Author Archives: Molly

15 milestones, moments and more for Google Docs’ 15th birthday

In 2005, an easy-to-use, online word processor called Writely launched. A year later, the collaborative writing tool became part of Google, and over time it evolved into Google Docs. Officially launched to the world in 2006, Google Docs is a core part of Google Workspace. It’s also, as of today, 15 years old. But it wasn’t always so obvious how useful — and loved — Docs would become.

Jen Mazzon was part of the original Docs team, or the Google Writely Team as it was then called. “Everyone told us it was crazy to try and give people a way to access their documents from anywhere — not to mention share documents instantly, or collaborate online within their browser,” she wrote in a March 2006 blog post. “But that's exactly what we did.”

As a much-deserved gift to Docs, here are 15 things about Google Docs that we’re celebrating — from important moments to tips and tricks, there’s a lot to love.

  1. In 2010, Docs got its first big update, adding things like the ability to see others editing and writing in shared documents and better importing features.
  2. Internally, the Docs team has breakfast-themed names for the widgets you see when you edit in Docs. For instance, the yellow messages up at the top are called "butter," and the dialogs that pop out from the bottom right corner are called "toasts" because they pop out of a corner just like toast popping out from an upright toaster. The red error message at the top? That's “ketchup.”
  3. When COVID-19 sent students and educators home, we shared ways they could make use of features like offline Docs and real-time commenting to keep learning and collaboration going remotely.
  4. Lizzo and Sad13 used Google Docs to write music together, and they let us in on their creative process.
  5. There was that time when none other than the Reading Rainbow team designed a book report template for Docs, which you can still use today.
  6. Laura Mae Martin, Google’s Chief Productivity Advisor, always knows the best ways to get the most out of Docs. She shares her tips and tricks regularly on her YouTube channel.
  7. In 2018, the Docs team came up with an Easter egg: Typing #blackhistorymonth into a Doc would trigger Explore in your doc, with information about Black history and the Black community.
Animated GIF of a Google Doc with the words "#blackhistorymonth" on the page. The Explore panel then pops out to surface more information about Black history.

8. Here’s a tip: If you click the “+” icon on the right-hand side panel of the page, you’ll find add-ons — from there, select the hamburger menu (the three lines) and check out Editor’s Choice or Top charts for helpful recommendations.

Screenshot of the right side panel of a Google Doc showing the plus sign icon.

9. Over the years, Docs has became a crucial creative asset for writers of all kinds. Author Viviana Rivero even uses Google Docs to tell stories that people read in real time, as she writes.

10. The Google Workspace team has thought a lot about how to make the most of its tools for hybrid work, including Docs. Learn more in the Google Workspace Guide to Productivity and Wellbeing, which includes tips about how you can make the best use of your time working from home — while also making time for yourself.

11. This past May, the Google Workspace team launched smart canvas — which, among other things, lets you @ mention people in Docs, add checklists and use templates. Soon you’ll also start to see Docs suggesting more inclusive language as you write and edit.

Image showing a screenshot of a Google Doc with an open Doc that says "document review" at the top. A dialog pop up hovers over part of the page with inclusive language suggestions.

12. Thanks to new features like Smart compose and Smart reply — made possible by machine learning and artificial intelligence — Docs has become a stronger collaboration tool for the more than three billion users who rely on Google Workspace.

13. Anyone who’s ever worked on a group Doc knows the upper right-hand corner can sometimes populate with Anonymous Animals — so in 2019, we partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness about animals we hope don’t become anonymous.

14. We saw the New York Times share how its staff turned to Google Docs during the pandemic to keep journalists and readers connected. They’ve used Docs to celebrate everyday victories, discover music and recommend movies. As a result of COVID-19 and quarantine, we also saw people use Docs to create virtual escape rooms and organize mutual aid efforts.

15. Over here on the Keyword team, we’re big Docs users: Everything you read on this very blog starts in a Doc — including our weekly newsletter, which we launched last year. And fittingly, this very post.

Happy birthday, Google Docs; we literally couldn’t do it without you.

5 things I learned from Google’s productivity expert

I’ve primarily worked remotely for the better part of the last decade, but when the pandemic sent everyone else home from the office, I struggled. Even though I was extremely familiar with working from home, I wasn’t used to spending all my free time at home, too. Like people everywhere, staying productive when the home became the office, and the gym, and the dog daycare, and the everything else was challenging. 

Headshot of Laura Mae Martin looking into the camera and smiling.

