“Google is expected to tease more Android P features at the upcoming Google I/O 2018”
Ahead of Google I/O 2018 event in May, Google has launched the Developer Preview 1 for Android ‘P’, the next major iteration of the OS. Android P brings a handful of new features and capabilities along with several visual changes. Notably, the Developer Preview 1 is intended only for developers, and its system images are available for devices like the Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, and Pixel 2 XL on the Android developer website. As of now, there’s no word regarding the official name of the Android P version.
As per Google, Android P version brings along indoor positioning with Wi-Fi RTT (Round-Trip Time), display cutout or notch support, enhanced messaging experience, and multi-camera support, among many other things. The new Android version introduces several improvements to notifications, which all are available for developers testing it.
One of the biggest changes in Android P is native support for the latest edge-to-edge screens with display cutout for the camera, speaker and sensors etc – otherwise known as ‘notch’. If you are running the developer preview version, you can simulate the notch on your device, so that you can start developing apps more appropriately. You can also imitate different shapes of notches, so you can design apps for a whole host of things whether it is a rounded notch on the Essential Phone or the one similar to the iPhone X, which has clearly inspired design on quite a few devices that were unveiled at the MWC 2018. For this reason, the clock has moved from the right side to the left side of Android P’s status bar to deliver notch-friendly notifications.
Android P brings enhanced messaging notifications style, which highlights the message senders and the reply option. The revamped notifications also offer improved visibility and functionality. For example, apps can show notifications, photos, stickers, and offer smart replies. There’s also a more straightforward quick settings pulldown on board.
Coming to the other features, Android P allows platform support for Wi-Fi Round-Trip-Time protocol that allows developers to take advantage of indoor positioning in their apps. The multi-camera support lets apps access streams simultaneously from two or more cameras on the device running Android P. This means that the third-party apps can also utilise the dual-camera capabilities of the device. HDR VP9 support on the new Android iteration allows developers to deliver HDR-enabled movies on supported devices from YouTube and Play Movies, etc. Google will also be supporting HEIF image format, which was first added by Apple in the iOS 10 and aims at offering better compression than JPEG without losing the image quality.
Last but not the least, the Doze Mode, App Standby, and Background Limits have been improved on Android P to improve the battery life offered by the devices.
To install Android P DP1, Google has detailed the entire process on its Android developer website. You will first have to download the latest Developer Preview image and manually flash it on any of the Pixel devices you have. After flashing the files, you are good to go. Do take a backup of your data before initiating this process. However, it’s worth mentioning this is the preview build of Android P, and is expected to be quite buggy.
With Android P Developer Preview 1, Google is especially looking for feedback on expanded screen type support and new notification revamp from developers. The company is expected to launch the Android P Developer Preview 2 version and show more features of the new OS at Google I/O, which is scheduled from May 8th to May 10th.
