MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—After numerous delays, Google's modular smartphone concept, Project Ara, is still kicking inside Google. At its I/O conference, the company announced another developer kit for the device (called only the "Developer Edition") due out in 2016. The consumer version has received yet another delay, however, this time to 2017.

Pictures and a signup page for the Developer Edition are up on a new Ara website, and this update will replace the current "Spiral 2" dev kit. Project Ara started in 2013 and, like all ATAP projects, it was expected to take two years. The initiative was delayed past its 2015 deadline when it failed to deliver on a promised Puerto Rican pilot (where the phone was going to be sold out of food trucks). Now in 2016, Project Ara is delayed again to a supposed 2017 consumer launch, but there's going to be heavy redesigns to make that happen.

Most of the modular promises have been toned down—now all the "base components" of a smartphone are built into the Ara body, just like a normal smartphone. The Ara body contains a fixed CPU, GPU, antennas, sensors, battery, and display. The Ara page says this "frees up more room for hardware in each module," but it also removes Ara's promise of upgradability. The modules will now be for the camera and speakers, along with accessories to the base smartphone like a fingerprint reader or an extra display.

The plan for Ara is still to have an open marketplace for module developers to create and sell additions to the phone. But with so much of the functionality permanently in the basic phone, it seems like most of this could be achieved today on the modular LG G5.