2016 Google Tracker: Everything Google is working on for the new year
Android N, a big VR program, Google Glass, and lots more are in store for Alphabet. — It's that time of the year again—welcome to the Google Tracker! This is a bi-annual series where we recap every ongoing project …
Context & Ripple Effects
Ars Technica's bi-annual Google Tracker opens the year by inventorying Alphabet's active projects, picking up where the I/O 2015 launch speculation around Android M and Chromecast 2 left off. The 2016 edition flags three pillars: Android N, a major virtual reality program, and continuing work on Google Glass.
The tracker functions as a baseline the rest of the year gets measured against — the May 2016 I/O preview confirms Android N news and an Android VR headset as headline items, and The Verge's Daydream report lands the VR pillar as a platform baked into Android N rather than a standalone product.
First-order effects
- Developers and hardware partners reading the tracker get an early map of where Alphabet will spend its 2016 attention — Android N and VR — months before formal reveals at Google I/O.
- The VR program's framing as a 'big' initiative signals it has graduated from experiment to committed Alphabet project alongside core Android work.
Second-order effects
- Once Google commits VR to Android N itself, device makers building on Android inherit a platform-level VR layer, shifting headset strategy from accessory add-ons toward OS-integrated experiences.
- The same consolidation logic shows up elsewhere in the slate: Chromebooks gaining the Play Store folds another product line into the Android app ecosystem.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Alphabet's most consequential projects stop being separate products and become features of Android — the operating system as the delivery vehicle for everything from VR to apps on new device categories.
- The tracker format itself reflects a structural change: under Alphabet, Google runs enough parallel programs that annual inventory journalism becomes the standard way to follow the company.
The trend: Google's major initiatives are converging into the Android platform itself, with yearly trackers and I/O cycles serving as the public cadence for that consolidation.