Android O is out – well at least the developer preview is. Google announced on the Android developer’s blog, with Dave Burke, VP of Engineering noting that “The usual caveats apply: it’s early days, there are more features coming, and there’s still plenty of stabilization and performance work ahead of us. But it’s booting :).[sic]”
Google will be detailing more about the new OS at Google I/O in May, with updated developer previews coming up over the next few months.
While the developers start cracking their knuckles, here’s what you can expect from the new OS.
Firstly, it’s better battery life. Google added automatic limits on what apps can do in the background, in three main areas: implicit broadcasts, background services, and location updates.
Another update relates to notification channels, where notifications are split into app-defined categories. You can block or change channel behaviours without managing all notifications together.
Android O also adds new visuals and grouping to notifications that make it easier for users to see what’s going on when they have an incoming message or are glancing at the notification shade.
Autofill can also be controlled through an app – and all the secure user data, such as addresses, user names, and even passwords. The way it works is similar to keyboard apps.
Multitaskers rejoice – Picture in Picture (PIP) is now available, so you can continue watching a video while answering a chat or hailing a car. Apps can put themselves in PiP mode from the resumed or a pausing state where the system supports it – and you can specify the aspect ratio and a set of custom interactions (such as play/pause).
There will also be options for adaptive icons, for different phones running different system displays, based on the mask of each device. You can also expect animated interaction with the icons, in launcher, shortcuts, Settings, sharing dialogs, and in the overview screen.
Android O now also supports high-quality Bluetooth audio codecs such as LDAC codec. Also added is new Wi-Fi features as well, like Wi-Fi Aware, previously known as Neighbour Awareness Networking (NAN). On devices with the appropriate hardware, apps and nearby devices can discover and communicate over Wi-Fi without an Internet access point.
Keyboard navigation is also in the works, with Google building a more reliable and predictable model for “arrow” and “tab” navigations.
AAudio is a new native API that’s designed specifically for apps that require high-performance, low-latency audio. Apps using AAudio read and write data via streams. The are now testing this with the release and getting developer feedback for this feature.
As Google inches closer to the final release, they will be inviting consumers to try it out; enrollments will open through Android Beta. For now, Android Beta is not currently available for Android O.
There’s a whole lot more – we gave you the extremely dumb down version. If you want to know more, read at Android developer’s blog.
