And the new version of this operating system not far away. Let's see what we know about Android 9.0 so far.
From the first days, all updates of the operating Android systems named after sweets and in alphabetical order.
So far we have seen:
Android Donut (v1.6)
Android Eclair (v2.0)
Android Froyo (v2.2)
Android Gingerbread (v2.3)
Android Honeycomb (v3.0)
Android Ice Cream Sandwich(v4.0)
Android Jelly Bean (v4.1)
Android KitKat (V4.4)
Android Lollipop (v5.0)
Android Marshmallow (v6.0)
Android Nougat (v7.0)
android oreo(v8.0)
In 2018 we should see android launch 9.0 or Android P. The name won't be announced until the summer, but that doesn't stop us from trying to guess what the name will be.
But there is no guarantee that your device will definitely be updated to Android 9.0, as usual. Device fragmentation is still a problem for the operating system. Even in the last update of statistics on the use of Android versions on January 8, there were still devices running version 2.3.3 of Gingerbread.
So far, there have been very few rumors about what we can expect from Android P, except that, as suggested by the XDA Developers community, Google will remove access to unofficial APIs (which are not part of the official SDK). This news may upset some developers.
Other changes we expect to see in the upcoming update, according to rumors floating around on enthusiast sites, include support for WiFi Direct Printing and Bluetooth hearing aids, as well as better integration with the Google IoT platform - .
Things we would also like to see in Android 9.0 include faster deployment of the OS itself, as well as less device fragmentation. We also look forward to better support for the picture-in-picture function, as well as further improvements towards longer times battery life and productivity.
What would you like to see in Android P? Tell us about it in the comments.
Some new android versions bring with them many changes, both technical and external. Other versions simply refine what was already available.
Android 8.0 Oreo is somewhere in between. Stability android already at a high level, so the likelihood of seeing major changes in the interface and functionality in new versions is less and less every time. Android Oreo looks and feels like Android Oreo, but underneath there are a lot of functional and low-level optimizations that make the system more powerful and user-friendly.
With Oreo, new smartphones will be able to play videos in the background while using other apps. It will be easier to keep track of multiple notifications from a single app with new notification channels and notification dots. Smarter typing and autofill interface will make it easier to enter passwords and more. important information. Project Google Treble will help devices get the next Android updates faster.
Google didn't say until the last moment what name Android 8 would get, but the system itself has gradually appeared on devices in the form of developer previews over the past five months. Now the final version is available and you can fully appreciate all its advantages.
This review started in early August 2017 with a pre-release version of Android O, the first version of which appeared back in March. Most of the review is based on the latest preview, which differs little from the final version.
There will not be a complete list of changes and an extensive description of innovations intended for developers. The review is intended for the average user of smartphones and tablets.
More and more manufacturers, including , and , prefer a close-to-clean version of Android. For this reason, it's important to know where the design of stock Android is heading.
This time there are no major visual changes in the system. You can see a brighter color palette in the quick settings panel in notifications. The panel has become light gray instead of dark gray, the same thing happened with the Settings application. Whether this is good or bad is a matter of taste.
Also in the quick settings panel there are small changes in the arrangement of elements. Settings, switching between users and editing items have been moved even lower to make them easier to reach on long screens. Some flagships of this year have received the aspect ratio of the screens and in the future there may be more such smartphones.
The next notable change is a redesign of the Settings app. Android Nougat introduced the slide-out navigation bar, which has now been removed and uses 13 redesigned submenus for navigation. Many important settings got icons, android is better displays important options within each submenu.
The new battery settings are a good example. The top right shows the time with the screen on, here is the time since the last recharge. Scrolling down a bit, you will see the percentage of energy consumption by different applications.
You have to look deeper to see many other visual android changes 8.0. For example, Google started restore the long-awaited order in the location of application icons using adaptive icons. In Android 7.1, Google used circular app icons, now adaptive icons allow manufacturers to change the shape to fit their own visual style. For example, on Pixel smartphones, you can choose from five options.
Companies like , and , who like to offer their own icons, will get more reliable way do this, so that the quality should increase. The new icon style should bring unification to the app drawer and home android screens, which previously could vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Android animation has not changed much, a couple of innovations can be seen in the notification bar, they have become the next stage in the development of material design. Icons seamlessly transition from the status bar to notification cards, then to the overflow area if you have a lot of notifications. Icons in the status bar vibrate when new notifications appear, making the system feel more dynamic.
Not to mention the new emoticons. The graphics have been redesigned for a more classic style. In the future, Google's emoji compatibility library will allow developers to support new emojis on older versions of Android up to and including 4.4 KitKat.
Changing fonts in Android Oreo gives developers the ability to change the look of emoji in their apps, as well as making it easier to use custom fonts. This happened due to the fact that fonts have become a full-fledged type of resource.
