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Numbers from Google I/O 2023: 800 million RCS users, countless times saying ‘AI,’ and more

Google I/O 2023 was a place for the company to show off its real strength in AI, and it also brought several updates and announcements on existing Google products. Here are some notable numbers and metrics from Google I/O 2023.

Google Bard in 180 countries and 2 new languages

Today, Google announced it was removing the waitlist for Google Bard and opening the AI chatbot preview to nearly the entire globe. That includes over 180 countries, and Bard is also adding 2 new languages, Japanese and Korean. Further, 40 languages are coming soon.

Related, Google also touted over 20 programming languages that its AI can work with.

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12 billion visual searches a month

Google says that, with Lens, its users are performing a whopping 12 billion searches using visual content each month. It’s a staggering number.

Meanwhile, Google Lens will soon be integrated with Bard.

Google really wants you to know about its AI

The thing that was probably said the most today at Google I/O was “AI,” with every single segment of the keynote discussing Google’s work on AI. The only thing that might have been said as much as AI is “responsible,” as Google touted its responsibility on artificial intelligence and generative AI in particular. As discussed on Twitter, it would have made for a fun drinking game, one that Bard correctly said would get you “drunk very quickly.”

1.8 billion updates to Shopping Graph per hour

Google Shopping is a very useful tool for sifting through product listings, and Google says it goes through a lot of information to provide those summaries. Apparently, the 35 billion product listings in Shopping Graph are updated constantly, with over 1.8 billion updates each hour.

800 million people are using RCS, with more on the way

Google’s initiative to expand RCS on Android is working, with over 800 million users on the SMS replacement, the company confirmed today. These are monthly active users, and Google says that one billion people will be using RCS by the end of 2023.

Of course, Google couldn’t pass up the opportunity to “encourage” Apple to adopt RCS, as our colleagues at 9to5Mac discuss.

Notably, too, this number is up from 500 million last year.

100 billion blocked spam

Google says that Call Screen and similar features in Android have now blocked a whopping 100 billion spam messages and phone calls just over the past year.

50 Google apps for tablets

With a new push on Android tablets and the debut of the Pixel Tablet, Google has been focusing on improving its apps on tablets. This includes confirmation today that 50 Google apps have been updated with better tablet support, as our Abner Li has been tracking. It’s up from 20 apps last year.

5 times as many Wear OS watches

Wear OS 3 has clearly done a lot to benefit the platform, and with Samsung’s help, Google confirmed that there are now 5 times as many Wear OS watches in the world since the debut of Wear OS 3. That’s up from 3x last year.

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Good things come in threes: 300 headphones, 3 billion devices, and 3,000 apps

In a neat little trio, Google confirmed today during the I/O 2023 keynote some stats regarding its cross-device features. There are now over 300 headphones compatible with Fast Pair on Android. There are apparently 3 billion devices that support Android’s Nearby Share feature, and there are now over 3,000 apps that support Google Cast.

72% bigger camera sensor on Pixel 7a

The Pixel 7a, announced today for $499, has a new camera that Google says has a 72% bigger camera sensor. The new sensor also happens to have a higher resolution, at 64 MP, up from just 12 on the Pixel 6a.

$1,799 – the price of the most expensive Pixel yet

Google closed out today’s presentation with new Pixel hardware. That includes the $499 Pixel 7a and $499 Pixel Tablet, but also the company’s most expensive Pixel smartphone to date. The Pixel Fold costs $1,799 for a foldable smartphone that’s comparable to Pixel 7 Pro in many ways.

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Avatar for Ben Schoon Ben Schoon

Ben is a Senior Editor for 9to5Google.

Find him on Twitter @NexusBen. Send tips to schoon@9to5g.com or encrypted to benschoon@protonmail.com.