Earlier today, Google published its traditional I/O puzzle, which is always meant to be a fun way for people to figure out when the Mountain View firm's developer conference will be held. Now, the company has confirmed the dates and venue for Google I/O 2022. It will be held on May 11 and May 12 at the Shoreline Amphitheater. It's the first time since 2019 that the show has had an in-person venue.

The only problem is that you won't be able to go. In-person attendance is limited, basically to Google employees and partners. Registration for the virtual event will once again be free. Back in 2020 when everything started going virtual, Google considered other formats or postponing it, and ended up canceling it. In 2021, I/O was held as a virtual event.

As for what will be announced at the show, that's actually going to be a bit tricky to guess. The reason is because the schedule has been so jumbled around over the last couple of years. At the last in-person I/O, Google actually announced the Pixel 3a and 3a XL, its first budget handsets. The Pixel 4a was rumored to be planned for I/O 2020, but that got pushed back anyway.

One thing that you can expect to learn more about is Android 13. It's been in developer preview for over a month now, and with the way the roadmap is laid out, the first beta is actually expected to land in April. A lot of early features tend to not be as front-facing as, say, Material You, so the stuff that fans would get excited about are things we'd see on-stage.

Screenshot of Google I/O details

Another thing we'll likely hear about is Wear OS. Samsung and Google partnered up on a brand new version of the wearable operating system, but right now, it's exclusive to Samsung devices and Android phones. That's going to have to open up at some point, and it's also going to have to work with iOS.

Even with those two major topics, there's going to be plenty more. In fact, it's developer show season across the board. Microsoft has yet to announce dates for Build and we haven't heard anything from Apple about WWDC, but those should happen in May and June, respectively.

Update: An earlier version of this article stated that Google I/O 2022 was going to be an in-person event. Google has since provided additional details.