Android P Developer Preview 2 is now available in the Android Beta program. If you own a Pixel or Pixel 2, you can grab the update right this minute. But what’s new? A lot actually. During today’s Google I/O 2018 keynote, we got the list…the full list that Google shares each year at its developer conference.
Now, we’ve talked about a lot of this stuff from the first Developer Preview, so we won’t touch on it all here. The stuff we want to focus on, is the stuff that Google showed off today that we had not yet seen.
First up, we have the slide below that touches on Google making Android P more simplistic than Android has ever been. Well, it’s simple in its looks just not in functionality.
We’ve got new gesture navigation with a single home button that allows you to swipe up and down to get into app switching, as well as a UI that suggests apps you might use. There is a new Adaptive Battery feature that “prioritizes battery power only for the apps and services you use the most, to help you squeeze the most out of your battery,” and Adaptive Brightness that “learns how you like to set the brightness slider given your surroundings.” You’ll find new App Actions within the app drawer that offer suggestions on things you might want to do, like call someone or go for a workout.
Google has created a new feature called Dashboard, which lets you see how much you are using your phone, its apps, that sort of thing. The idea here is let you unplug more by showing you just how obsessed you are. You’ll be able to set app timers to block them out from use, a wind down mode at night that turns your phone to black and white, and utilize an improved do not disturb.
As for the rest, just look at the P image below. This is the big guy that talks about the small tweaks that Google has made that probably won’t ever show up in a slide or press release.
More coming, including a first look at Android P Beta!
This post was last modified on January 13, 2020 11:33 am