ISSUE 50 • ANDROID ADVISOR 39GOOGLE I/O 2018all with the help of on-board camera apps. Here’s
what we’re looking forward to the most.
- AR integration with Google Maps
Sometimes, especially in unfamiliar cities, it’s hard
to tell which direction you’re facing, even when
Google Maps shows you right where you’re standing.
Soon, though, you’ll be able to activate your
camera in Google Maps and see helpful contextual
information for the scene you’re looking at in the
real world. Simply raise your camera, aim it at a
scene, and you’ll see information about various
businesses around you, as well as the names of the
streets. Not only will this make it easier to gather your
bearings, but it may even help you discover fun new
restaurants you otherwise wouldn’t have noticed –
even though they’re only a few steps away. - Smart text selection
Back when I was a student, I often found myself
wanting to easily copy text from books, and plug
that material into research papers as excerpts. It
seems as though I was simply born too late.
To wit: one of Google Lens’ best new features
lets you select and render text simply by aiming your
camera at it, almost as if you’d used your mouse
to select it on a regular monitor. Presumably –
accounting for possible problems with line breaks
and spacing – you then simply paste the text into a
text message or document.
If this pans out as demonstrated, it’s going to save
so much time. For example, you could use Lens to