Google will hold its annual developer conference, Google I/O, starting on Tuesday, May 8, and the conference, as usual, will come with a plethora of announcements. We know through some session listings spotted on the official I/O app that Android Auto will receive major updates. We also expect Google to take the wraps off the official name for Android P, but we aren’t holding our breath for that. A new report from AdAge India suggests that as per people familiar with the matter, Google will announce a revamp of the Google News app, bringing in more video and making the app faster. The announcement is expected to be made at the conference next week.
The report states that “Google has been talking to publishers in the recent weeks about the changes coming to the platform”. The revamp will include elements from the digital magazine app, Google Newsstand and the news section of YouTube. The app will also use the technology behind Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), a project from Google and Twitter designed to make mobile web pages faster, to improve and increase load times on the app.
As part of this plan, the company will reportedly also be shutting down the Newsstand app, with News being a new app and changes reflecting on the mobile and desktop websites too. Sources say that the company intends to consolidate the various offerings and bring together news under one brand.
Google’s renewed focus on news makes sense, since Facebook’s news feed algorithm changes have reportedly resulted in decreased news traffic for publishers, and there is a lot of potential for Google to improve publisher relations and work out ways to monetize the offering, leading to better revenues for publishers.
Stay tuned to Neowin for all the coverage from Google I/O this year.
Source: AdAge India via The Verge
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