Font compatibility feature in services Google Play is the most significant innovation. Support for new icons at the system level and a more unified look for emoji also play an important role. Many consider emoticons to be frivolous, but millions of users use them every day in correspondence, and developers of operating systems and devices cannot ignore this.
Notifications have been redesigned already in Android Nougat, the new version also brings a number of minor changes that will make it easier to work with them everyday.
Notification channels have appeared. This new feature, which contains app notification categories for easy management and filtering different types notifications from one application. For example, social applications may have private message channels, status updates, likes and other interactions.
You can choose how you receive alerts on each of these channels. It can be sound, vibration, LED indicator, it will be possible to completely block notifications from any channels. A long press on the notification will open the channel settings. Here you can allow or block notifications.
All this contains elements of micro-management and it is not known whether users will even know about the existence of notification channels. Google hopes to speed up the discovery process by requiring notification channels from apps that target Android 8.0 and want to make it to the Play Store.
There is another pitfall: it will take time and updates for many individual applications, only then it will be clear how successful this feature is. Perhaps notification channels will be useful, or users will be too lazy to work with them.
Speaking of laziness, Android 8.0 will make it possible to silence certain groups of notifications for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 or 2 hours. This is done by swiping to the right and clicking on the clock icon. The use cases here are next: it will be possible to dismiss notifications that are not needed right now, but not get rid of them for good.
Multimedia players like Google Play Music, YouTube and others will be able to use different colors in their notifications on top of the main cover colors, video thumbnails. Some users find that this adds unnecessary visual elements and clutters up the screen. Disappearing album transition is distracting, especially when using bright colors, but you can better separate controls from other notifications.
Media controls are brought to the fore, so persistent notifications such as those from Maps, google apps, points WiFi access, USB connections and other processes step aside. They will appear as notification cards in a darker bar to distinguish them from more important notifications. If you need to see more information, you can expand it like any other notification.
The changes to Android notifications are small but numerous, and they're not just limited to the notification bar. Ambient Display, first introduced in , has received the biggest update so far.
The main area of the Ambient Display shows less information than it did in Android Nougat, just the time and a row of icons that appear when the phone is picked up. Pop-up notifications on the Ambient Display are now larger and easier to read; if enabled, double tapping will open the main lock screen.
Finding the right balance between being able to see the right information at a glance and the density of the elements is not easy, but Google has tried to achieve this.
In addition to the notification bar, lock screen, or Always On Display, Android 8.0 allows downloaders to show individual app notifications in notification icons. Apps with unread notifications display colored dots, a long press opens a menu next to app shortcuts, plus you can swipe to dismiss notifications.
It's not the only new trick on the menu. quick action applications. The widget's new quick action button frees users from a long, clunky menu. Now the widgets of each application can be seen in one place.
The implementation of the function may differ depending on how application developers use it. It's based on the ability to launch a video from any application, then press the Home button to bring the video into a small floating window with controls. You can move this window around and resize it while still opening and working with other applications.
This is similar to the multi-window support that came with pure Android Nougat. It is possible to use a split window between the video player and another application, but picture-in-picture seems like a more elegant solution.
Like many android features 8.0, you need to wait for app updates to make picture-in-picture work in them. As always, there can be issues with copyright holders and advertisers who don't want their content to play in the background. We've already seen that background playback is paid on YouTube, while a YouTube Red subscription makes it available.
Either way, Android Oreo lays the technical foundation for this capability on smartphones and tablets. If new Google-made tablets and Android-enabled Chromebooks become available in the future, picture-in-picture will be more in demand among app developers and their users.
In Android Oreo, Google is attacking passwords in two ways. Autofill helps you sign in to your smartphone accounts using information already stored in your Google account. This is done with just one click. For example, if you are logged into Twitter on a computer using the Chrome browser, Google may use the stored information to access the Twitter app on your smartphone.
If you're already using a password manager and the corresponding app has been updated to Android 8.0, you'll be able to enter passwords from there automatically, as well as paste and copy text between fields. This feature will save you a lot of inconvenience when setting up a new Android device. From Google's point of view, there is double advantage, because the android users will receive additional motivation to use the Chrome browser on computers.
At best, the new feature will allow you to completely avoid entering a password on mobile devices, not counting the password from the Google account and two-factor authentication. As with many Android convenience features, you have to put up with giving Google a lot of information about yourself.
Also, Android has learned to manage certain types of information in text fields. When you select text, Google's machine learning engine recognizes what type of data you have selected and suggests appropriate options. For example, if you highlight a phone number, you will be offered a shortcut to launch the dialer, if you highlight an address, you can launch the Google map application.
This feature was in the Chrome browser in previous versions of Android, and now it is available throughout the operating system.
Android 8.0 will breathe new life in the Pixel C tablet, which will soon disappear from the scene, but at the same time continues to be expensive. In addition to the new multi-valued interface that was introduced for tablets in Android 7.1.2, Oreo adds a new keyboard shortcut system inside Android apps to help you navigate interfaces and menus faster when using a touch screen is inconvenient. This feature is especially useful on those tablets to which you can connect a physical keyboard.
