Numbers from Google I/O: 3x growth for Wear OS, 3 billion active Android devices, more

Ben Schoon | May 11 2022 - 5:41 pm PT

Google I/O is the tech giant’s annual chance to boast its wins, and also provide meaningful updates on where its various products stand. Below, we’ve collected some of the key numbers and metrics from Google I/O 2022.

24 new languages

Google announced early on at I/O 2022 that Translate is picking up 24 new languages, in one of the product’s biggest expansions in years.

Google Translate adds support for 24 new languages, now supports over 130

86 billion greener miles

Google’s “eco-friendly” routes in Maps have so far seen users travel over 86 billion miles that are greener than the standard way. These routes are often a few minutes slower, but represent more fuel-efficient driving. Google estimates this number will double by the end of this year.

2 billion searches for COVID-19 vaccines

Sundar Pichai revealed at Google I/O 2022 that Google Search and Google Maps drove over 2 billion searches for COVID-19 vaccine locations.

Google Messages has 500 million users

RCS messaging is the next big thing for Android, and Google announced today that its efforts have been quite fruitful. In the Google Messages app alone, RCS has over 500 million monthly active users. And those users are also getting encryption in group chats later this year!

Wear OS has 3x as many active devices in the last year

Thanks to the debut of Wear OS 3 and, more so, a partnership with Samsung on the Galaxy Watch 4, Google says that there are three times as many active Wear OS devices now as there were a year before. This both speaks to how popular the Galaxy Watch 4 series has been, as well as to how dreadful the state of Wear OS was before. But hey, progress! And a Pixel Watch!

Android has 3 billion active devices

There are now 3 billion Android devices that have been active in the past month. Google says that over 1 billion devices were added in the past year alone.

The Pixel 6a is $449

Google’s latest mid-range smartphone is the Pixel 6a, which will arrive in July for $449 with a full Tensor processor and more.

270 million active large screen devices

Google says that large screen devices, like Android tablets, are getting popular. Apparently, the form factor is approaching 270 million active devices. And that’s before Google’s Pixel Tablet makes its debut.

‘20+ tablet-optimized Google apps’

On that note, Google announced that it has optimized 20 of its own apps for tablets, with updates rolling out starting today. Some notable examples include YouTube Music, Maps, Messages, and others. The Google Play Store is also overhauling its tablet layout.

Six new Pixel products at Google I/O 2022

To wrap up the Google I/O 2022 keynote, Google showed off a whopping six new Pixel products. The Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel Watch, Pixel Buds Pro, and Pixel Tablet were all shown off.

Google Pixel put it all out there with six product reveals — which was the most surprising? [Poll]

Two times that Google has released a product called “Wallet”

I/O 2022 brought back the Google Wallet brand, a name that Google killed off in 2015 in favor of Android Pay, which has since become Google Pay. Time is a circle.

Google Wallet wants to replace your physical wallet (and the old Google Pay app)

500K apps built with Flutter

Google’s Flutter coding language now has over 500,000 apps using it.

Flutter 3 brings stable Linux and macOS apps, dynamic themes, Material You, and more

How many times was Stadia mentioned at Google I/O 2022?

Zero.

Well, at least for the keynote address. Google will surely touch on Stadia through its various developer sessions over the next two days, but the cloud gaming service most definitely missed out on any time in the spotlight.