This is a submission for the Google I/O Writing Challenge
I went into Google I/O 2026 as someone still finding her footing in app development. I came out the other side genuinely excited — and a little overwhelmed — about how fast everything is moving.
I am an SDET with 9 years in software testing. A few months ago I started learning AI fundamentals and building my first real app: a family super-app that combines grocery tracking, shopping budgets, family calendar planning, and weekend activity planning all in one place. I am building it in Google AI Studio using Gemini 3 Flash Preview.
So when I watched Google I/O this week, I wasn't watching as a passive observer. I was watching as someone actively building — and almost every announcement had me pausing the stream thinking "wait, that changes what I'm building."
Here are the moments that hit hardest.