Google’s Executive Productivity Advisor Laura Mae Martin

Fortunately, I knew there was someone who could help me. Laura Mae Martin is Google’s Executive Productivity Advisor, and over the years, she’s been offering Googlers advice on how to stay productive, even when our surroundings make it difficult. Her guidance has been an incredible resource — and now it’s available for everyone. “The Google Workspace guide to productivity and wellbeing” is a downloadable, free ebook that shares tons of Laura’s best tips and ideas for making the most of your time. As a bit of a preview, here are five things I learned from the guide that I’ve found most helpful: 

  1. Pinpointing my peak times:One tip from Laura is to figure out when you work best. “Make a list of the times throughout the day and week when you feel most energized and focused,” she writes. These are “peak times,” and likely when you’re going to be the most productive. 

  2. Don’t fight that Friday feeling:There’s a reason Friday afternoons can feel like they’re dragging on. In her guide, Laura advises that you don’t try to overplan the end of the week. “Fridays can be a great window for returning emails or planning the next week,” she says.

  3. Check in even if you can’t respond: Getting through email is one of the most daunting tasks of any job, and everyone’s experienced the pile-up problem. One tip from Laura  is to respond to emails that require your input within 24 hours — even if it’s just to say “I can’t get to this right now, but I will by the end of the week.”

  4. Sometimes, less time is more: According to Parkinson’s Law, “work expands to the allotted time,” meaning if you put 30 minutes on the calendar for a meeting, you and your colleagues will feel like you have to use all of that time even if you’re done within 20 minutes. Laura’s advice: Put shorter amounts of time on the calendar. 

  5. Welcome the “whitespace”:We spend a lot of our time at work getting things done, or “closing loops” as Laura puts it. But it’s important to make time to just think and brainstorm, to come up with new ideas. One way you can make that happen is by putting blocks on your calendar for dedicated time to do exactly that. 

That’s just a tiny sample of everything I learned from Laura. The guide has so many ways you can maximize your time at work (so you can maximize your time not at work) plus how you can use Google Workspace to put these ideas into practice.  You can download it now.  

Related Article

Make “work from home” work for you

Productivity expert Laura Mae Martin shares her tips for working from home.

Read Article

Komal Singh wants kids to see themselves in her books

In 2018, Komal Singh published “Ara the Star Engineer,” a children’s book about a little girl who becomes interested in coding. Komal, an engineering program manager at Google, wanted to give girls an example of what they could be. Since then, she’s been exploring ways technology can make books more diverse for kids. “I set up my own team and I was pitching my ideas,” she says. “It was like setting up a little startup of my own. And while I was going through this process of building and pitching and scaling, I realized, whoa — we should write a book about this!” 

Related Article

Engineers are girls: the Googler behind “Ara the Star Engineer”

A Q&A with Komal Singh, a Googler who created Ara the Star Engineer.

Read Article

Enter “Ara the Dream Innovator,” a new book published by PageTwo Books, illustrated by Ipek Konak and authored by Komal. The latest in the series finds Ara coming up with her own innovation, and trying to make sure it’s inclusive “FTW” (which stands for “for the world”). Of course, Komal had plenty of real-life experience to serve as inspiration. 

Video introducing Ara from "Ara the Dream Innovator."
10:25

Were you interested in tech at all when you were little? 

I grew up in India in the ‘80s, and my father was an engineer. He would use everyday things to instill curiosity in us. If we were sitting under a fan he would ask, “How many rotations a minute do you think the fan is doing?” That’s what got me interested in the sciences. I really liked logic and coding, which is what eventually drew me to computer science. 


Do you find yourself having similar conversations with your kids?

Yes! I have two kids, a 7-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son, and I try to find opportunities to make them curious about science and the world around them.I’ll ask them “if you could fill your lunch box with atoms, how many would fit in there?” Or I’ll ask if they want to come up with an algorithm for getting ready for school.


What have you been working on since your first book?

Both books were inspired by my own experiences. So with the first book, it was something my daughter said — that she thought only men were engineers because that’s what she saw — that triggered it. After publishing the first book, I wanted to see how I could take storytelling to bigger heights with the help of technology, so I set up a 20 Percent Project, which is when Google invites employees to spend 20% of their working hours on passion-related assignments aligned with some of their work goals.

Our team used AI models to morph popular characters in media to look like underrepresented children, so these kids could see themselves represented in books. For instance, we found that AI models didn’t recognize photos of children with alopecia, because they hadn’t been trained on that dataset. We don’t want kids to be left behind and not see themselves reflected in children’s literature. This technology could better represent the whole spectrum of people, and hopefully one day it could be used to broaden characters in children’s movies and books.

