or “salient”, parts of the image first. When delivering images over the web, it is now possible to organize the data in such a way that the most salient parts arrive first. Ideally you don’t even notice that some less salient parts have not yet arrived, because by the time you look at those parts they have already arrived and rendered.

We will explain how this works with the new open source image format JPEG XL, but we’ll start by taking a step back and describing how images are currently delivered and rendered on the web.

How partial images are displayed on the web

It’s important that web sites including images load quickly, because waiting for images to load causes frustration. Two techniques in particular are used to make images appear fast: One is showing an approximation of the image before all bytes of the image are transmitted, often known as “progressive image loading.” Another is making the byte size of the image smaller by using strong image compression.

What is progressive image loading?

Some image formats are implemented in a way that does not allow any kind of progressive image loading; all the bytes of the image have to be received before rendering can begin. The next, most simple, type of image loading is sometimes called “sequential image loading.” For these images, the data is organized in a way that pixels come in a particular order, typically in rows and from top to bottom.

Formats with this kind of image loading include PNG, webp, and JPEG. The JPEG format allows more sophisticated forms of progressive images. Here, we can organize the data so that it comes in multiple scans, with each scan showing more detail than the previous one.

For example, even if only approximately 15% of the data for an image is loaded, it often already has decent results. See the following images comparing no progression:

100% of bytes loaded, original image
100% of bytes loaded, original image

15% of bytes loaded, no progressive image loading
15% of bytes loaded, no progressive image loading

15% of bytes loaded, sequential image loading
15% of bytes loaded, sequential image loading

100% of bytes loaded, original image
15% of bytes loaded, progressive JPEG

In the first scan, the progressive JPEG only has a small amount of information available for the image, (e.g. only the average color of 8x8 blocks). Known as the DC-only scan, because the average color of each 8x8 block is called DC-component in the discrete cosine transform, it is the basis of JPEG image compression. Check out this computerphile video on JPEG DCT for a basic introduction. Instead of displaying an image that consists of 8x8 blocks, JPEG rendering in Chrome and Firefox choose to render the preview with some smoothing, to provide a less distracting experience.

Progressive JPEG XLs

While the quality (and therefore byte-sizes) of the individual scans in a progressive JPEG image can be controlled, the order within a scan is still top to bottom, like in a sequential JPEG. JPEG XL goes beyond that by making it possible to send the data necessary to display all details of the most salient parts first, followed by the less salient parts. For example, in a portrait, we can decide to first send the bytes for the face, and then, for the out-of-focus background.

In general, progressive JPEG XL works in the following way:
  • There is always an 8x8 downsampled image available (similar to a DC-only scan in a progressive JPEG). The decoder can display that with a nice upsampling, which gives the impression of a smoothed version of the image.
  • The image is divided into square groups (typically of size 256 x 256) and it is possible to provide an order of these groups during encoding. In particular, we can order the groups by saliency and choose an order that anticipates where the viewer might look first, while not being disturbing.
While the format allows for a very flexible order of the groups, our current encoder chooses a starting group and then grows concentric squares around that group. This is because we expect that this will be less distracting to the user. To make successive updates even less noticeable, we smooth the boundary between groups for which all the data has arrived and those that still contain an incomplete approximation. One requirement of this technique is a good way of identifying where the salient parts of an image are, which is needed when encoding an image. This information is typically represented by a saliency map which can be visualized as a heatmap image, where the more salient parts are redder.

Original image next to saliency map image
Original image.                                                                                                             Saliency map.

Smooth DC-image next to image with group border
Smooth DC-image.                                                                                                  Image with group order.

Stay tuned for videos showing progressive JPEG XL in action.

