What’s New in Android O? [Features Explained]

You have heard the news about Google, launching the developer preview of Android O, haven’t you?

Of course, the developer preview is the primitive version of the operating system and we can’t judge the full OS with the same. Still, Android O developer preview hints at a few of the upcoming features.

In this article, we are going to have a look at what is going to come with Android O, based on the preview using experience.

New Features on Android O

android o

I know you are eager to know the name of the new version of Android. But they haven’t announced the name yet. Majority of people think that the name will be Oreo. Android Oreo, pretty cool, huh?

With that being said, let’s have a look at the new features of Android O.

  • Picture in Picture

What if you get notifications from multiple applications while you are watching a video? Most probably, you will pause the playback and check the notifications.

If you are a tech savvy person and you have Android Nougat on your phone, you will most probably opt out for split screen mode where you can use two applications at the same time.

The problem with the split screen mode is that if we use on-screen keyboard, we can seldom see the content on the interface. Android O addresses this issue.

You can make the video playback screen a small rectangle and keep it aside as you check another app.

  • Battery Backup Improvement

The main reason why Android eats up a lot of battery juice is the background processes. Even if we quit applications, a lot of them remain in the memory, working in the background.

Android has provided app developers with the ability to remain as a background process with no regulations from the system side.

Now with Android O, it is going to change. The system will impose some limitations on the background applications and apparently, it will give a massive boost to the battery life.

  • Higher-Quality Wireless Audio

Google is collaborating with Sony to bring up enhancements in the audio department. LDAC being, the prominent feature provides the best audio playback via Bluetooth.

The point to be noted is you should have LDAC supporting hardware (read headphones or earphones) to enjoy this feature. At this point, only Sony manufactures such headphones.

If the feature makes it to Android O’s stable version, we can see more manufacturers coming up with LDAC supporting hardware.

  • Channelized Notifications

It is annoying to see multiple notifications from only one app. Android Nougat solved this issue at a great extent. Still, you can see the notification panel getting messed up with tons of items.

On Android O, Google follows a method called channelization of notifications, that groups them into a single class based on the category.

Moreover, you can mark certain notifications as low or high priority or as pure marketing to save your time in the future.

  • Keyboard Support

If you own a chromebook, you know the pain of using an external keyboard. You can’t navigate through the apps using the tab or arrow keys.

Android O will have much better support for external keyboards. Of course, tab and arrow keys will become functional.

That’s a Wrap

No, these are not the only features coming to Android O. You will have better VoIP supports and more.

As stated earlier, developer preview is only the primitive version. You have to wait at least until the end of this year to see the stable version live in action.

I recommend you don’t rush to downloading the ROM and flashing it. Being the developer’s version, it has many bugs that you hate using on a daily driver.

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