Four images of children with blurred faces are in a row; one has alopecia, one has green hair, one has a head scarf, and one has dark curly hair. Below them are animated characters that look like them. The words “AI prototype: Personalizable Protagonist” are at the top of the image.

Komal’s 20 percent team is using AI to make characters that all kids can see themselves in.

The process of taking ideas and turning them into reality inspired the second book. Not only what it’s like to build something from an idea, but also about making sure your innovations are inclusive and equitable. 


What does Ara build?

She builds a “dream decoder,” which captures your dreams, because that’s when she has all her best ideas. She then founds a startup with her droid DeeDee to make sure the dream decoder works for all kinds of children around the world, like children who have disabilities or children from different ethnic backgrounds. 


What does your daughter think of the new book?

She loves how Ara builds a team of her own and tries to make her team diverse — she likes that idea of having all sorts of people on a team. She’s fascinated by that. 


Do we meet any new characters?

We meet some real-life women founders! A big focus is to diversify characters so young BIPOC readers can see themselves represented. And one cool thing is, and this was unintentional, one of them is Maayan Ziv, the founder of an accessibility focused tech startup — and she happens to be in the current Google for Startups class.
  • Five images of different versions of the Indigenous character in the book showing how it evolved.

    Komal and Ipek turned to an Indigenous Googler for help getting the illustration of their Indigenous character right.

  • Illustration of the Super Solvers group; there are six characters, starting with Ara. One wears a backpack, the other headphones, another uses a wheelchair, there is the Indigenous character, another carries a skateboard.

    The diverse Super Solvers squad.

  • Four illustrated characters of the options for angel investors in a row.

    Angel Investor character study — the “Ara” team asked “what could a non-traditional angel investor look like?”

There are also Ara’s friends, the Super Solvers, a really diverse group. It was enlightening creating our Indigenous Super Solver; we really wanted to get her right. Neither the illustrator or I are Indigenous, so I reached out to an Indigenous Googler, and she was so helpful. Looking at the first version, she was like “this looks like if a Westerner designed it.” And rightly so! That was such a check of our bias.


What’s the hardest part of writing a book?

The second book was easier because I had a path, but the expectations were much higher! But it was really my conviction that such books need to exist, that children need to have these books, that pushed me. I read somewhere that inspiration is a prerequisite to learning, and these books are not about teaching children to code or launch a startup — they’re about teaching them they can code, they can launch a company. 


Do you know what’s next for Ara?

My new role in responsible AI for Media is influencing the next book: I want to explain AI to children and parents and families in a way they understand, and also the importance of tackling bias in AI so we can make sure AI systems are fair.

A crossword puzzle with a big purpose

Before the pandemic, Alicia Chang was working on a new project. “I was experimenting with non-traditional ways to help teach Googlers the AI Principles,” she says. Alicia is a technical writer on the Engineering Education team focused on designing learning experiences to help Googlers learn about our AI Principles and how to apply them in their own work.

The challenge for Alicia would be how many people she needed to educate. “There are so many people spread over different locations, time zones, countries!” But when the world started working from home, she was inspired by the various workarounds people were using to connect virtually. 

A photo of Alicia Chang sitting on a bench outside. She is looking into the camera and smiling.

Alicia Chang

“I started testing out activities like haiku-writing contests and online trivia,” Alicia says. “Then one day a friend mentioned an online escape room activity someone had arranged for a COVID-safe birthday gathering. Something really clicked with me when she mentioned that, and I started to think about designing an immersive learning experience.” Alicia decided to research how some of the most creative, dedicated people deliver information: She looked at what teachers were doing. 

Alicia soon stumbled upon a YouTube video about using Google Sheets to create a crossword puzzle, so she decided to make her own — and Googlers loved it. Since the crossword was such a success, Alicia decided to make more interactive games. She used Google Forms to create a fun “Which AI Principle are you?” quiz, and Google Docs to make a word search. Then there’s the Emoji Challenge, where players have to figure out which AI Principles a set of emoji describe. All of this became part of what is now known as the Responsible Innovation Challenge, a set of various puzzle activities built with Google products — including Forms, Sheets, Docs and Sites — that focus on teaching Google’s AI Principles.

Animated GIF showing the crossword puzzle in a Google Sheets form.

Try Alicia's crossword out for yourself.