How to find good saliency maps for images

Saliency prediction models (overview) aim at predicting which regions in an image will attract human attention. To predict saliency effectively, our model leverages the power of deep neural nets to consider both high level semantic signals like face, objects, shapes etc., as well as low or medium level signals like color, intensity, texture, and so on. The model is trained on a large scale public gaze/saliency data set, to make sure the predicted saliency best mimics human gaze/fixation behaviour on each image. The model takes an image as the input and output a saliency map, which can serve as a visual importance map, and hence help determine the decoding order for each region in the image. Example images and their predicted saliency are as follows:

Example images and their predicted saliency

At the time of writing (July 2021), Chrome and Firefox did not yet support decoding JPEG XL image progressively in the way we describe, but the spec does allow encoding arbitrary group orders.

Different users have different experiences when it comes to looking at images loading on the web.We hope that this way of progressively delivering images will improve user experience especially on lower-bandwidth connections.

By Moritz Firsching and Junfeng He – Google Research

Music, memories and mental health: An homage to Avicii

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the life and legacy of Swedish DJ, record producer and songwriter Tim Bergling — also known by his stage name, Avicii — on what would have been his 32nd birthday. From producing hit songs that topped international charts to headlining festivals around the world, Tim will forever be remembered as one of the pioneers and most influential visionaries of electronic dance music.

In 2018, Tim passed away at 28-years-old from suicide after struggling with mental health issues. In his memory, Tim’s father Klas and his mother Anki started a foundation to raise awareness and address the stigma of mental health among young people — Tim Bergling Foundation. 

To remember Tim on this day as well as learn more about mental health, we talked to Tim’s father Klas Bergling.


Tell us about Tim in your own words — how do you remember him? 

Klas: Tim was a kind and open person, full of energy, stubbornness and integrity. He had a special set of attributes, and if you watched the documentary about his life, I think you can also tell he wasn’t really built for fame in the way he was exposed to it. 

Despite his success and fame, he remained humble and treated people with kindness and equal respect. 

Was there a moment when you understood how musically talented he was? 

Klas: When Tim was about 10-years-old, he sang the Swedish national anthem at full capacity. He really lived in the moment when doing that, and it was times like this I initially understood there was something special there. 

Being part of a generation that didn’t grow up with house music, I used to view it as a monotonous, repetitive beat. When I started taking power walks back in the early days of Tim’s career, listening to his music, I realized what beautiful melodies were captured within the songs. It was an “aha moment” —  this is really music — and I started needing it to get me going. Tim produced more melodic songs over the years, with “Bromance” being one of the big eye-openers to his talent for me personally.

Were there any moments you were especially proud of Tim during his career? 

Klas: Tim was such a special person, I was always proud of him for just being the person he was. In terms of his musical accomplishments, I will never forget when he played in a park called Strömparterren in Stockholm in the early days of his career. He’d told me explicitly to not come — maybe because it wasn’t very cool to have your father around at that age — but I went anyway and hid behind a tree. It was a great evening and I remember feeling surprised, amazed and very proud. When I came to find him backstage afterwards, he was so glad I came. 

An especially proud moment was also when Tim played in Globen Arena, today named Avicii Arena in effort to bring more attention to mental health, and I decided to sit completely by myself to take in the experience, as well as when the whole family went to watch him play at the festival “Summerburst” at Stockholm Olympic Stadium. He performed brilliantly at both shows — they were such great evenings.

A photography showing Klas holding Tim as a wrong child.



After Tim passed away, you and your wife Anki started the Tim Bergling Foundation. Can you tell us about this work? 

Klas:After Tim’s suicide, a lot of people reached out to us. Some who were in similar situations, but also a lot of fans who’d been following him throughout the years. Many people told us that Tim and his songs meant a lot to them and they felt like they knew him, which I think they did in a sense.

The scale of mental health issues among young people is staggering. Tim was always interested in psychology and spirituality, and we wanted to honor him by doing what we could to help others. That’s how we brought the Tim Bergling Foundation to life, with the goal of contributing to young people’s mental health, lowering the rate of suicide among young people as well as removing the stigma around it. It’s not something you can do on your own, you need to cooperate broadly, and that’s what we try to do. We’re interested in bringing music into the picture as well, and have started working with organizations to spark young people's creativity by giving them better access to creating and remixing music of their own. 

