Google's Biggest Event of the Year Just Started. Here Are the 4 Biggest Announcements So Far

Google on Tuesday kicked off the first day of its 2019 I/O developer conference with a keynote highlighting the company's latest projects and products, as well as its accessibility initiatives powered by machine learning. Those more ambitious projects, like developing speech recognition software for people with speech impediments and using machine learning to detect diseases in their early stages, are all built atop the company's research into machine learning and computer vision. While the conference is ostensibly geared toward developers, there was plenty for Google fans and Android users to get excited about. After more than a few leaked images heralding the cheaper Android phones' arrival, Google officially unveiled the comparatively affordable Pixel 3a and 3a XL smartphones. On their surface, they don't look much different from the original Pixel 3 and 3 XL counterparts, save for their plastic construction compared to the previous version's glass and metal build.