With less that a week to go before the start of Google I/O on May 15, excitement about the event is mounting and Google has produced an Android app to help you follow all the action for those attending in person or virtually.

The app is for Android 2.3 and later and can be installed from Google Play. It can be used in two modes - one caters for those who will be attending in person, the other is for those who want to follow the keynote and sessions that will be streamed on Google Developer's Live.

The great advantage of the app for those who won't actually be in San Fransisco's Moscone Center is that the app automatically adjusts the times of sessions reflect your local time, eliminating the need for time arithmetic.

However, at the moment not all the virtual sessions scheduled to be live-streamed according to the website appear in the app - in particular the Android track is missing - but let's assume that this will be fixed soon.

The main purpose of the app is to allow you to search the session timetable - the full one in the case of in-person attendees and the ones that will be streamed for virtual attendees - and let you add them to you personal schedule. You can sync the schedule between all of your devices and the I/O Website. The app makes it much easier to view the synopsis of a session and speaker details than the website. Once you click on Add to schedule the flag changed to In schedule and clicking on it again removes it.

You can also +1 sessions from the app, participate in public #io conversations of Google+ and, with an Android 4.0 NFC enabled devices, you can use Android Beam to send details of sessions to other such devices.

Other useful features are a reminder a few minutes before a session you have added to your schedule is due to start; with an Android 3.0+ device you can play the I/O Live sessions.

There is extra functionality in the app if you are lucky enough to be there - you can find your way around the conference center using its vector-based conference map and if you have a NFC-enabled device you can scan attendee badges.

If you don't have an Android device you can view the schedule on the Google I/O 2013 Website - but at the moment it seems sessions are still being added. There are eleven categories of tracks, but while Chrome & Apps has up to four concurrent sessions to choose from others have many fewer sessions - at the moment there is just one of the Google Wallet track.

It seems like a good idea and probably one that will catch on. Will we see a Windows Build Apps soon? And there is scope for pushing the envelope - what about a Google Glass app?