The purpose of the Responsible Innovation Challenge is to introduce Google’s AI Principles to new technical hires in onboarding courses, and to help Googlers put the AI Principles into practice in everyday product development situations. The first few puzzles are fairly simple and help players remember and recall the Principles, which serve as a practical framework for responsible innovation. As Googlers start leveling up, the puzzles get a bit more complex.. There’s even a bonus level where Googlers are asked to think about various technical resources and tools they can use to develop AI responsibly by applying them in their existing workflow when creating a machine learning model.

Alicia added a points system and a leaderboard with digital badges — and even included prizes. “I noticed that people were motivated by some friendly competition. Googlers really got involved and referred their coworkers to play, too,” she says. “We had over 1,000 enroll in the first 30 days alone!” To date, more than 2,800 Googlers have participated from across 41 countries, and people continue to sign up. 

It’s been encouraging for Alicia to see how much Googlers are enjoying the puzzles, especially when screen time burnout is all too real. Most importantly, though, she’s thrilled that more people are learning about Google’s AI Principles. “Each of the billions of people who use Google products has a unique story and life experience,” Alicia says. “And that’s what we want to think about so we can make the best products for individual people.” 

Why this engineer says you only need to be 80% ready

When she was a student at the University of Colorado, Bhavna Chhabra was invited to be a research assistant on a project — and it ended up changing her life. “I was supposed to go back to India and get married,” says Bhavna. “I wasn’t going to pursue computer science.” But the professor who asked her to participate in the project had shown her an article about Arati Prabhakar, who’d recently been appointed the head of NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). 

“This completely changed my mindset. She was originally from Delhi, India, my hometown, and that spoke to me. I saw myself in her. Twenty-five years later, here I am.” (Fun fact: That professor? His name is Mike Schwartz, and he’s also a Googler.) Bhavna, who’s an engineering director, is always happy to share her story — and here are three important lessons she learned.


The most challenging times can lead to the best things. 

In 2010, Bhavna was diagnosed with cancer. “I had no idea how I would fight this thing while continuing to show up as a mother,” she says. “I had two kids at the time, ages 6 and 8.” Bhavna tackled her frustration with the situation by giving herself the gift of trying new things. “My kids and I decided to learn to ski, climb and backpack,” she says. “We did it all!” Not only did Bhavna beat cancer, but she was promoted at the company where she worked at the time a year after her diagnosis — and her kids say it brought them closer as a family. 


Share your passion. 

In addition to mentoring women at Google who work all over the world, Bhavna also helps guide women in her community. “I use my megaphone in my public role as the overall manager of the Google Boulder office to reach out to women and girls at Colorado universities and high schools, participating in panels, speaking in small groups and classrooms and mentoring,” she says. Bhavna hopes that by sharing her non-traditional journey to Google, other women will consider pursuing STEM careers, too. 


Don’t wait until you’re “ready.” 

Something Bhavna’s learned is that there’s no such thing as the perfect time. “Just dive in when you think you are 80% ready,” she says. “And chances are, you’ll succeed.” Earlier in her career, Bhavna tried to plan things five or even 10 years in the future — but that rigid structure didn’t work. “Over time, I’ve learned to think about roles I want and be open to opportunities that arise that could help me get to that end goal.” 

How leading Google One is like solving a puzzle

When office life became video call life in 2020, people around the world experienced the drain of remote meetings. Larissa Fontaine might be the one exception. “Video calls can be hard because you’re just moving from one thing to the next...but I also get a lot of energy from them,” she says with a smile. “I realized I actually like jumping from topic to topic.” Holding up her notebook, she admits one caveat: “But I have to write things down! Otherwise I won’t retain it all.” 

By “it all,” Larissa means the many product teams she meets with every day. Larissa is the vice president of Google One, a subscription service that includes cloud storage and extra benefits to give users peace of mind, such as automatic phone backup, enhanced security features, family sharing…the list goes on. This role requires her to act as something of a puzzle master, making sure everything works together just right, so that different departments, partners and ultimately — most importantly — customers get what they need. Luckily, she’s up to the task. “I enjoy problem-solving,” she says. “I find it really invigorating.”


How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

I say I work on Google One, which is a subscription that gives you more storage and premium features across different Google products — basically, a membership to help you get more out of Google. I work with Googlers across different areas like engineering, marketing and design to figure out how to make Google One even more valuable for our members. 


What are the most challenging and most rewarding parts of your job?

They’re the same thing: partnering with so many different teams and products across the entire company. It can be complicated trying to solve for the needs of that many product areas. At the same time, when teams come together and find a great solution, it’s exciting. I am always impressed with the creativity and collaboration required to make amazing experiences for users that also work really well for different products and our partners.


Did you always want to work in tech?

