What’s new in Android?

The most recent version of the Android OS has been released by Google with an official name of Android 9 Pie, which is commonly known as Android P as well. This software is currently available to the users having Google Pixel.

This version is a major breakthrough by Google, and this cannot just be considered as an update, but it will effectively change the way you use your smartphone.

With Android P, the three core principles that Google is focussing on are - intelligence, simplicity, and digital wellbeing. Here are the highlights of these.

1. Intelligence

Adaptive Battery: Optimization of Battery life has been a primary focus of some of the previous versions of Android like Marshmallow, Nougat and Oreo. However, for Oreo, there were many feedbacks and complaints related to abrupt battery drain. Google continued to make fair amount of improvements and has come up a new feature in Android Pie with name “Adaptive Battery”, which uses Machine Learning to combat the problem of frequent draining of battery. Machine Learning helps in identifying which apps you use frequently and which you do not, and eventually making them active when you actually need to work with them in a way that it is energy efficient.

Adaptive Brightness: While using a smartphone, background brightness is always important. If you are using it where surroundings have relatively less light, you are likely to be comfortable with low brightness, while using your phone in a bright sunny light, you want the full brightness of the screen. This makes you keep adjusting your screen brightness every now and then. But the “Adaptive Brightness” feature of the Android P makes your phone do it for you. Your phone predicts the level of brightness that you like to set, and adjust it accordingly based on your needs.

App Actions: Sometimes you use a particular app and carry out repeated actions with that. With “App Actions” feature, your phone recommends you the next action that you would want to take, based on the previous predictions.

Slices: At times, you want to access only the relevant information from a particular app.

2. Simplicity

Intuitive Navigation: Previous versions of Android had three buttons below the screen, that were home, multitasking and back. With Android P, it is no more present, because it gives you a better way of working with different apps together. You can access the open apps simply by swiping up the home button, and you can also switch between the apps easily with the help of gestures instead of buttons. You can also see more details of how you can work around with apps.

3. Digital Wellbeing

Dashboard: The dashboard gives you a better understanding of how often you are using your phone. This enables you to check the number of notifications that you get along with the time that you spend on each app, and how often you check your phone.

App Timers: This helps you to set the time limits in order to use a particular app and also notifies you by graying out the app icon when you get close to the time limit that you have already specified.

Do Not Disturb: This makes your phone notification sounds and visual interruptions silent, however you will still receive calls from contacts that you have starred, so you do not need to worry about missing any important calls.

Wind Down: This enables you to set the particular time when you go to sleep daily, and when you reach close to that time, your phone screen fades to grayscale and Do Not Disturb will activate making your phone silent for notifications and calls. Also, whenever you wish to disconnect, you can activate do not disturb anytime. Find all features of Android 9.0 Pie here.

Various Android OS Versions

Android occupies the major portion of the smartphone market (82.8%), and almost everyone might be familiar with Android. But do you know that all the versions of Android have the names of deserts and in alphabetical order. Here is the list of all versions released so far.