Android P: Adaptive Battery, Gestures-Based Navigation, and Other New Features That Android P Brings

 

Google has revealed more details and a new beta of the next version of Android which is currently referred to as Android P. While the developer preview was available for select devices some time ago, the search giant has now opened it up for public beta, while also expanding the number of devices for which the beta will be available. During the Google I/O 2018 opening keynote on Tuesday, we got a glimpse at the new look of Android and all the features that it 

Without any delay, we loaded up the beta build on our Pixel 2 XL and here is everything that is new in Android P.

1. UI changes

Every new version of Android brings some new design elements as well as UI changes and Android P is no different. Quick toggles have been updated to now use circular elements. The top bar is now in black which might be helpful in hiding the notch on phones that sport them.

Pull the notification shade down and you will see a new option called Manage notifications that quickly gives you complete control over app notifications. Move into the Settings app and you will notice that icons are now in colour which looks more appealing visually.

2. New approach to navigation

With Android P, Google has taken the first step towards gesture-based navigation. While the traditional three buttons are available for navigation, you can switch to having a single bar visible and use gestures for navigation. Swipe up on the bar once and it opens up recent apps, swipe up again to open up the app drawer.

We also observed that a long swipe up lets you access the app drawer directly. The back button isn’t permanently available all the time but appears in its original spot when there is an option to take a step back.

3. Adaptive brightness and Adaptive Battery

Adaptive brightness is the newest feature where the phone learns how you adjust brightness levels in different conditions and does it automatically.

One other addition is Adaptive Battery which Google claims will help improve battery life on Android smartphones. This feature uses artificial intelligence and on-device machine learning to learn app usage patterns and optimises apps’ consumption of resources accordingly.

These two features depend on AI and will need some time to learn user habits before they start to show results.

4. App actions and Slices

Android Oreo has the app suggestion feature that uses AI to suggest apps that you are most likely to use. Google has expanded this feature and now suggestions for actions as well. For example, if it learns that you talk to a friend during the day, it’ll pop a suggestion to call that contact in the App drawer.

Slice is similar to actions but is a bigger UI element that helps users do more than one step at a time. Slices are interactive snippets and can only be accessed via Google search at the moment. For instance, type Lyft or Uber in the search bar and along with the app shortcut, you will see options to book a cab for home or for office. It will also include distance, price and estimated time of arrival.

All this can be achieved right from the search bar saving the user multiple taps.