I took a mechanical engineering class in college, and it was sort of like “MacGyver,” where you have things like foam core and string and tape and you have to figure out how to precisely move an object across the room without picking it up. I loved figuring out ways to solve these crazy problems, I loved being part of a team, and I loved being super hands-on building things. I ended up majoring in mechanical engineering and then also getting my master’s degree in mechanical engineering. 

I want to hear how you’re doing, what’s going on in the rest of your life — and then we can get into the potentially harder, thornier stuff we need to talk about.

How have you seen the subscription model take over tech?

The open, free internet is still incredibly important, and ad-supported models provide significant value to users. There are also cases where ad-supported solutions may not be the right fit. Subscriptions are growing across industries, not just tech. Car companies are building subscriptions, kids’ clothing companies — there are many examples. And it’s because people rightfully expect ongoing value for the things they buy. Buying something that’s one-and-done, that doesn’t consistently get better, isn’t as appealing. Tech lends itself particularly well to this idea, because we can provide more innovation and continuous improvements over time. 


What’s a habit or routine that helps you in your job?  

I have a habit of spending the first few minutes of every meeting just connecting with my coworkers, especially in video calls. Having an awareness of other people's overall wellbeing is personally important to me, and I also think it helps us work better together. I want to hear how you’re doing, what’s going on in the rest of your life — and then we can get into the potentially harder, thornier stuff we need to talk about. It makes my work a lot more enjoyable and I think it makes the people I work with feel the same — at least I hope so! 

We created these values for our team a couple of years ago, and one of them is “woohoo often.” It sounds silly, but we do a group “woohoo!” out loud when we have a win or hit a milestone, personal or work-related. We kept it going throughout working from home, and it felt a little strange at first to cheer “woohoo!” over a video call, but it’s actually been great. 


What’s something about you that would surprise people? 

I did gymnastics growing up and was on the national team for about nine years and I competed on two world championship teams. I have a move named after me, the Fontaine. It was considered difficult at the time, but you’ll see far more impressive skills from Simone Biles in Tokyo!

It’s a hot one: How heat waves have trended over time

I live in the Pacific Northwest, a part of North America known for cooler weather and notoriously gray skies. So imagine my surprise when temperatures hit 116 degrees Fahrenheit over the past few days. And did I mention that, like many other PNWers, I don’t have air conditioning? Every morning lately, my Google Assistant delivers the slightly worrying news that the temperature is ticking up.

The heat wave is all anyone here — and in other affected areas — can talk about. U.S. searches about heat waves and sunscreen reached all time record highs this month, and “air conditioner installation service” spiked more than 2,150% over the same period of time. (To little surprise, search interest in air conditioning peaks every summer — but you can see that they’ve been rising every year.) 

Graph showing search interest in "air conditioning."

Since many of us are searching for this kind of information, I decided to take a trip down Ngrams lane to see how exactly we’ve talked about (er, I suppose “written about”) extreme summer weather over time. As a quick refresher, Ngrams was launched in 2009 by the Google Books team. The tool shows how books and other pieces of writing have used certain words or phrases over time, so you can see how popular (or unpopular) they’ve been throughout the years. 

I started with the classic “heat wave,” which has steadily risen over time. I also tried “a hot one,” and given how that phrase could apply to so many different use cases (outdoor temperatures but also meals, items, etc.), it’s been relatively steady. 

Graph showing ngrams results for "heat wave" and "a hot one."

I decided to try “scorcher” and the more specific “summer scorcher.” 

Graph showing ngrams results for "scorcher."
Graph showing ngrams results for "summer scorcher."

The semi-consistent dips in “summer scorcher” suggest that the phrase was likely only used much...in the summer. But what about that huge peak in just plain “scorcher” in 1896? Below the graph, there’s an option to choose the time period from 1892 to 1897 and see how the word was used in books that have been uploaded to Google Books vast digital library. To my surprise, “scorcher” at this point in time didn’t refer to a tortuously hot day: In many cases, it was used to talk about someone who raced bicycles. 

Google Books search result showing a use of the word 'scorcher' from 1897 where it describes a person writing a bike.

So now when you hear someone say “today’s going to be a scorcher,” I hope you’ll also tell them about the word’s past life. As for me, I’m heading back to the search bar to learn more about another trending search that really hits home: “how to stay cool without ac.”

Tips and tricks from Google’s resident iOS expert

Luke Wroblewski has been thinking about mobile design since...well, since mobile design was a thing. “I got my start in the mid-90s developing tools for scientists working with the first graphical web browser at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications,” he says. “Back then, people thought the internet was mostly just for scientists to share data.” But Luke was looking at what else could be done with the web, and like many other people, he realized very early on that the future was mobile.

“I remember back then, the mindset was, ‘People aren’t going to watch videos on their phones, and people aren’t going to buy anything on their phones,’” he says. “But it was clear this was going to grow and it was going to grow really fast.” Today, Luke doesn’t just work on one mobile app — he works on nearly 100 of them. As the lead of the iOS at Google team, he coordinates all of Google’s iOS apps.

Luke’s job is to make sure Google’s entire family of products work as well on iOS as they do on Android — and that Google apps make use of the latest iOS functionality to work better with people’s iPhones, iPads and more. “We really want people to see that having our products on their iPhone makes Google more helpful for them,” he says. “And every time Apple updates its operating system, it just gives us even more opportunities to make Google apps better by taking advantage of the new things these devices are capable of.”

Given his expertise, we asked Luke to run us through some of his favorite things you can do with Google apps on iOS. Here are his iOS Google app power user tips:

Widgets, your way: “Right now, everybody does this dance of open the phone, find the app, tap the app, open the app, go to the feature tap on the feature, and on and on… so we’ve been doing a bunch of things to try and bring the most useful stuff to you when you need it instead.” Like widgets, Luke says, which let you easily access key features of your Google apps from your homescreen. Luke’s favorite is the Google Photos widget, which shows Memories featuring his photos from years past, recent highlights, favorite activities and more without any action on his part.  

Rendering of various Google products as iPhone widgets.

Personalize your Search widget:While he loves his Photos widget, there’s nothing quite like having the world’s information just a tap away with the Google Search widget. And now, you can personalize your Search widget backgrounds and skins, and even have them refresh daily. Coming from a design background, Luke loves the ability to make his widget look uniquely his own on his home screen. 

Chrome mobile to desktop handoff:“One feature I use a lot is moving a Chrome tab from my phone to my desktop,” Luke says. With Handoff, you can start browsing a website on your iPhone and easily continue on your Mac. “So if I’m on a webpage on my phone and I sit down at my desk, the Chrome icon pops up in the Dock on my Mac with that link and, boom, I can transition easily.”

Image showing the Chrome Dino widget next to a Chrome widget showing the Search bar.

Bonus! If you need a little break, check out the Chrome Dino widget, part of the latest Chrome release. The hidden game shows itself on the new tab page when Chrome is offline — but now you can quickly launch it right from your homescreen. Just watch out for that cactus...

Send directions to your iPhone from your computer: You can send directions to your iOS device in Maps. Just click the ‘Send to your phone’ button on desktop Maps. Luke finds this particularly helpful when he’s about to head out the door. “This is something that’s really important to us: Integrations not only between our apps, but between various devices and platforms,” Luke says. “If you see a phone number, you should be able to click on it to call — same with directions. You should be able to send them wherever you need to.” 

Instant news delivery:Luke’s also a big fan of his Siri shortcut for Google News. Siri shortcuts automatically detect your app usage routines and suggest them when you’re most likely to undertake them, like reading the news every morning and afternoon. “I think it’s a really useful experience when commonly used actions, like checking the news, just show up on your phone when you need them,” Luke says. You can create your own shortcuts with the Shortcuts app. 

Easily toggle incognito mode:In the Google App, long press your avatar to switch to Incognito Mode. This can be especially helpful if you need to use your iPhone as a work and personal device.

Privacy screen: If you’re doing work in public and want an extra layer of privacy, you can require Face or Touch ID to login to your Google Drive app to keep your files private.

Let Assistant find your phone:Of course, the most useful app tip is what to do when you can’t even find your phone. “If you lose your phone, which does all of this cool stuff I just mentioned, don’t worry,” says Luke. “You can use Assistant.” All you have to do is have the Google Assistant app enabled — prior to losing it — and then say, “Hey Google, where’s my phone?” And then you can get back to playing Chrome Dino. 

Two Googlers meet for the first time at I/O

Mike Pegg has never missed an I/O. “There’s a magic about it,” he says. “It’s sort of like seeing Google come to life, right?” Mike leads Developer Relations for the Google Maps Platform team, and when we spoke via Google Meet a few days before I/O, he was gearing up to present at the conference from his Bay Area home. Gearing up, literally.

“My tech check for my AMA will happen...right here,” he says looking around his desk at home. “I literally had a suitcase sent to me with all my camera gear and microphones. I even bought some ethernet cabling so I’m not competing with my son’s gaming on our WiFi!” 

