Google has revealed the third Developer Preview of the Android O and with this, the company has also confirmed that the latest Android version will be known as Android 8.0.
As per a report by Android Police, the latest developer preview brings a host of new features including a color-coding for rich media notifications, meaning users will get theme based on album art or video thumbnail. Additionally, the thumbnail has gained the ability to fade into the notification. These notifications are meant for music apps such as Google Play Music, Spotify and YouTube Music as well as apps that allow video to be played in the background.
Google has already rolled out the Android O Beta Program or eligible Pixel and Nexus devices including Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Pixel C, Pixel and Pixel XL. Devices that you opt-in to the program will receive an over-the-air (OTA) update to the latest beta version of Android O.
To recall some key features of the latest Android O, it can be broadly classified into two categories namely ‘fluid experiences’ and ‘Android vitals’. The fluid experience caters to all the interesting features, which include the much-awaited picture-in-picture mode through which one can manage two tasks simultaneously. So, for example, one can minimise a YouTube video while sending a text message or writing an email.
Under interesting feature is the Notification dots, which are basically tiny chat heads for notifications. The user can long-tap on a Notification Dot and it will preview the notification, and one can swipe to dismiss, drag down to see the full notification or tap to open the app. The dots will extract the colour from the icon, making it easier to distinguish between different notifications.
Other than this, there is smart text selection, which uses machine learning to copy/paste, to let Android recognise entities like addresses, URLs, telephone numbers, and email addresses. Then there is Autofill with Google that simplifies setting up a new device and synchronising passwords by bringing Chrome’s Autofill feature to Android.