Android P: The most prominent features and availability date of the new version of Android
Today, Google officially announced the next version of the Android operating system with the code name Android P or Android 9.0. Google has provided the developer preview version of Android P or Android 9.0 for download to users of its Pixel smartphones. The next version of Android carries many new features, and it is also Google is expected to reveal more features and details about Android 9.0 during its annual iO 2018 developers conference scheduled to be held next May.
These were the most prominent features of Android P revealed by Google:
– Better improvements to alerts
Android P offers many improvements to alerts, most notably the ability to display images within alerts, in addition to displaying more information within alerts such as the sender’s name and photo, in addition to displaying appropriate interactions according to each alert and suggesting smart ready-made responses to respond to messages easily and quickly through alerts.
Google had introduced the feature of getting custom alerts from applications, and in Android P it added the ability to block the appearance of specific alerts from an application. For example, the user can block getting alerts for messages received in Twitter only.
– Support for top-mounted displays such as the iPhone
Many smartphone manufacturers, such as Asus and other companies, launched a design similar to the design of the iPhone It has a “top cut” in the screen.
– Multiple cameras support
Most high-spec Android smartphones now come with two cameras, either on the rear or on the back Galaxy Note 8 AndGalaxy S9 Plus And Huawei Mate 10 Pro or front like Galaxy A8 And the A8 Plus, but the manufacturers needed to develop the features in their camera application. In Android P, the operating system will support these features, which means that the user will be able to take advantage of the advantages provided by the presence of two cameras, such as zoom and applying the bokeh effect within other applications. Such as Snapchat, Instagram and other applications.
– Display video and photos with better resolution
Android P supports the HDR VP9 format, which facilitates watching high-definition movies compatible with HDR technology in devices that allow displaying content in this format. The next version of Android also provides support for the HEIF format, which allows displaying images in higher quality while compressing images up to half compared to JPEG format, which provides more storage space for the user.
– Determine the location more accurately within places
Android P offers support for the 802.11mc Wi-Fi protocol, also known as Wifi Round Trip Time, which provides the ability to track geographical location while moving inside enclosed spaces such as shopping centers and commercial malls.
Android P carries a new, better design for the settings menu in the Android operating system, as it comes with colored icons that express each section, such as network, screen, and battery, in addition to improvements to the quick settings display panel, so that it now appears along the screen instead of across two pages.
Android P adds a screen capture button for the user when the power button is pressed, with better options for easily editing, drawing, and writing on screenshots.
– Move the sound bar to the side with a longitudinal design
– Better privacy for users
To provide better privacy, Android P restricts access to the phones' built-in microphone, camera, and sensors when apps are idle, or when the user is not working on them. If an app tries to access the camera or record audio, for example, the operating system will not allow it to do so. Android P offers better access for apps to the fingerprint sensor, with a better interface so users can ensure their fingerprint authentication comes from the same trusted source.
Google continues to improve energy efficiency in Android P, by improving the Doze feature and adding restrictions for applications to run in the background to increase battery life, in addition to improving the auto-completion feature, along with improvements to performance and speeding up opening and switching between applications.
During its annual developers conference io18, Google announced more details about the features of Android P and the date of its availability for more smartphones, which features include:
– A smarter phone based on artificial intelligence technologies
Google said that Android 9.0 makes the phone smarter based on artificial intelligence techniques, by learning from user behavior and adapting to it, so that it provides better performance and a longer battery life. Google added that it has cooperated with… DeepMind It is a pioneer in proprietary artificial intelligence technology in providing the Adaptive Battery feature, which allocates battery power to the most frequently used applications, in addition to the Adaptive Brightness feature, which learns from the user the most appropriate lighting for him according to different scenarios, and then changes the lighting intensity automatically.
– App Actions feature
Among the new features of Android P is also a feature called App Actions, which provides smart suggestions according to the user’s behavior and automatically predicts his next activity. For example, the feature helps the user reach the next task more quickly by predicting what he wants to do next, if he connects headphones. On its own, the feature will suggest restarting his favorite Spotify list, and Google said that the App Actions feature in Android 9.0 will provide actions or suggestions to the user via the app launcher, when selecting texts, and through the Google Search app, the voice assistant, and the App Store.
– Slices feature
It is a feature that provides the user with direct information from within the applications when searching on Google. For example, if the user searches for the phone taxi ordering application “Uber”, information will appear to him in a card or interactive segment within the search results for the price of the trip to work, and you need This feature needs to be supported by the application developers themselves.
Google removed the traditional buttons in the Android operating system in the new version, Android Pand replaced them with a completely new system for navigating through gestures similar to the one provided by Apple in the iPhone
– Smart responses to alerts
Google introduced the Smart Replies feature in Gmail earlier last year, a feature that suggests smart replies to the user to respond to emails, and Android P supports the same feature to facilitate responses to alerts based on artificial intelligence techniques.
– Dashboard feature to reduce phone usage time
Google said that the goal of technology is to make the user’s life easier and help him get his work done and not distract him, so it worked to add new features in Android P to help the user achieve the required balance between his normal life and the use of smart devices, through a feature called Dashboard provides the user with comprehensive statistics about the time spent using various applications, the number of times he opened the phone, and the number of notifications he received, with a feature called “Timer” allows the user to set a specific time to use each application, after which the user will receive a notification when the allotted time has expired in an attempt to limit the use of different applications.
Google has improved the “Do Not Disturb” mode by muting all alerts, including visual ones, with the ability to activate “Do Not Disturb” when placing the phone on the table from the side of the screen, in addition to the “Wind Down” feature, which activates appropriate lighting for the time before sleeping. This is the feature that activates the “Do Not Disturb” mode and changes the screen color to gray when the bedtime that the user sets approaches, to help him remember the time to sleep.
When is Android P available to users?
The developer preview version of Android P is now available to users of the Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL via Android developer websiteHowever, it is an unstable and non-final version, and the average user cannot rely on it for the daily use of his phone. According to Google, the company will launch 4 trial versions of Android P before making it officially available during the third quarter of this year 2018.
The beta version of Android 9.0 is now available for more phones apart from Google Pixel phones, including Sony Xperia XZ2 And Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S AndNokia 7 Plus AndOnePlus 6 AndEssential PH‑1.