The Pixel C and Chromebooks in general should benefit from the picture-in-picture feature, which is more useful on laptops, tablets and hybrids than on smartphones. It's not a full-fledged multi-window desktop system, but it already matches the capabilities of the iPad.
New audio-visual improvements will make Android tablets more attractive to content producers. Support for color gamuts in applications, standards such as DPI-P3, Adobe RGB and Pro Photo RGB will come in handy for photographers who new interface AAudio application programming will reduce audio latency.
Android is still a long way from challenging Apple on tablets and hybrids, but Android Oreo's innovations in this direction are worthy of attention. As usual, application support is an important part. Few programs, including those from Google itself, properly support big screens in landscape orientation. Android 8.0, despite its improvements, does not fix this situation.
Google has put more restrictions on what apps can do when they're not in the foreground. Apart from a few restrictions, apps in the background won't be able to respond to device events that aren't intended for them directly. Google is using these restrictions to force developers to take advantage of the task scheduler feature that was introduced with Android Lollipop. It manages background tasks and reduces the load on the battery. Android owners 8.0 doesn't have to do anything to improve battery life and performance. Everything will happen automatically.
also in new version system developers have tried to solve the problem of Android updates. The project, called Treble, contains a modular structure that device manufacturers can use to separate their own programming changes from the core of the operating system. The idea is to simplify the process of updating various android firmware without having to recycle them from scratch. This is not a panacea for the Android update problem, but it can significantly reduce the amount of work when upgrading from Android 8.0 to 8.1 or 9.0. The rate of distribution of monthly security updates should also increase.
It will take time to judge how successful this project will be. It all depends on how manufacturers will adhere to it.
As a result, Android Oreo is a sum of small changes that make the system easier to use, improve performance, and add convenience. Android is still Android, only more polished.
For most users Android features Nougat will be more than enough. Google and partners distribute security updates regardless of Android version, so not having Oreo doesn't mean you're defenseless. malicious applications. There is no doubt that 2018 will be in full swing before Android 8 reaches even 10% of devices.
In the long run, the Treble project should be the most important innovation of this release as Google removes the technical hurdles that kept many smartphones on older versions of Android. At the same time, Picture-in-Picture mode and improvements to keyboard navigation make Android more comfortable to work on. personal computers and hybrid laptops.
It can be said that this version became an evolution, not a revolution. This does not make the update unimportant, as owners of Pixel and Nexus smartphones will soon find out.
Google just released Last update software for smartphones and tablets - Android 8.0 Oreo. And while many changes remain behind the scenes, there are already plenty of known new features. In this guide, we'll learn what's new in Android Oreo and tell you what to expect. Including when you get the Oreo update, including a list of supported devices and a detailed look at the latest features.
There are many new features in Android Oreo that you can use to make your phone and tablet experience even better. It's a smart, fast, and powerful upgrade. Users will receive additional functions notifications that are easier to manage, and a new Picture-in-Picture mode for videos. Changes will affect icons, text highlighting and auto-fill features in applications, such as Google Chrome. Not to mention faster performance and longer battery life.
Many changes have also taken place behind the scenes, so you won't see them right away, but they will make a big difference in daily use. After a long period of beta testing, Google released Android Oreo on August 21st officially. The system is already available on select Nexus and Pixel devices, with more coming soon. Read on for more details.
UpdateAndroid 8.0Oreo: release date
For those wondering, Android 8.0 Oreo is free update software for everyone suitable devices. The first devices to receive the new software from Google are the Nexus 5X, Google Pixel XL, and google tablet Pixel C and Nexus Player. The update process may take 2-3 weeks.
In addition, Google confirmed that android testing Oreo on Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and Pixel has already begun. In the past, these devices received updates for two weeks.
Then Android 8.0 update is expected this year on Essential, General Mobile, HDM Global (Nokia), Huawei, HTC, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp and Sony smartphones, just to name a few.
What's new inAndroidOreo?
Below, we'll take a look at the new features specific to Android 8.0 Oreo and available on all supported smartphones, tablets, and Android TV. Not to mention, you'll be getting new Google Assistant features and a new Google Lens app soon. It's not the most important update, but there's a lot more to look forward to.
System optimization A: Google has worked hard to make OS apps run faster and smoother. System optimization will allow smartphones to reboot twice as fast and possibly double the performance of applications and games.
Background restrictions: A power saving feature in addition to "Doze" that will limit the battery usage of applications in the background based on priorities. The Android 8.0 update will limit, for example, how often apps check your location, scan Wi-Fi, or access data. (Some applications may need to restart when reopened).
Smart text selection A: Android Oreo recognizes addresses, URLs, phone number, and email address. Double tap and copy/paste the selection and the system will prompt you for the apps you need. In addition to the usual copy, paste or copy of all commands.
