“O”MG Android : What’s new in Android O ?
Developer preview of Android O
Google just released Developer preview of new android version “O”, Here is things that are going to be added in new version of android O.
First of all let us know in comments what should be the name of this version, Most people says it should be “Oreo”, but might your idea is more creative.
Let’s start with key features in Android O, that gonna blow your mind.
BTW, the left side picture is official logo for Android O.
Along with new features and capabilities, Android O includes a variety of system and API behavior changes. Here are things that are going to affect your existing development patterns and also makes you aware how you can get benefits from it.
1. Background execution limits
Android O gives more attention improving battery life of your phone and interactive performance of device, so they restricted some background events apps can do in three main areas: implicit broadcasts, background services, and location updates.Check out the documentation onbackground execution limits and background location limits for more details.
2. Autofill Framework
We all frustrate from login, sign-up and password remembering stuff, but there is an improvement in that too, in Android O there is a whole new APIs to manage automatically fill user-ids and passwords like web. Android O makes filling out forms, such as login and credit card forms, easier with the introduction of the Autofill Framework.
Existing and new apps work with Autofill Framework after the user opts in to autofill. read Autofill Framework Overview.
3. Notifications
Since notifications introduced in Android, it has improved so much over time mostly after Lolipop.
- Notification Channels
In Android O “Notification channel” is introduce to make it more awesome.
What is Notification Channels in Android O ?
Notification channels are categories defined by app specifically for notification content. so developer now has power to give user ability to manage different kinds of notifications, user can change behaviors of each channels individually and also block them.
- Snoozing Notifications
Now users can snooze notifications to reappear at a later time. - Notification timeouts
Developers can now set a custom timeout when creating a notification usingNotification.Builder.setTimeout()after which notifications will cancel automatically. - Background colors
You can now set and enable a background color for a notification. But it is suggested that it should only be used this feature in notifications for ongoing tasks which are critical for a user to see at a glance. For example, you could set a background color for notifications related to driving directions, or a phone call in progress. - Messaging style
Notifications that use the Messaging class can now display more content in their collapsed form, so it will be more comfortable for users.
4. Adaptive Icons
This is gonna be on of the most exciting feature in Android O, the system displays in different shapes, based on a mask selected by the device. The system also animates interactions with the icons, and uses them in the launcher, shortcuts, Settings, sharing dialog, and in the overview screen.
Adaptive icons support visual effects, and can display a variety of shapes across different device models.
5. Picture-in-Picture mode
Popularly known as PiP, Users can continue watching a video while they’re answering a chat or hailing a car. Apps can put themselves in PiP mode from the resumed or a pausing state where the system supports it — and you can specify the aspect ratio and a set of custom interactions (such as play/pause).
6. New Windowing features
Other than PiP ,windowing features include a new app overlay window for apps to use instead of system alert window, and multi-display support for launching an activity on a remote display.
7. Font Resources in XML
Fonts are now a fully supported resource type in Android O. Apps can now use fonts in XML layouts as well as define font families in XML — declaring the font style and weight along with the font files.
Fonts are compiled in R file and are automatically available in the system as a resource. You can then access these fonts with the help of a new resource type
8. Keyboard Navigation
With the advent of Google Play apps on Chrome OS and other large form factors, we’re seeing a resurgence of keyboard navigation use within these apps. In Android O we focused on building a more reliable, predictable model for “arrow” and “tab” navigation that aids both developers and end users.
9. Autosizing TextView
One of the big issue will gonna resolve in Android O, Android O lets you set the size of your text expand or contract automatically based on the size of the TextView. This means, it is much easier to optimize the text size on different screens or with dynamic content. Read Autosizing TextView for more details.
10. Wi-Fi Aware
Android O adds support for Wi-Fi Aware, which is based on the Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN) specification. On devices with the appropriate Wi-Fi Aware hardware, apps and nearby devices can discover and communicate over Wi-Fi without an Internet access point. see Wi-Fi Aware.
11. WebView APIs
Android O introduced some APIs to manage WebViews more effectively, These APIs, which improve your app's stability and security, include the following:
- Version API
- Google SafeBrowsing API
- Termination Handle API
- Renderer Importance API
12. Accessibility features
- Language detection
- Accessibility button
- Fingerprint gestures
- Word-level highlighting
- Hint text
- Continued gesture dispatch
To know more about all this APIs read Accessibility guide
13. Permissions
Android O introduces a new permission, android.permission.ANSWER_PHONE_CALLS, which allows apps to answer incoming phone calls programmatically. This permission is classified as dangerous and is part of the PHONE permission group.
Here are some more useful links to get know all details about Android O
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