8 Cool Android O Features You Should Know

Google recently dropped the first Developer Preview of the latest iteration of Android dubbed Android O. The new Android iteration brings along a host of new features, and improvements over its predecessor – Android 7.0 Nougat. While information technology's anyone's guess what the new Android version will be named (Oreo gets my vote, past the way), the new features, and all the new improvements in the latest version of the Android operating arrangement are out in that location for anyone to cheque out. We installed the developer preview of Android O on our Nexus 5X, played around with information technology for quite some fourth dimension, and here are the 8 cool Android O features y'all should know:

1. Improved Notifications

Android O brings fifty-fifty more control over notifications with a feature chosen "Notification Channels". With this new feature, apps tin classify notifications into different categories, allowing users to configure notification settings on a "per-category" basis, rather than the one-time method of configuring notifications for the entire app. So, for example, the News app could classify notifications by the type of news y'all're following, and you lot'll be able to mute notifications for specific news types, rather than having to suppress notifications from the consummate app.

Some other cool new feature that Android O brings to the notifications, is "Snooze". Y'all tin now snooze notifications that you'd rather deal with at a later on time. Past default, notifications get snoozed for 15 minutes, but you tin can increase that to 1 hour. When the notification reappears, it'll be pushed back with the same level of importance as information technology originally was. Also, apps can update snoozed notifications, only updating notifications will not override snooze. This means, that if you snooze a notification and it gets updated, y'all'll merely see the updated notification once the snooze menstruation ends. This is definitely a feature that'll brand handling notifications a lot easier.

ii. Picture in Picture Mode in Phones and Tablets

With the release of Android Nougat, Android TVs started supporting Moving picture in Picture manner. However, not many developers jumped on the PiP railroad vehicle, and the Play Shop was left with a severe lack of apps that supported the characteristic. With Android O, Google is looking to change all that, and is bringing the PiP style to phones and tablets running Android O. This should definitely give developers the push to brand their apps compatible with Picture in Film manner.

In its current state, the YouTube app seems to support PiP. Information technology even has a toggle for allowing PiP for the app. However, even with the toggle on, I couldn't go PiP to work on the YouTube app. The feature is definitely there, that much is obvious, but I couldn't cross-examine Google's claims that the PiP window will be able to have custom aspect ratios, and much more. Either style, I definitely think that PiP is a cool feature, admitting a novelty for most people. Whether or not information technology actually makes a difference to how we utilize our Android phones remains to exist seen.

3. Battery Life Improvements

Android O also aims to improve the battery life of your device quite a flake. It does this in a plethora of ways. Yet, a couple of tweaks definitely stand out. First, Android brought forth the "Doze" feature in Android Marshmallow, aiming to reduce the corporeality of battery consumption by a device when information technology was sleeping. With Nougat, the Doze feature was fabricated a little aggressive in how it handled groundwork tasks while sleeping. Now, in Android O, Google has continued making Doze even amend, with a loftier level of restrictions placed on app activities when the device is comatose.

Apps on devices running Android O, volition take to bear more than ambitious groundwork limits than in Nougat. These limits volition exist implemented in iii major areas that cause battery drain in the background: location updates, broadcasts, background services. Background apps in Android O devices, will only be able to ask for the location a few times in an 60 minutes. They will also not be able to register for implicit broadcasts, unless they are in the foreground. At that place's a lot of technical jargon involved, but the bottom line is that Google is working even harder to extend your device's battery life.

4. Custom Lock Screen Shortcuts

A very useful feature that Google added in Android O – custom lock screen shortcuts – is also i that nigh people would know from some custom ROM. While in older versions of Android, you could swipe from the left corner, or the right corner to activate shortcuts for the Camera, and the Phone; in Android O, you lot can use the System UI Tuner to fix any two apps in those places. So, while you probably practice use the Camera shortcut from the lock screen, you can replace the Phone app shortcut with an app that yous use more oft.

five. Settings Page Redesigned

With Android O, the Settings page has been redesigned… again.It's virtually a ritual at present. But jokes apart, Google has done a really good job trying to make the Settings folio more organised, just the manner it should've been. Sure, information technology'll take some time to become used to the new Settings folio in Android O, but information technology'll definitely be worth information technology. It's shorter in length than the one yous'd find in Nougat, thanks to all the categorization of items.