Notification dots: The notification system on Android is powerful, but it gets even better. A small colored dot can indicate notifications and app activity, enhancing the visual experience. Visibility right on the icons is complemented by the ability to view notifications by long pressing on the icon.
Picture-in-picture mode and notification dots inAndroid 8.0Oreo.
Picture-in-Picture mode: Android TV already has PiP mode with Nougat, and now this feature is available to all devices on Android based Oreo. This is a feature for video in picture. Imagine being able to use your smartphone and watch YouTube videos at the same time. So, for example, you can watch instructions on YouTube while exploring a project in Chrome at the same time. There is also support for multi-screen displays. You can watch something on your phone, and put a parallel stream on your TV.
Automatic completion: Just like our desktop web browsers, automatic completion will work on smartphones and tablets, be it email or physical addresses in apps. Android 8.0 Oreo provides auto-complete for Google OS.
Responsive icons and icons: Instant notifications about the number of messages or information directly on the icons on the main screen. Similar to iOS. Not to mention adaptive icons. Imagine that the clock icon always shows the correct time, the calendar shows the date, and so on. It is also worth noting the attractive animation.
Notification channels: The notification system is changing slightly again. Related notifications thanks new API allow developers better control over what we see and how often. Later we will see synchronization between devices. There will also be an option to snooze notifications.
Widescreen Color for Applications: Android developers will now be able to use new devices with a widescreen color display. How . Applications will be more colorful and attractive.
Keyboard navigation A: We have already seen this feature to some extent on Android Nougat, but it will get better in Android Oreo. Navigation will allow you to scroll and perform gestures from the keyboard and while typing.
Sound enhancements: new sound low latency Bluetooth support aptX and other solutions.
New emoji inAndroidoreo: The ugly Android emoji are dying. Google recycles every emoji into new Android Oreo. In addition to being the first update to support Emoji 5.0, you now get a huge number of new emojis in a new design.
New emojis onAndroid 8.0Oreo.
Androidoreovitals: Actively discussed on Google - Vitals is a project that promises to improve battery life of devices, speed up start-up time, time graphic display and overall device stability.
Rescue Party: Android fixes itself. Rescue Party restores and fixes core components of the Android OS during boot cycles. With each action, the function digs deeper until the problem is fixed. In extreme cases, it is recommended to change the factory data. This restore is similar to "Latest Stable" in Windows.
Downloadable fonts andXML: Developers and manufacturers will have even more control over the font and its design in their applications or on devices, as well as in applications. Each application can easily have its own font, which will not interfere with the operation of the device.
Fluid Experiences: Allow users to do even more with Android. This definition includes Picture-in-Picture mode, notification dots, and adaptive icons.
ProjectTreble: New project, which promises to make the Android base modular. The goal is to make it easier for manufacturers to update Android by keeping the base consistent and working across all devices and software versions.
Androidgo: Like Android One, Android Go is a new initiative for budget devices. The entire operating system, Google apps, and Play Store have been rebuilt for devices with 1 GB of RAM or less. Premium Android features for every budget.
More gestures for fingerprint scanners: Google is adding new gestures and movements to access Android Oreo.
Above, you can see an image provided by Google that teases some of the features that weren't previewed in the developer version of the system. All of them are included in the official release on August 21st. Some of these include a new split launcher, instant apps in the app tray, new screen animations and brightness improvements, work profiles, and more.
On August 21st, Google submitted Android 8.0 Oreo to AOSP (an open source project). source code), and on-air updates immediately rained down. Check for updates right now. Alternatively, you can install Android 8.0 yourself if you're not ready to wait.
Now users can only sit back and wait for the new Android 8.0 Oreo update from Google. Android update 8.0 is coming in stages, slowly up to a certain percentage of devices. This solution enables a smooth upgrade process and prevents critical errors. If you haven't figured it out yet, please be patient as the update continues to roll out.
Currently all new Nexus devices and Pixel get updates. In the coming weeks, we expect to continue rolling out the update. Then, over the next 2-3 months, most major manufacturers will roll out Android Oreo to their smartphones and tablets.
On August 21, 2017, for the first time in the history of the United States, a solar eclipse occurred, which could only be observed on the territory of this country. On the same day, Google released the final version of the Android 8.0 operating system. But they say that timing projects to coincide with major events and anniversaries is a vicious practice!
The first versions of the system were unnamed, they had only numbers: Android 1.0 and 1.1. Codenames for major updates have been around since 2009, when Google jumped from version 1.1 straight to 1.5. Names began to be issued only to major versions, according to the names of sweet delicacies, in alphabetical order.
So the version numbered 1.5 was also called Cupcake ( English cupcake), immediately skipping the goodies on the letters A and B. The next few years, this idea was implemented haphazardly. It was not easy for users to figure out what was in the versions, what was in and their names. And it was even more difficult to guess which versions would follow. For five years, the logic of the developers was as follows: a major version could be considered a version with a number in which not only the first, but also the second number, separated by a dot, changed. Versions with a third number were considered minor, they were not supposed to have names. But in fact, the names did not work out.
