Google is moving pretty fast so, either way, Android O is released. it appears to be a pretty incremental update so it’s not the huge massive overhaul you would have heard about it already If it was but there are some new stuff and we’ll go over that but for the most part so mostly behind the scenes update stuff you might not have even noticed. If you weren’t familiar with a previous version of Android but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some cool stuff to cover so this is your top 5 new features of Android O.
Top 5 New Android O features.
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Android O Feature No 5:
So number 5 is your lock screen customization. This actually lives in the system UI tuner. Which is a new feature added with android marshmallow and it’s hidden like developer options in settings. You can unhide it that holds much cool stuff that I hope sticks around or even graduates from the system user interface tuner into more visible main features. So the lock screen shortcut customization you know how long the lock screen you have the swipe up from the left to open your voice control or swipe up from the right to get to your camera. This actually lets you change those shortcuts to whatever app you want. If you have some favorite apps that you launched a lot more often you can go through literally all the apps on your phone and pick your favorites and that will swipe up to unlock into whatever app you choose. It can be pretty useful if you text a lot or tweet a lot or snapchat a lot whatever you pick those shortcuts will be on the bottom.
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Android O Feature No 4:
Number four is contextually aware text selection dialog. it’s a difficult name but it’s actually cooler than sound so you know how whenever you select any text just plain text on Android you get a couple options the copy or cut or paste or select all well now this selector is actually context aware. So if you highlight an address a Google Maps link will appear and you can go into Google Maps just from that selection. If you are texting someone a phone number you highlight that phone number it gives you a link to call that number immediately so that’s kind of convenient stuff it’s recognizing.
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Android O Feature No 3:
Number three is a little bit of customization with the navigation buttons down at the bottom. We’ve seen this built into a couple of third-party skins but this is also in system UI tuner. You can now select between a compact which put them all the middle or a left-leaning or right-leaning set of buttons so people with big phones and small hands will find that easier to reach from one side with one-handed use and then you can also add an extra button or two on the bottom that’s stayed permanently.
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Android O Feature No 2:
Number two is a refreshed notifications panel this is a subtle one. It’s definitely a visual one and you’ll notice it if you’ve seen previous versions of Android the icons up top and the quick settings are now bit cleaner. there are some new icons up there too two thin lines underneath from toggles but also check out that slick latest animation for revealing from icons as you swipe notifications down that is pretty hot then you have a couple new notification behaviors seems like you get a little bit more complex every time and It would be true but it’s not too crazy this time. first of all the battery percentage is revealed with one swipe instead of two I really like that because I like seeing my actual percentage instead of just trying to guess based on how full the bar is and then you can do a half swipe over on any notification to snooze notifications from specific apps for some time. so this is one of the most underrated features let’s say you just posted a fired tweet your phone is ringing up with all these to our notifications instead of muting your whole phone you can mute or snooze just your Twitter notifications for say 15 minutes and that will still allow you to not miss any calls or any emails or any other notifications.
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Android O Feature No 1:
Number one is a whole new Settings app and this one is maybe the only actual big redesign in the entire top 5 is the new Settings app is a lot cleaner. it’s visually overhauled I think the old settings apps and even other phones besides the pixel were starting to get a bit overwhelming with the sidebar and the tons of settings but now it’s a lot simpler looking and it’s a much shorter list. the slide-out menu is gone as well overall it’s a shorter top-level list but you can still dive more into the actual settings or just use the search bar just to get to stuff that you know there. It’s black and white now as well and also some pages like the storage information look a lot cleaner plus they show you that big important visual up top that is pretty helpful. the same thing with like the battery settings, for example, it still breaks down by your most used apps but you still get that big clean graphic up top for the percentage and estimated time left and power management tools but yes that’s it there you have it.