What advice would you give to someone who has a friend or family member experiencing anxiety, depression or mental illness? 

Klas: It’s not always easy, not least due to the stigma around these topics; it can be hard to talk about. But that’s what we need to do — talk about it. Simple things like asking questions can go a long way in helping someone heal. And if you see someone moving in the wrong direction, you should encourage or help them seek support. 

I also think it’s very important for companies to get more engaged in these conversations and enable their employees to talk more openly about mental health. 

People everywhere grieved Tim’s passing and celebrated his legacy — what has that been like for your family? 

Klas: It’s given us great support in our sorrow and grief, a privilege we understand few in the same situation experience. You’ll always feel alone in a sense, but the love we’ve received from all around the world has meant a lot. I truly believe the small things — a smile, a short note — mean so much to people who are grieving. It can be hard to know what to do, and you often feel like whatever you do it’s not enough, but a few words often go a long way. 

Is there a song of Tim’s that has a special meaning to you?

Klas:I always come back to the song “Bromance.” The song stands for so much that Tim was, and sends a message of friendship, which was always important to Tim. 

Check out the highlights from the Indie Games Festival

Every year Google Play, hosts the Indie Games Festival, a competition that rewards high quality indie games with promotional opportunities and supports small mobile games developers. We also host the Indie Games Accelerator, an educational and mentorship program to help high potential studios grow their business. 

Last weekend, some of the best indie game creators from Europe, South Korea and Japan, as well as players from around the world, got together at the Festival’s finals. At this interactive virtual event, players had the chance to discover these creative games, meet the people who made them and had a lot of fun exploring, collecting swag and cheering on their favorites. 

We also revealed the Top 10 finalists and Festival winners in each region, as well as the studios  selected to join the Indie Games Accelerator class of 2021.

Without further ado, here are the winners!

Indie Games Festival Winners 

Europe

Indie Games Festival - Winners | Europe. The 3 winning games have a graphic from their game featured on this banner. Blobby is seen with a party popper that is shooting out paper streamers in celebration of the winners.

Bird Alone by George Batchelor, United Kingdom
Cats in Time by Pine Studio, Croatia
Gumslinger by Itatake, Sweden


Korea

Indie Games Festival - Winners | South Korea. The 3 winning games have a graphic from their game featured on this banner. Blobby is seen with a party popper that is shooting out paper streamers in celebration of the winners.

CATS & SOUP by HIDEA
Rush Hour Rally by Soen Games
The Way Home by CONCODE

Users’ Choice aware: Animal Doll Shop by Funnyeve


Japan

Indie Games Festival - Winners | Japan. The 3 winning games have a graphic from their game featured on this banner. Blobby is seen with a party popper that is shooting out paper streamers in celebration of the winners.

Mousebusters by Odencat
Quantum Transport by ruccho
Survivor's guilt by aso
Student Category Award: Japanese Train Drive Simulator 2 "OneMan2" by HAKOT

Also check out the top 10 finalists in Europe, South Korea and Japan.