For example, Android 2.0 was called Éclair ( fr. eclair). But version 2.1 was also called exactly the same, although the second number of the number has changed. With versions 2.2 and 2.3 it was clearer - they were called Froyo ( English frozen yogurt) and Gingerbread ( English gingerbread). However, Google then created Android 3.0 under the name Honeycomb ( English honeycomb) for tablets only. And the same name extended to versions 3.1 and 3.2.
Android 4.0, already designed for both tablets and smartphones, was called Ice Cream Sandwich ( English ice cream sandwich). But versions 4.1 and 4.2 had one name for two - Jellybean ( English marmalade). Finally, the last named update with a second number in the version number was Android 4.4 KitKat, released in 2013.
Even then, the next major update began to be talked about as Android L, not yet knowing what number or full code name it would have. And since 2014, when Android 5.0 Lollipop came out ( English lollipop), the chaos subsided a little. Since then, major updates, while they are still being developed, are often referred to primarily by the first letter of their future codenames. And the full code name is recognized right on the day the system is released - until that moment it remains a kind of intrigue. So Android 6.0 M was named Marshmallow ( English marshmallows), in honor of the sweets popular in the West that look like marshmallows, and Android 7.0 N was called Nougat ( English nougat).
For Android O, most enthusiasts expected the name Oatmeal ( English oatmeal) or Oreo. Oreo is a brand name for extremely popular cookies in the West. In fact, "cookies" and Oreo have become synonymous in some countries. In the post-Soviet space, in a similar way, such brand words as Xerox, named after the manufacturer of copiers Xerox (actually pronounced “Zierox”), and a felt-tip pen, after the American brand of ink for markers Flo-Master, banned in the USA in 80 -x because of the lead in its composition.
Google chose Oreo cookies through a promotional deal with Nabisco, the company that makes them. This is the second time Google has entered into such an agreement with sweets manufacturers. Just in 2013, Android 4.4 was named KitKat, in honor of the candy bar of the same name. On this occasion, Nestle, the world's largest food manufacturer and owner of the KitKat brand, launched a large advertising campaign around the world, including a massive giveaway of a Nexus 7 tablet.
The next major update will unequivocally be called Android P, although it is not yet known what version number the update will have. Google's modern numbering hints to us that it will be Android 9.0. However, with a long history of complete mess in versions and their corresponding names, you can expect anything from a corporation. For example, the fact that this will be called Android 8.1 or 8.5 in general.
When opening the notification panel in Android Oreo, the first thing that catches your eye is new panel quick settings. The battery and the clock at the very top are finally not obstructed and do not disappear anywhere. And the rest has not changed. About the quality of mobile Internet, the level wifi signal, states Bluetooth connectivity and other things - you have to judge directly by the icons of quick settings.
All colors are now reversed - inverted: the background of the quick settings is light gray, and the icons themselves are black. The information line has moved down. On it - the date, the alarm icon (if the alarm is set), phone settings and an arrow to open the full panel.
As you open the full panel in the information line, the date with a smooth animation changes to an alarm clock (again, if it is set), and a profile avatar, a button for editing quick settings, and an up arrow to shorten the panel appear. The curious thing is that before the date was not pressed, but now clicking on it launches the Clock application and switches directly to the Alarm tab. By the way, not everyone knows that the full panel could always be opened by swiping down the screen with two fingers at once.
Quick Settings first appeared in Android 5.0. Each badge has been signed. But even then, this signature could also have an arrow on the right. This arrow meant that if you click on the signature, additional settings will open right inside the same quick settings panel. In Android 7.0, these arrows disappeared, and in Android 8.0 they reappeared.
It seems that now everything has finally settled down and is intuitive. A single click on any setting icon toggles its state. Long press - opens the corresponding menu item in the Settings application. And clicking on the signature with an arrow opens the very additional settings that we were deprived of. The only pity is the battery setting. Previously, after clicking on it, you could see a graph of charge consumption. Now it just turns on the power saving mode.
The advanced interface editor from previous versions of operating systems (OS) has not gone away in Android 8.0. If you hold down the gear button in the information line, it will spin. Two seconds later, the Settings app opens and informs you that the System UI Tuner feature has been accessed ( English setting user interface systems). You will find the System UI Tuner item in the already opened Settings application, in the System section.
Oreo has exactly the same status bar as all previous versions of Android. On it, one after another, as on a kind of "shelf", there are notification icons. But in this version of the system, as you lower the notification bar, you lower this shelf with icons.
When the user lowers the curtain at least one line, the card of the very first notification begins to appear - the icon corresponding to it "jumps" from this shelf as if on a spring - right into its place on the card. The further you pull the panel, the more icons will jump out of the shelf and into their places on the cards. The animation of this whole process is absolutely exceptional. But the point is not only in animation, but also in informativeness.
Often, so many notifications come to the device that the list of cards simply cannot fit on the panel that is completely open with them.
