Google has just released the details of Android 0, the next version of Android. So what’s new in Android O? You can find an overview of all the features over on the Android developer website. However, I want to share my favorite features slated to be in Android O.
App Auto Fill Framework
This new app autofill framework will allow users to select an app as their fill app. The fill app will be able to fill out forms and logins from other applications. For anyone who is familiar with LastPass, you might be aware that they already do this. However, their implementation is buggy and requires the accessibility service to be enabled, which somehow always gets disabled for me. So I’m really looking forward to apps like LastPass taking advantage of this to make logging into apps and websites easier.
Picture in Picture Mode
This is not new to Android. Picture in Picture (PIP) mode has been in Android TV for quite some time now. However, Google is bringing it to mobile with Android O. In Android O, a user will be able to have a video play in the corner of their screen while they do other tasks on their device.
Background Limits
Every year, Google makes another attempt alleviate the battery issues of Android. In Android Marshmallow and Nougat they introduced and refined Doze. In Android O, Google want’s to make apps that run in the background use less resources. Location apps that run in the background will only be able to get location updates a few times per each hour. Likewise, there will be extra limitations placed on the broadcast listeners that a background service can listen for.
Notifications
Notifications will also get a slight overhaul in Android O. Developers can now add more custom options to notifications such as a background color and timeout time. Users will be able to snooze notifications for later. In addition, there will now be notification channels. So if a user wants to block notifications from an app or subscribe to notifications, they can select the channel they want instead of the whole app.