While Mike’s AMA would broadcast from his home, up until recently he thought he wouldn’t physically make it to I/O this year. Then he heard there would be a (small) audience. “I was so excited to take part, I just wanted to help out in whatever way I could.” Speakers who would be on stage at the Mountain View campus nominated colleagues to be audience members — and Mike was one of about 35 Googlers selected to sit in the audience at I/O. 

As was Lamon Bethel, a visual designer. Unlike Mike, Lamon had never been to I/O — in fact, he’d never been to the Mountain View campus. Based in San Francisco, he’s only been working at Google for about nine months. “The invite was sort of mysterious,” Lamon says. “It was like a Friday or Saturday and I was going through my inbox and there was this totally nondescript, cryptic email saying I’d been nominated to sign up to attend I/O.” At first he thought it was a joke — he was so new at Google, and he wasn’t a developer. He signed up anyway and soon enough, found out that he would be on site for I/O  with the small audience group. 

A person’s hand holding a plastic bag. The clear bag has a red mask inside.

 Audience members each received face masks upon arrival.

Lamon would be diving head first into the world of Google — as well as into the now-unique experience of seeing so many people at the same time. “It was energizing just to be in touch with all the I/O folks throughout the planning process,” he said before the event. “When I’m actually in the presence of other people, and seeing the presenters...I’m so curious what that will feel like!” 

When I talked to Mike and Lamon a few days before I/O, it was the first time they “met,” though they knew they would both be in the audience. They don’t work in the same department, so it’s likely that even if they’d been working in offices this year, their paths wouldn’t have crossed. But both of them said they couldn’t wait to be on site at I/O, experiencing an event happening in front of them, in real life. 

Of course, they were also just looking forward to meeting. “I can’t wait to meet you, Lamon!” Mike said during our call. “This will be so cool. It will almost be like your first day at Google.” 

By all accounts, it was a good one. “The energy of the speakers, the audience members was great — it was such a seamless day,” Lamon says. Lamon got to meet coworkers for the first time, and Mike was reunited with people he’s worked with for years. “It was pretty special to not only reconnect, but also experience the magic of the I/O keynote together!”

And Lamon and Mike also met — in person — even though they were seated at different stages. “But when we had breaks and during lunch and breakfast, we found time to connect,” Lamon says. “He’s someone that I feel like I’ll always have this really unique bond with after having gone through that I/O experience together,” Mike says.

Related Article

Giant cranes and video games: How I/O went digital

When I/O 2020 was canceled, teams across Google knew they'd have to find away to make next year — this year — happen. So they did.

Read Article

Giant cranes and video games: How I/O went digital

There’s a sign on the wall behind Andrew Rossi's desk that’s been impossible to ignore during video calls lately. The placard counted down the days until I/O 2021 — and as event lead for Consumer Apps at Google, Andrew is part of a huge team behind the whole production. While it now reads “0,” the purposefully placed sign was visible during the many virtual meetings he had with people all across Google in the run-up to an entirely different kind of I/O.

A sign on a wall above a small bookcase with changeable lettering reads: “I/O is 0 days away.”

I/O is a major undertaking under normal circumstances, and it took a unique brand of elbow grease this year. But after I/O 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic, Google’s developer relations and marketing teams couldn’t let another year pass without it. 

“Apps and the web became even more integrated into our daily lives over the past year,” says VP of Engineering Jason Titus. “They helped us stay healthy, connected and productive — and this served to spotlight how developers were really part of helping us adapt to the challenges of 2020.” 

Planning for this year’s event began nearly as soon as I/O 2020 was canceled. The team agreed on an event primarily focused on live broadcast but that also offered flexibility for participants, while also respecting how different parts of the world were experiencing the pandemic. It would be a three-day digital event, with a mix of live keynotes, pre-recorded technical sessions and interactive features — and it would be unlike anything Google had created before.  


Online, everyone’s invited

Taking the event virtual had a big upside: More of Google’s global developer community could attend, for free. This year, there were 225,000 registrations, mostly from outside the U.S. 

“Going digital meant we had the freedom to think of new ways to deliver technical content,” says Elizabeth Cha, who leads developer marketing. “It seemed the best way to be helpful to developers this year was to give greater access to our technical experts and let the developer community support one another. So beyond the usual technical sessions and Codelabs, we're offering Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions, instructor-led workshops and meetups.”

A person sitting at a desk looks into the camera on their laptop; the screen shows the person. Behind the laptop is a light and recording gear

A video technician tests out one of the at-home recording kits sent to presenters so they could record their talks from home.

