Google’s Aparna Chennapragada shows how Now on Tap will handle your hardest Skrillex queries. Screenshot: Cult of Android

Google Now is about to get far more powerful, thanks to a promising new feature called Now on Tap that leverages contextual search to offer quick answers to quick questions from within various apps.

“We’re working on a new capability to assist you in the moment — right when you need it, wherever you are on the phone,” said Google Now product manager Aparna Chennapragada as she previewed the impressive new functionality during Thursday’s kickoff keynote at Google I/O 2015.

For instance, asking, “What’s his real name?” while listening to a Skrillex track could return the DJ’s name from within a music app, making Google’s hive mind more accessible than ever. (FYI it’s Sonny John Moore.)

Google Photos is designed to make images and video meaningful again. Photo: Google

Organizing the flood of photos and videos we all have is the central challenge of today’s photo apps, and Google has a new offering designed to solve this problem: Google Photos.

While the first screenshots shown onstage Thursday during the Google I/O conference in San Francisco looked quite a bit like Apple’s own Photos app, Google Photos uses machine learning and algorithms to create what could turn out to be the most useful way to store and share your pictures and videos.

Two new Nexus phones this year? Yes please! Photo: Google

Google will attempt to reverse declining Nexus sales with the launch of two new smartphones in 2015, according to a new report. The devices are expected to come in different sizes to appeal to a larger number of consumers, but they may not be accompanied by a new Nexus tablet.

The next version of Android will finally bring native fingerprint authentication support. Photo: Google

Google will be adding native fingerprint authentication support to Android M, which it will be unveiling next week at Google I/O.

Google has some exciting things up its sleeve. Photo: Google

Google is getting ready to unveil a new online picture sharing and storage service at the company’s upcoming Google I/O software developers conference later this month.

Not linked with Google+, the tool will supposedly allow users to post pictures to Facebook and Twitter in a more straightforward way than is currently possible through Google. It will also represent another stab on Google’s part at the photo-sharing market currently dominated by Instagram, Snapchat and Flickr.