It is highly likely that the public will learn about the next Android operating system at the Google I/O conference this week.

A Google engineer confirmed in an interview that Android M will be coming this year, TechRadar reports.

Whether or not Android M is announced this week or later, a Google engineer did confirm that the public will see it this year and also that Android will be updated annually.

Hiroshi Lockheimer told Fast Company Magazine that "this year we'll launch M." That is the strongest indicator of a new Android operating system that the public has received so far.

No release date has been announced for Android M, but, by the time it is released, Android Lollipop will have been out for about one year.

Google plans to stick to the annual operating system upgrades. 

Lockheimer says that Google is installing a "yearly cadence of big releases, so, for instance, one year we release J, the next year we release K, and then the year after that L, and then this year we'll launch M, and so you can predict what will happen next year." 

With yearly updates to the Android operating system, will Google run out of new features to improve Android? Lockheimer does not think so. He says Android will become more visible in the future and will appear on more devices.

"The trick is not to think about them in isolation.. .. It's really about thinking about these different screens, if you will, holistically. How do they work with each other? A watch, and a phone, and a TV, and a car, and a tablet, how can they coordinate, and how can they actually enrich our lives, and make things that were harder before more useful?" 

Most current-generation Android smartphones and tablets have already received the Lollipop 5.0 update, but some are still waiting. In the future, Google will release these updates more quickly so that users of all devices can have the latest operating systems each year.