Major changes that you'll be able to encounter are in the fact that things like "About Phone", "Developer Options", "Language and Input", etc. are inside a broader category called "System". There's also no slide-over menu in the Settings app, like at that place was in Nougat, which was actually something I liked quite a bit.

half-dozen. Ambient Display

With Android O, changes have also been made to the way Android handles notifications on a device's Ambient Display. In devices running Android Nougat, the Ambient Display showed very detailed notifications, sometimes fifty-fifty displaying images on the ambient brandish. While this was good, because the ambience brandish was able to show a lot of information regarding notifications, it did impact battery life quite a bit. So, Android O opts to prove just small app icons on the ambient screen of the device, preserving a lot of battery, and keeping the display looking neat and organised.

vii. Installing Apps from External Sources

Installing apps from sources other than the Play Shop has been an integral function of Android. As long equally you enable the security setting to allow app installation from unknown sources, you could install any APK that you want. Nevertheless, once this setting had been enabled, any, and every app could automatically begin installing on your Android device. To handle this, Google has changed the fashion installation from external sources works in Android O. In Android O, you'll accept to allow installation from unknown sources, on a per-app basis.

For instance, if you downloaded an app from Google Chrome, you'll have to enable the unknown sources setting for Google Chrome. Which means, that if yous download an APK from a unlike browser the next time around, you lot'll have to enable the setting for that browser, manually. Personally, I remember that this is a good manner to move towards higher security in a platform that is equally open as a platform tin can be. There's a long way to get, sure, and doing this manually for every different app volition be a little extra work, but if it helps to go along our devices just that much more secure, then I retrieve information technology's worth information technology.

8. Changes to the User Interface

Android O has too brought along a plethora of changes to the UI. Some of these are minor changes, and some are a little more noticeable, just for the well-nigh part, they're all good. Some of the changes that I've observed, and that are appear are mentioned below.

The date and time text on the status bar has changed significantly, and with Android O, Google has opted to go for a much cleaner, thinner font on the Status Bar. Also, once you've pulled the notification shade completely downward, tapping on the WiFi, Bluetooth icons no longer opens the quick settings folio, choosing to toggle WiFi, or Bluetooth instead. Yet, you can still tap on the text under the icons to open the quick settings panel. The battery indicator besides always lives in the status bar in Android O, dissimilar in Android N, where it used to shift to the Quick Settings equally before long as the notification shade was pulled downwards.

Another major change in Android O, is that you tin can no longer become the battery percentage to testify upward inside the battery icon. Even if y'all enable the setting in Arrangement UI Tuner, the pct will testify upward on the side of the battery icon in the status bar.

Android O as well brings along Adaptive Icons, and they are simply astonishing. Adaptive icons, every bit the name suggests, are icons that are displayed by the organization in different shapes, depending on a mask selected past the device. So, if you're using a theme with rounded icons, all apps with adaptive icons volition hands switch over to a round shape. Adaptive icons too become spacing on their sides for animations, that the system renders upon user interaction with the icons.

Come across As well: How to Install Android O Developer Preview on Nexus and Pixel Devices

Like The New Android O Features?

Android O brings along quite a number of new features and changes, and while these were the major changes you should definitely know about, in that location are a lot of other changes, and under the hood optimizations that Android O is bringing to the table, including things like a low-latency audio API (AAudio API), enhancements ton Android's WebView model, and a lot more than. Equally always, we would like to know your thoughts on Android O, what you think information technology'll be named, and your views on these Android O features. Besides, if yous know of any other cool feature that you recollect deserves to exist on this list, exercise let us know about it in the comments section below.

Source: https://beebom.com/cool-android-o-features/

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