Just like an in-person event involves crowd control and line management, a digital event requires building the infrastructure so everyone can participate. The team took the opportunity to make other improvements for accessibility and inclusivity — including an American Sign Language option for the two main keynotes, a first.

“This year, instead of the online experience accompanying the physical event, the online experience is the event,” says Developer Relations Product Manager Ilen Zazueta-Hall. “Scaling the event was a coordinated effort — we had to rethink so much. Like how do we scale workshops? How many languages do we translate technical content into? How do we make sure it’s accessible, and that people can connect?” 

Live, from Google I/O

While online development was crucial, there was also the challenge of broadcasting live. The team wanted to keep keynotes live because, among other things, digital burnout was a factor. “We’re all sick of sitting down in front of a screen,” VP of Marketing Marvin Chow says. The best way to fight this fatigue was with live video. “When it’s taped, you don’t get that same authenticity and connection.” 

A camera crew of several people are in the foreground, filming a stage surrounded by trees.

The production crew films the keynote dress rehearsal.

Going live was a complex process. First, Andrew and his team had to find a location. Originally, the idea was to film from Shoreline Amphitheatre, Google I/O’s home since 2016, but that was quickly dismissed. The venue, which can fit more than 22,000 people, would have felt eerie without thousands of attendees. 

So the team settled instead on Google’s “Quad” campus in Mountain View. That, too, came with unknowns. “You can’t just throw a stage on campus, because the sun would just beat down on everyone,” Andrew explains. So the team brought in giant cranes to cover the area. “We tracked things like how much the wind blows on an average day.”

Three masked people sit near a “Google” sign in adirondack chairs on a lawn.

Googlers in the I/O audience.

In addition to two stages and space for production crews, the quad could accommodate a small, socially distanced audience. “We realized we could get 15 people around one stage and 19 around another,” Andrew says. This would give presenters something to look at, and bring some energy to the broadcast. Presenters nominated fellow Googlers, so they would see familiar faces. Audience members agreed to a list of COVID-19-related requirements as well as sitting through two rehearsals in case production needed to use backup film. No phones or laptops were permitted the entire time. 

But the work was well worth it: Googlers were excited to head to campus for I/O — and each other. In some cases, colleagues even met in person for the first time.

Photo showing a group of people wearing masks standing on a circular stage on a lawn. A person in the foreground is taking a photo of them.

Googlers gather at the dress rehearsal the day before the keynote.

For everyone who couldn’t go, there was an online Adventure. 


Adventure awaits

A significant draw of I/O for developers is everything that happens IRL. “You know when you’re in line for food and you strike up a conversation with someone?” Elizabeth says. “And you find out you’re both working on the same problem or interested in similar topics and then ideas start pouring in — that’s what I/O is about.”

Enter I/O Adventure, a reimagining of what it’s like to actually be there and get your "hands on" the latest technology, complete with virtual product demos and hangout spaces where you can meet and chat with other developers. Adventure was developer advocate Tom Greenaway’s idea; he’d come up with it as a way for attendees to join in during Chrome Developer Summit (CDS) last December. It was a success, so the team decided to bring it to I/O. 

Photo showing a large group of virtual avatars in the I/O Adventure game world. Participants can earn up to 140 pieces of virtual swag.

 I/O attendees gathering inside I/O Adventure. Participants can interact with over 450 pieces of unique product content — like technical demos, videos and codelabs — and earn up to 140 pieces of virtual swag.

Tom, along with a small team of designers and programmers, collaborated with various Google product departments to craft experiences inside the game. Machine learning and AI, for example, have a musical forest where trees transform into instruments as you bump into them. “As they change, collaboratively, people all over the world will make music together,” Tom says. And Google engineers had special help testing the product — from their kids. “They did about two hours of testing in all over a weekend,” says Elizabeth, whose own children assisted. “And they wanted to play more!”

Two children sitting at a dining room table looking at an open laptop that shows the I/O Adventure game on the screen.

Elizabeth’s kids test out I/O Adventure.

Invention...and Easter eggs

Appropriately for an event that celebrates developer creativity, inventiveness is a theme that runs throughout everything the team did to make I/O happen this year. “I/O 2021 was about  meeting developers where they are and making it easier for them to innovate quickly,” Jason says. In such a daunting year,it was increasingly clear how much the world needs builders. “By helping developers, we help everyone who uses the technology they build.”

And of course, what would any Google project be without a few Easter eggs? “Do you know the Konami Code?” Tom asked during a recent demo of Adventure. “It’s up, up, down — ” ...actually, you’ll just have to find out for yourself.