Android O released for developers: Here are the top 10 features you need to know about

Google has finally made available the next version of Android, termed as Android O, to the developers starting today.

The new software comes with a boatload of new features. Google has tried to put in some new features along with some necessary optimizations. Read on below the top 10 features of Android O, you need to know about.

1. