Google has announced plans for its first developers conference for the Project Ara modular smartphone prototype, 15 April to 16 April, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Some thought the Project Ara was just a pipedream, but Google really plans to bring it to market if this developer conference is any indication. 

The conference will focus on the Ara Module Developers’ Kit (MDK), aka letting developers build an Ara module to fit into the Project Ara smartphone. "The Developers’ Conference will consist of a detailed walk-through of existing and planned features of the Ara platform," Google writes.

The Project Ara phone, in theory, would allow you to build the phone of your dreams. Is a Qwerty keyboard your thing? You can just remove one module from the exoskeleton and add another. The same goes for a better camera, bigger battery, or louder speaker. The idea is there will be a module store, much like the Google Play app marketplace, and you buy modules to upgrade your phone as you go.

Motorola, when it was owned by Google, was previously responsible for Project Ara. Now, the Google Advance Technology and Projects group is behind the project. 

Google showed the first photos of the Project Ara through its Google+ page on Wednesday. While not as slick looking as past concepts from the company, it shows progress is being made behind the closed doors of Google. 

google holding developer conference for project ara modular smartphone in april image 2

Past the April event, Google says it plans to host two more Project Ara events in 2014.