Google has laid out its most comprehensive vision yet for a post-smartphone era, as it unveiled a range of new software and services partly aimed at catching up with rivals such as Facebook and Amazon.

At its annual developer conference, the world’s biggest internet company showed off a new voice-activated device for the home, while also outlining plans for virtual reality headsets, as well as wearable devices that no longer rely on being constantly tethered to smartphones.

However, it also used the event to extend and revamp some of its main services for smartphones, including launching a new messaging app, in the latest bid to defend its core search business as mobile habits change.