Indie Games Accelerator Class of 2021

Americas 

  • Aoca Game Lab, Brazil

  • Berimbau Game Studio, Brazil

  • Boomware Studio, Peru

  • Concrete Software, USA

  • Delotech Games, Brazil

  • DreamCraft Entertainment, Inc., USA

  • Ingames, Argentina

  • Ludare Games Group Inc., Canada

  • Whitethorn Games, USA

Europe, Middle East & Africa

  • Cleverside Ltd, Belarus

  • Dali Games, Poland

  • Firegecko Ltd, United Kingdom

  • Hot Siberians, Russia

  • Infinity Games, Portugal

  • Itatake, Sweden

  • Jimjum Studios, Israel

  • LIVA Interactive, Tunisia 

  • Pale Blue Interactive, South Africa

  • Pine Studio, Croatia

  • Platonic Games, Spain

  • SMOKOKO LTD, Bulgaria

  • Spooky House Studios, Germany

Asia Pacific

  • Banjiha Games, South Korea

  • CATS BY STUDIO, South Korea

  • dc1ab pte. Ltd., Singapore

  • Dreams & Co., Thailand

  • Gamestacy Entertainment, India

  • izzle Inc., South  Korea

  • Limin Development and Investment Joint Stock Company, Vietnam 

  • Mugshot Games Pty Ltd,  Australia

  • Odencat Inc., Japan

  • Playbae, India

  • Xigma Games, India

  • XOGAMES Inc., South Korea

  • YOMI Studio, Vietnam


Thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to the selected games and studios. Stay tuned for more updates on @GooglePlayDev.

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Get ready for #IamRemarkable Week with 5 remarkable stories

Most of us are taught we shouldn’t brag about our achievements — but is it bragging if you’re  stating facts? Judging from the looks of surprise I get when asking people to list their accomplishments, the answer to this question is often “yes.” But it shouldn’t be.

In 2016, I launched #IamRemarkable together with a colleague of mine. It is a global movement that empowers women and underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.  Our 90-minute workshop helps participants learn to acknowledge, share and celebrate what makes them remarkable. 

To date, over 250,000 people from more than 150 countries have participated in an #IamRemarkable workshop with the help of 8,000 facilitators. And last year, over 30,000 participants took part in the first-ever #IamRemarkable Week: a digital experience celebrating diversity, inclusion and allyship.
Recap video of last year's #IamRemarkable Week.
10:25

Ahead of this year’s #IamRemarkable Week, running September 8-15 2021, we asked five of last year’s participants to share their highlights. 

Headshot of Erica Falkingham

Erica Falkingham - UK Sales Senior Sourcing Recruiter, Salesforce and #IamRemarkable facilitator 

I first learned about #IamRemarkable in 2019 and was instantly hooked. Finally, I could name the feelings I’d always had around imposter syndrome and gender modesty. Working in recruitment, I advocate for others on a daily basis, but I’m still working on doing the same for myself. During last year’s #IamRemarkable week, I learned that everyone — from public speakers to thought leaders —  struggled with self promotion. 

At Salesforce, we brought #IamRemarkable in-house to drive employee empowerment and allyship, and  we’ve seen incredible growth. We now have more than 100 internal facilitators, whose workshops have been attended by more than 4,000 employees across 16 countries.

Video of Salesforce case study based on #IamRemarkable workshops.
10:25
Headshot of Debo Harris

Debo Harris - Strategic Advisor, TheConfidenceVault.com and #IamRemarkable facilitator  

Women, Black women in particular, were among those hardest hit by the pandemic. It’s been an immensely challenging time for many of the women I know. While working from home has benefits, it also reduces  in-person opportunities for  self promotion. I wanted to help women feel less isolated and more confident when they returned to work once restrictions lifted, so I signed up to be a facilitator during 2020’s #IamRemarkable Week.

During my workshops, I asked participants to read “It’s NOT bragging if it’s based on facts!” out loud, three times in a row. Their voices became stronger and clearer each time. One participant smiled and said how good it felt. Seeing this impact was an amazing, humbling experience.

Headshot of Pedro Pina

Pedro Pina - VP, Head of YouTube Europe, Middle East and Africa 

Every leader should play an active role in building the culture where they work, and #IamRemarkable helps them do that by encouraging people to find their voice, inner strength and confidence. 

At Google, it’s helped us build stronger relationships with our partners. We share our learnings with them and they do the same in return, helping us all build richer company cultures where everyone belongs. 

Last year’s #IamRemarkable Week was an incredible experience for me. It’s not often people from around the world gather online to celebrate each other’s super powers. It makes you feel unstoppable. 

Headshot of Koro Castellano headshotSagar Kewalramani - Customer Engineer at Google and #IamRemarkable Week volunteer Sometimes I’ve felt like I have a lot on my plate, dealing with work and life responsibilities. I’ve wondered why I’ve had to sacrifice so much while others have it easier. But last year’s #IamRemarkable Week was an eye-opening experience for me. Learning about other people’s journeys and struggles really helped me overcome my own imposter syndrome and made me believe in myself and my ability to make a difference. This year, I’m looking forward to learning more about icons like Ibtihaj Muhammad, who overcame childhood obstacles, and Guneet Monga, who went into debt on her way to becoming an Oscar-winning producer in India.

