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Android Oreo update can make your smartphone way smarter

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DailyBiteAug 23, 2017 | 19:49

Android Oreo update can make your smartphone way smarter

It's time to bid adieu to Android Nougat. The latest version of the popular Android operating system (OS) for smartphones, tablets, and other devices is here, and we can't deny it's cute.

This eighth version of Android OS, which remained in beta testing for months under the codename Android O (Android Oreo), was officially announced by the Mountview-based tech giant, Google, on Tuesday (August 22, 2017) as Android Orea. 

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Google has started rolling out this latest iteration of Android as an over the air (OTA) update. The first ones to receive it have been users who enrolled their devices in the Android Beta program. The company has confirmed that Pixel and Nexus 5X/6P builds, along with devices from HMD Global's Nokia, OnePlus, Motorola among others will start receiving the update in the coming days and weeks.

Even though Android O has long been in the public domain in beta form, and many of the new features it includes were announced as far back as I/O 2017, this remains an important announcement.  

Google for its part hasn't gone down the road of completely overhauling the OS, but there are some nice additions to the OS. Here are all the features Oreo is bringing with it. 

Improved battery life

Battery life is always a major concern for consumers on the Android platform. With new power hungry apps being launched every day and battery packs not expanding to keep the phones sleek, there has been increased pressure on Google to optimise its OS to help the troubled smartphones out.

With Doze mode in Android Marshmallow and Nougat, Google worked towards solving this problem, and now with Oreo's optimisations to the feature, Google promises improved battery life by restricting background usage of apps and keeping power consumption low when the phone is in your pocket.

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“These changes will make it easier to create apps that have minimal impact on a user’s device and battery. Background limits represent a significant change in Android, so we want every developer to get familiar with them,” reads a Google blog post.Picture-in-Picture mode

Oreo will bring with it an all new feature, dubbed the Picture-in-Picture mode. This will be essentially a native picture-in-picture framework for video apps, that will give users the functionality to continue watching videos in a small window while using the phone. 

This feature will be similar to the functionality that Chrome offers which allows users to continue watching YouTube videos in a small window while they read an article on a webpage. On Android Oreo running phones, however, users will be able to take this a step further and continue watching videos from YouTube clip or Netflix while inside another app such as Gmail or Uber, or simply while they are navigating around the OS. 

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[Photo: AndroidPit]

Improved performance

Google has said that "Oreo" has been created with an aim to provide "fluid experiences," and that a phone with Android Oreo installed will be "smarter, faster, more powerful and sweeter than before", and it looks to be on firm ground. 

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The claims made by Google here are tall ones, with the company announcing that the new OS will bring with it significant performance improvements such as boot times being halved in case of Pixel phones.

Revamped notification controls

With the new Android iteration, Google is introducing a new feature called notification channels. With the help of this new feature, users will be able to exert greater control over how they interact with the notifications on their phone.

With the help of notifications channels, users will be able to customise categories of notifications from apps and can even block some less-useful notifications, or snooze-specific notifications for a certain period, ensuring that they are not bothered with unnecessary updates. This new notification filter, though not much spoken about, could end up being the most important feature of the new OS. 

Google is also adding notification “dots” next to the apps on the home screen. By tapping on the dots, users can see new content from an app (for example, new e-mails or news feed posts) without having to fully open it.

Better audio 

Google has partnered with Sony to bring "high-quality Bluetooth audio codecs" along with using Sony's LDAC technology in Oreo which will help improve the sound quality while streaming music over bluetooth. Apps running on the Oreo platform will also support AAudio, a new API that improves audio performance for apps requiring low latency (for example, voice and video calls).

Last updated: August 23, 2017 | 19:49
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