Google I/O 2026 - All You Need To Know

Hi everyone,

It’s been a busy few weeks at Google!

Google Cloud Next kicked things off in Las Vegas at the end of April and we caught the Android Show: I/O Edition together earlier this month, and now the main event is almost here. 

The Google I/O 2026 keynote kicks off tomorrow, Tuesday 19th May at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST.

There are actually three things to put in your calendar this time around. Tuesday 19th kicks off with the big ones:

• Google keynote — 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST
• Developer keynote — 1:30pm PT / 4:30pm ET / 9:30pm BST

And then Wednesday 20th has a full day of sessions worth bookmarking too, including:

• What's new in the Gemma open model family — 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST
• What's new in Android development tools — 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST
• Defining the agentic AI era — 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST
• A new era of discovery: AI and the frontiers of science with Demis Hassabis — 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 8pm BST

Everything is livestreamed over at io.google/2026 where you’ll find a full schedule to bookmark the sessions that are of interest to you.

And if you've got some time to kill before things kick off, there's also a fun little puzzle games section on the I/O site, definitely worth checking out while you wait!

If you want a sense of what to expect, last year's keynote was a strong signal of where we're heading. Here’s the recap from the previous Google I/O in 2025:

• Gemini took centre stage, with Google positioning it less as a chatbot and more as a universal assistant woven across pretty much every product we make. Gemini 2.5 Pro landed with a new reasoning mode called Deep Think.
• Android XR smart glasses were unveiled, built in partnership with Samsung, with capabilities like live language translation in augmented reality.
• Google Beam AI-powered 3D video calling platform that uses multiple cameras to render lifelike video calls, making remote conversations feel a lot more natural. 
• AI Mode in Search went live for all US users, a pretty significant shift in how Google wants people to find things
• The Developer keynote went deeper on tooling featuring updates to Google AI Studio, new Gemini API capabilities, and MCP compatibility for the Gemini API and SDK.

Speak soon,
Kirk