Doze was improved in Android 7.0 to work even when the device was moving, and in Android O Google is adding something new called background limits. For example, there are shortcuts that take you to the weather, to sports or entertainment news, where you can do things like catch up on scores, watch trailers, read reviews, see what’s playing nearby, and more. While the update may be altered a little about what people utilize Google for, it explains much about how the company envisages its focus on the product. This allows users to continue watching a video while executing a totally different task.
Advertisement
UPDATE: In diving into the first preview, Android Police spotted that app icons now support badge notifications in Android N.
Among the new stuff: better battery-life features, more control over notifications, and a picture-in-picture mode for phones and tablets.
Developers will have several tools at their disposal; setting custom interactions (play/pause), specifying aspect ratio, and more will all be available for developers to toy with.
The update also brings “Notification channels”, which are new categories defined by apps for managing notification content. Specifically, the icons can easily adapt to whatever environment they’re in, whether on a Samsung or LG device. The latest one to get onboard with integrations is the Google search app, which now offers direct in-app access to the web apps. The recent Google Pixel 2 leaks revealed that Google might introduce a third device named as “Taimen” at the launch. Once an app is pinned, the remaining screens will resize to fit alongside it. So, we’re looking at a fall release for Android O. At that time we’ll find out what the version number and code name are.
It is easy to guess some of these features. More likely, a public release will happen in the coming days or weeks for the current Google Pixel as well as Nexus smartphone devices, with Android 7.1.2 also being released to AOSP simultaneously for OEMs to begin preparing updates for their devices. Google says that Android O also features other windowing features, like a new app overlay window and multi-display support. Probably the closest is a change to how the system handles notifications.
Advertisement
“To display wide gamut images, apps will need to enable a flag in their manifest (per activity) and load bitmaps with an embedded wide color profile (AdobeRGB, Pro Photo RGB, DCI-P3, etc.)”, Google advises developers.
