Android O, a glimpse of the next Android version
The first Android developer preview for the Android O is here!
Ever since the first launch of Android in 2008, the team behind the largest mobile operating system continues to work hard to deliver better performance and efficiency.
To commence the initial release of Android O, Dave Burke, Google’s VP of Engineering, gives us a glimpse of what to expect from the next Android OS version.
Background Limits
First implemented on Nougat, Android O “puts a big priority on improving a user’s battery life” by adding automatic limits for background apps, particularly on three main areas:Â implicit broadcasts, background services, and location updates.
Google urges developers to get familiar with them as background limits represent a significant change in Android.
Notification Channels
Notification channel adds new “visual and grouping” to notifications for ease of use. Notifications can finally be categorized by developers wherein users can block or change the behavior of each channel.
Autofill APIs
Implementing an Autofill service by adding new APIs allows users to select an autofill app(similar to the way they select a keyboard app) to store and secure basic and private information to reduce the already minimized input repetition of… information.
PIP for handsets and new windowing features
Picture in Picture(PIP) mode allows for better multitasking on phones and tablets. Say, for example, answering a chat while watching a video. Users can even specify the aspect ratio and set custom interactions (such as play/pause) that actually takes advantage of LG G6’s display.
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There will also be new app overlay window for apps to use instead of system alert window, and multi-display support for remote display.
Font resources in XML
Fonts can now be defined in an XML layout including the style, weight, and lines.
Adaptive Icons
Icons everywhere in the Android system can now be created as adaptive icons in a variety of shapes with animated interactions.
Wide-gamut Color Apps
Wide-gamut color capable displays can now take advantage of displaying wide gamut images and apps by enabling a flag in the manifest and loading bitmaps with an embedded wide color profile such as AdobeRGB, Pro Photo RGB, DCI-P3.
Connectivity
Android O now supports high-quality Bluetooth audio codes like LDAC.
Wi-Fi Aware(Neighbor Awareness Networking-NAN)becomes more prominent this time by working out with hardware partners to bring devices to support the feature as soon as possible – allowing for apps and nearby devices to communicate without the need of an internet access point.
ConnectionService APIs has been extended to have a seamless UI experience in different kinds of UIs like car head units.
Keyboard Navigation
Android O takes a more reliable, predictable model for “arrow” and “tab” navigation that aids both developers and end users in Keyboard navigation.
AAudio API for Pro Audio
This new native API is for apps that require high-performance and low-latency audio. An early version is available in the developer preview.
WebView enhancements
WebView makes the multiprocess mode enabled already by default and an added API lets an app manage to handle errors and crashes.
Java 8 Language APIs and runtime optimizations
Android runtime is 2x faster on some app benchmarks and Android expands its Java Language APIs.
Partner platform contributions
Expect more enhancements and new features coming to Android as partners such as Sony will provide them like the LDAC codec.
That’s all for the first developer preview of the Android O, if you want to get started playing with it just click here.
Moving to the less technical side, Android fans are still wondering what could “O” mean in Android. However, the Senior VP of Google posted this tweet some time ago.
@dcseifert ? pic.twitter.com/u8nMzjTIO1
— Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) February 20, 2017
And then concluded with this.
Found this randomly at a restaurant in Barcelona. True story. Seriously. pic.twitter.com/f05SKp3sVQ
— Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) February 26, 2017
What do you think of this news? Share us your thoughts and let us know in the comment section below.
{Source: Google}
