Less than three weeks after announcing that it was canceling its in-person I/O event this year, Google has canceled it for good. There won’t even be a virtual event.
“Out of concern for the health and safety of our developers, employees, and local communities—and in line with ‘shelter in place’ requirements by the local Bay Area government—we sadly will not be holding an I/O event in any capacity this year,” the Google Developers account tweeted today. “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. We’ll continue to do everything we can to help our communities stay safe, informed, and connected.”
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Like companies throughout the tech community and elsewhere, Google originally canceled its in-person/physical Google I/O event and pledged at the time that it would “evolve” Google /IO to “best connect with [its] developer community.” The assumption, of course, was that Google would hold a virtual event, as Microsoft is doing with Build 2020 and Apple is doing with WWDC 2020. But that is no longer the case, if it ever was.
Google I/O is the online giant’s biggest annual conference and the firm was expected to launch an Android 11 Beta and Pixel 4a handset at the event. There’s no word on how or if the Pixel 4a will launch now, but Google says it “remains committed to sharing ongoing Android updates through our developer blogs and community forums.”
Google I/O was originally scheduled for May 12-14, 2020.