Koro Castellano — Director of Prime Video for Amazon in Spain

During last year’s #IamRemarkable Week, I participated in a panel to talk about how I first fell in love with the initiative, how we ramped it up at Amazon and the positive impact it had on hundreds of colleagues. For me, it’s not so much about the individual as it is about how we can all help and support others. The incredible energy and passion around #IamRemarkable is what makes it so powerful, it has helped us confirm that we can do remarkable things together. 

In honor of this year’s #IamRemarkable Week, we put together an exciting program at Amazon, including discussion panels, career talks and daily exercises to help employees grow their self promotion skills. 

Headshot of Sagar Kewalramani

Sagar Kewalramani - Customer Engineer at Google and #IamRemarkable Week volunteer

Sometimes I’ve felt like I have a lot on my plate, dealing with work and life responsibilities. I’ve wondered why I’ve had to sacrifice so much while others have it easier. But last year’s #IamRemarkable Week was an eye-opening experience for me. Learning about other people’s journeys and struggles really helped me overcome my own imposter syndrome and made me believe in myself and my ability to make a difference. 

This year, I’m looking forward to learning more about icons like Ibtihaj Muhammad, who overcame childhood obstacles, and Guneet Monga, who went into debt on her way to becoming an Oscar-winning producer in India. 

#IamRemarkable Week 2021 is September 8-15, 2021. The agenda is jam-packed with empowering talks, thought-provoking panels, daily exercises and online workshops offered in multiple languages. You can sign up for one of the more than 10 talks from  influential thinkers, creators and business leaders — including Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, Luvvie Ayaji Jones and Dr. Rola Hallam — brought to you in cooperation with Talks at Google.

Empowering more women entrepreneurs in India

Despite the many strides in diversity and inclusion efforts in different industries in India and the world, we remain at some distance from true and proportionate representation of women in the workforce - be it in leadership, entrepreneurship or otherwise. 


This is a gap that we, at Google, are committed to closing through various efforts within Google and beyond, across all the communities we support. Our ongoing efforts to support women entrepreneurs are one of these.


2020 has brought back a sharp focus on health-tech and two founders selected from India for Women Founders Academy - Zealth-AI’s Monika Mehta and BrainSightAI’s Laina Emmanuel - are both tackling different challenges within healthcare. 


The Women Founders Academy, which is a twelve week program, offers the founders training to sharpen their leadership skills, build strong teams and address their unique growth needs. They will take part in workshops, connect with a community of Google advisors, venture capitalists and business executives and receive mentoring from dedicated subject matter experts. This year’s Women Founders come from 5 countries in Asia Pacific – India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Singapore. 


Getting to know the Indian women founders in the latest cohort:


In March 2019, Monika lost a close family member to an illness. The tragedy made her realize that our healthcare system relies heavily on patients being able to appreciate the severity of symptoms and taking swift action when necessary. Monika started Zealth-AI in July 2020 with the goal of creating a digital hospital-at-home solution that ensures timely interventions and better outcomes. 


In another part of the country, Laina’s BrainSightAI is building a neuroinformatics platform that uses technology to help answer questions about neuro-oncological and neuro-psychiatric disorders.


Laina says she has always been driven by complicated problems, conceptual thinking and like Monika, the dream of making a real impact. The work on operating system development and international health issues such as reducing maternal mortality has been a great way to combine Laina’s passions. She’s committed to continuing her hard work to make BrainSightAI a sustainable vehicle for change for more people. 


Along with Laina, Monika is inspired by the opportunity to connect with fellow women entrepreneurs and learning from a diverse pool of peers, mentors and experts through the Women Founders Academy program.


Posted by Team Google for Startups, India