In Android N, this problem was solved, albeit beautifully, but not very conveniently. The most recent notifications were stacked at the bottom of the list, piling up on top of each other. The problem is that there was not even a hint of what kind of cards in this pile below. To do this, it was necessary to scroll through the entire list so that the hidden card appeared in full.
In Android O, this has become much more convenient. After all, when you open the notification panel, you pull the shelf with icons. If they have enough space to turn into cards, the shelf is empty. And if not, the remaining icons on this shelf remain. Scroll through the list of notifications and watch the icons jump off the shelf one after another. Scroll the list in the opposite direction - the icons will "jump" back onto the shelf.
A more rare problem is that there are so many notifications that even their icons do not fit on the status bar. Recent icons in both previous and new system separated by dots. After all, they are supported by even more important status icons: Mobile Internet, battery, time and others. But in Android O, when the shelf with icons is lowered, firstly, several notifications will open into cards, and there will be fewer icons, and secondly, nothing will prop them up - only they are below, they just fit more.
Perhaps the most important and expected innovation of Android Oreo is the picture-in-picture mode (PiP, picture-in-picture). Users have long wanted to watch videos or chat while doing other things on the same screen. Now it's possible. If, for example, the video is open in full screen - just press the button to switch to PiP mode - and it will continue to be shown on top of all applications in a small rectangle. It can be placed anywhere on the screen with a simple drag and drop. And to quickly close it, you can drag the rectangle down, as if out of the screen.
Clicking once on the rectangle will enlarge the picture, showing a small interface. At a minimum, there will be "close" and "expand" buttons. The application developer may decide to add pause buttons, go to the next or previous video, and other buttons to them.
The sad thing is that the picture cannot be placed on the very border of the screen and cannot be pushed behind it. Much sadder is that the image size cannot be changed in any way. But in some cases, especially with videos and chats, PiP is a hundred times more convenient than giving the application half or a third of the screen as in Android Nougat. However, this opportunity has not gone away. Smartphone displays may grow in size, but not to the point where users can easily squander space on them. In this regard, the PiP feature is very useful.
And yet, to be completely honest, picture-in-picture is not exactly new, this feature was already in the Android 7.0 codebase. Just in full growth, it was implemented only in Android TV.
And speaking completely honestly, it cannot be argued that the feature will be easily available on every device under Android control 8.0. It's all about the key to switch to this mode. On the remotes of TVs and set-top boxes, this is a separate button. And on Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, users need to press the Home key to enter this mode. It is not yet known how manufacturers of other phones will get out. On the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, this key simply does not exist, and the Home button behaves as usual - takes the user to the main screen.
However, there is no reason to despair, even if something is limited in Android - there are almost always ways to get around these restrictions. You just need to add the desired button to the navigation bar. Starting with Android N, you don't even need to install "alternative" firmware from unknown enthusiasts! However, it is still not so easy for an ordinary user to do this. Let me just say that the easiest way is with the Custom Navigation Bar app.
It should also be noted that in practice, with the support of this mode by the applications themselves, it is still not at all thankful to God. It is really implemented only in the official applications of Google itself, which is already familiar - to whom, if not the main developer, to demonstrate the latest features.
Of greatest interest to work in PiP mode is the YouTube application. It is also the one with the greatest difficulty. The video in it can be forced to transfer to PiP. But every time the ad should start, the video will stop. Then you need to expand it and press the "Play" button. At the same time, the button for skipping ads in PiP mode is not provided. And at the end of the ad, the video will again have to be turned on manually.
The thing is that the PiP function in YouTube, as it were, should not work. It is only available to subscribers of the YouTube Red paid service, which disables ads. This subscription is generally not available in the CIS. There are at least five solutions here: suffer; watch only those videos where there are no ads; block ads at the application, system or router level; buy YT Red by impersonating a foreigner through a VPN or proxy; wait for the YT Red subscription to be combined with the Play Music subscription. In addition to these difficulties, there may be another one: if I locked my Nexus 6P when the video was playing in PiP mode, then I could no longer unlock the device. Pressing the unlock button took him into a reboot.
Of the video chats in this mode, Google Duo and WhatsApp are already working. Duo orients the picture vertically, but so far the interlocutor is blocked by heaps of garbage: the logo, the video from the caller's camera, the interface buttons. However, Duo can still be finalized, although few people use it. In WhatsApp, the picture is oriented horizontally, which is strange - video calls in this messenger are only available from phone to phone, which means that the video stream will be vertical. The black bars on the sides are bewildering, but at least the video itself doesn't block anything.
Chrome can also be switched to picture-in-picture mode. However, its logic is straight as a rail: the tab you open will be stupidly narrowed down to a small PiP window. For ordinary web pages, this idea is meaningless - in a small window there is no way to scroll them. But with video it works with a bang, only the video itself must not be forgotten to be opened in separate tab full screen, and only then go to PiP.
