Google Jumps Into IoT with Android Things

Years in the making, Google’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform, now called Android Things, is ready for its first developer preview.

Google Things previously went by the moniker “Project Brillo,” a name that indicated how unready it was for real-world use. But with this new branding and an expanded set of functionality, Google Things is ready for its debut, Google says.

“Android Things is a comprehensive way to build IoT products with the power of Android, one of the world’s most supported operating systems,” Google developer advocate Wayne Piekarski writes in a new post to the Google Developers Blog. “Now any Android developer can quickly build a smart device using Android APIs and Google services, while staying highly secure with updates direct from Google.”

What this means to developers is that they can use familiar, if freaking terrible, tools like Android Studio, plus the Android Software Development Kit (SDK), Google Play Services, and Google Cloud Platform to build IoT solutions.

As is the case with Microsoft’s IoT solution, Windows IoT Core, Google is working with partners to provide what it calls turnkey hardware solutions, including in this case the Intel Edison, NXP Pico, and Raspberry Pi 3. For whatever it’s worth, Microsoft’s solution has far broader hardware support, mostly because it’s been in-market for over a year, including popular options like the Raspberry Pi 3 and Pi 2.

You can learn more about Android Things, as well as related services like the Google Weave intra-device communications platform, at the Google IoT website.