Google's highly-anticipated Project Ara modular smartphone is finally coming to fruition after a few delays.
The company announced at its annual I/O developer conference on Friday that the phone will be available to third-party developers by the end of 2016. And if things go according to plan, consumers will be able to get their hands on the device sometime in 2017.
There have been some changes to the Ara team and the phone's design over the past year, with Paul Eremenko no longer the director of Project Ara.
When it came to the phone's core technology, the biggest change was integrating the processor and RAM into the standard frame, allowing more room for six modular slots. Google said the modules can also be swapped out while the device is still running, giving the user more flexibility.
At the conference, the company demonstrated taking a photo with a camera module. It also discussed other modules, including a blood glucose monitor for diabetics, according to Recode.
The six proprietary ports created by the team use an open standard UniPro, and each one can support up to 11.9 Gbps. Ara chief Richard Woolridge said the modules can handle pretty much anything, consuming a third as much power as USB 3.
Other specs include a 5.3-inch screen display.
A button on the right side of the device will bring up a map of all the modules being used. To eject a module, simply tap on the photo of the one you'd like to release. Or, as demonstrated by technical project lead Rafa Camargo, you can just say, "OK Google, eject the camera," to switch that module to a different one.
About 30 people at Google's Advanced Technology and Products division already use an Ara device as their main phone, according to Wired.
With the phone being on an open platform, Google is aiming to create an ecosystem anyone can contribute to.
"That allows us to be somewhat form-factor independent," Camargo said.
