Google I/O is now completely scrapped this year

As companies continue to monitor the coronavirus situation, big annual events are being cancelled, postponed or shifting to livestreaaming in response. Google previously announced plans to not host a ‘physical' Google I/O conference this year, presumably replacing it with a streamed conference instead. That changed this week, however, as I/O for 2020 is now completely scrapped. 

For those who don’t know, I/O is typically the event Google uses to show off big upgrades to Android, new hardware and various updates to services. Then we usually see a smaller event from Google in October focusing on new Pixel smartphones. Due to the coronavirus pandemic though, I/O will not be taking place this year, neither physically nor digitally.

Google confirmed the update in a new statement posted to the I/O event page, which reads: “Out of concern for the health and safety of our developers, employees, and local communities — and in line with recent “shelter in place” orders by the local Bay Area counties — we sadly will not be holding I/O in any capacity this year.”

“Right now, the most important thing all of us can do is focus our attention on helping people with the new challenges we all face. Please know that we remain committed to finding other ways to share platform updates with you through our developer blogs and community forums.”

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KitGuru Says: It looks like this year's Android updates and other platform upgrades will either have to wait, or be shared via other means. This does unfortunately mean that developers will get less face-time with Google staff this year, but conference calls can work around that. Perhaps I/O will return once again in 2021.

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