Settings once again shaken up - and very thoroughly. Starting from the icon: it is now a white gear with a green background. The side menu is no more. There are fewer sections, but they have more paragraphs and subparagraphs. The design is even more minimalistic - all the icons are black and white, and before there was an accent color. Many subparagraphs are duplicated in different sections. It should be easier for beginners to navigate here - the system looks simpler. Although advanced users may be dissatisfied, because it now takes longer to get to many functions: some of the items also need to be expanded from the “Advanced Settings” line.
At the top of the settings, advice is still given on what else the user needs to do, configure or master. Only in Android O, these tips can be removed by swiping, and in N, you had to press the three dots located nearby and select "Remove".
In "Network and Internet" now Wi-Fi, mobile network with traffic, tethering mode with hotspot and VPN with airplane mode. These items are listed right under the section name on the first screen.
The Connected Devices section has combined Bluetooth, streaming to external screens, NFC, USB and printers.
Next - "Apps and notifications". From here, you can manage app permissions and emergency alert settings. Unfortunately, how many random access memory busy, and how much is free - now you can’t see - this item in the menu is no longer there. You can only see how much RAM each application takes individually. Apparently, Google is so confident in the reliability automatic control RAM in Android Oreo, which consider informing the user about its state in principle unnecessary.
The "Battery" section has been redesigned - now you can immediately see how much has passed since the moment it was fully charged and how much the screen has eaten. Next, immediately go to the power saving mode settings, displaying the exact battery percentage in the status bar (finally), duplicated adaptive brightness and setting the transition time to deep energy-saving sleep (they are also in the “Display” section). Below are power consumption statistics, but only by applications. To see full statistics, including how much battery the system itself has drained, as in older versions of Android, you need to click on the three dots and select "All usage information". And the full graph of the charge over time can be seen if you click on the large battery icon.
There's nothing new under the Display category, as are the Sound, Security & Location, Users & Accounts, and Specials categories. possibilities". Is that now you can select any audio file as a melody. This is undoubtedly a breakthrough innovation, but by the standards of 2001. Thank God that it appeared in Android at least in 2017.
Storage now shows the absolute amount of used space next to a visual percentage graph. Below are the categories of files and their volume. There is also a "Smart Storage" option: when the space runs out, the system will delete those files that are already uploaded to Google Drive. Of course, the files themselves will remain available online. However, keep in mind that your 4K video will turn into 1080p after downloading, and the quality of the images will decrease. Pixel and Pixel XL phones have unlimited storage immediately after purchase cloud storage. Users may find this useful. However, no other cloud service cannot be chosen. This decision may potentially be of interest to antimonopoly committees. different countries in terms of unfair competition.
Google Options is now the penultimate category in Settings. Previously, they could open as separate application « Google Settings» in the list of all applications installed on the device. Often, the shortcut of this application was completely signed simply as “Settings”, and only the icon distinguished them from the settings of the device itself, which confused users. There should be less confusion now. There is nothing new inside the settings, their structure and content will change dynamically as the system application is updated " Google Services play". If the device does not have Google applications preinstalled (this is not uncommon in cheap Chinese), then this category will not exist either.
The “System” section closes - now the language, date, backup, and everything else about the phone is here. By the way, SMS backup also appeared there. Users have been waiting for this for ten years! The "Movement" options have now somehow moved to the "Language and input" subsection, where they can be found under the "Advanced settings" item. The “Movement” subsection on the Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X and other Pixels is responsible for the settings for raising the phone, controlling the notification shade using the fingerprint scanner, and others.
In the entire settings menu is now gone right tab"Support". It's now a separate category at the end of the settings list. Pixel and Pixel XL owners can start an online chat or a call to support from here at any time of the day or night. However, in Russia it is not available.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to treat these changes calmly - experience suggests that they are not the last time, and remembering in which section and in what place the option you need here and now is located is becoming increasingly difficult. From memory, clearly rattling out exactly where to go and what to press, say, for a technically inexperienced person, is already a problem. And it is even clear that with the increase in the number of functions and the growth of the list of features, such reorganizations are inevitable. But quietly to myself I would like to wish interface designers a more responsible attitude to the semantics and integrity of the menu tree from version to version with an unkind word. In the end, well, not every year it is completely changed.
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When Android 8.0 sees a suitable field - system |
Automatically filled fields |
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There have always been problems with password managers on Android. Previously, in order to use them, you had to turn on the mode for people with disabilities. This is how password managers managed to get information about fields from some applications. In this mode, the entire system worked noticeably slower, and this technique did not always work, sometimes it was necessary to resort to much more exotic solutions.
When Android Oreo first detects a field that could be filled in automatically, the system will ask the user if they want to turn on the autofill feature. You can opt out immediately or later. But if you agree, the system will also ask you if you want to synchronize the logins and passwords that you will enter into different applications in the future.
