Google wants to put Android on everything. Android is available for phones and tablets, Android Wear for smartwatches and Android Auto for your car. Well now Google is launching the newest version of Android today called Android Things which wants to will rule over all your home connected devices including speakers, routers and so on.
Google has released a Developer Preview of Android Things – thus inviting developers to build loT products using the power of Android. The new initiative creates a safe work frame in order to allow devs to create smart devices using Android APIs and Google the company-based services.
Naturally, Google itself will be delivering the updates to the OS, including patches, bug fixes and new feature additions.
Do you remember Brillo? It’s the company’s previous attempt at building an loT OS which has now been re-branded to Android Things. The expertise acquired by Google as it worked on Brillo, is now put to good used, while mixing in other tools such as Android Studio, the Android SDK, Google Play Services and Google Cloud Platform.
On top of that, Google says it’s taking steps to update the Weave platform in order to make it easier for all type of devices to tap into cloud and interact with the various Google services. We’re reminded Philips Hue and Samsung SmartThings are already taking advantage of Weave, but other important manufacturers as Belkin WeMo, LiFX, Honeywell, Wink, TP-Link and First Alert are also looking to implement it.
Additionally, Google invites you to start building things using supported hardware development kits like Intel Edison, NXP Pico and Raspberry Pi 3.
A few years ago, the industry was hotly discussing loT and its endless possibilities, but since then it seems enthusiasm has weaned. Hopefully the advent of Android Things will bring it back, because loT continues to be a very interesting niche that needs to be explored.