Initially assigned as the data source for filling out forms " Google autocomplete". If you are using Chrome browser, entered into his account Google, save passwords and allow synchronization of data from forms with Google servers, then there is no problem - they will be substituted from there.
In Android O, this system is organized through the Autofill Framework ( English autocomplete platform). The user can also use official apps services such as LastPass, 1Password and others. Having installed a third-party application, of course, you must first log in to it in order to gain access to your password database.
Then the system itself will analyze the forms in different applications for matches with your base. As soon as you click on the appropriate field in the form, Android will offer to extract data from the database and automatically fill in all the fields in the form. These can be not only fields with logins and passwords, but also addresses, payment details, phone numbers, and so on.
You can always change the password manager or disable the feature by going to Settings > System > Language & input > Autofill. From here, you can also add a new service by searching the Play Store for applications that support this feature. In Android 8.0.0, this option is mistakenly translated as "Add Print Service", in English it is simply called "Add service". However, so far there are no such applications in the Market, except perhaps separate beta versions, which must be accessed separately.
Back in May, at the Google I / O 2017 conference, it was announced that Android O will learn to recognize selected text and associate it with context-appropriate applications. Moreover, the system will be tied to self-learning algorithms that will understand better and better what the user has selected. At the same time, confidential information should not leave the limits of the user device. However, the company is not in a hurry to implement this feature - so far it only works in Google Docs.
Android 8.0 is by no means the first OS that is able to understand what exactly the user has selected - this feature has existed in iOS for a long time. And the ancients were also able to automatically recognize phone numbers in SMS and on web pages. push-button phones. Still, better late than never. The idea is that a link to a related application will appear directly in the context menu after selection. If there is more than one application of this type, for example, Google Maps and Yandex.Maps, the user will be asked which one to use by default. Click the link and you will be taken to desired application, into which what you selected has already been transferred and correctly formatted. Phone number - you will get into the dialer, the address - into the cards, e-mail - into the mail client.
In the new system, as in every version before it, it was not without easter egg. You can see it by going to Settings> System> About phone and tapping several times on the line "Android Version". This time we got a yellow and white circle (or the letter O). If you click on it several times, and then hold it, we get a black octopus on a blue background. The cephalopod can be moved across the screen directly behind the snout, and its tentacles will stretch from this.
The Easter egg in every version of Android is not just a joke, it usually demonstrates some new feature. Although not always obvious to a simple user. The octopus's tentacles stretch as they move, thanks to a new physics library that's built into the system.
New physics for 2D animation allows objects to store angular momentum, including calculating it from the speed at which the user moves the object across the screen. Previously, the system interface counted only the travel time. Application developers now have easy access to list scrolling animations with realistic braking, as well as spring animations. The eight tentacles of an octopus are an example of such springs.
The "Downloads" application, outwardly, compared to Android Nougat, has not changed much, but now it has been renamed to "Saved Files" and through it you can view the entire file system. This is extremely convenient because for the simplest operations, users may not even need to install third party applications. And if you hold the file, then there are options not only for copying, moving and renaming files, but also for “Open with”.
However, if you want to work with files more seriously, for example, through root, then this application will not be enough.
Android 8.0 introduces full support for the Emoji 5.0 standard, adopted in March 2017 as part of the Unicode standard. There are 69 new emojis in the system, plus the UN flag from Emoji 4.0, which was forgotten in Android 7.1. On top of that, for emojis with faces are available different variants skin colors.
The pictures themselves have been completely redrawn. Google has finally abandoned emoji in the form of drops. Now all the faces on them are round, which brings their visual style closer to sets from other operating systems. A lot of other pictures that haven't been updated in years have got a lot of new details. And symbolic icons have become closer in design to iOS.
However, many applications still have their own sets of emoji, and therefore these changes will not even affect them. In addition, due to the fact that many devices will not receive an update to Oreo, many users, in principle, will not see these emoticons soon. However, here Google can help users by providing application developers with the EmojiCompat library. If application authors implement it in their projects, then old systems on which such an application will be installed will also have access to the set.
To be continued…
The new operating system was announced yesterday, but it is not yet known exactly when smartphones will be able to receive the update.
Thanks to Mountain View, it became known that the update to Android Oreo will be available for owners of Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Pixel C and Nexus Player. Pixel owners will be able to get the update over the air, while everyone else will have to download it manually. The update weighs only 50 MB. Most likely, its weight for smartphones from other companies will be much greater.
To upgrade to Android Oreo right now, the first step is to back up the data on your smartphone. You can update in two ways:
The second way is more reliable. You need to go to this page, log into your Google account and click on the "register device" button. Roll back to previous version operating system can be found on the same page. Google Pixel, Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P owners will soon be able to get the update without downloading images and the Android Beta Program.
Google confirmed that carriers have already begun testing new software for these devices. The update will take place in stages. It has also been confirmed that select devices from Essential, General Mobile, HMD Global, Huawei, HTC, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony will receive the Android 8.0 Oreo update before the end of 2017.
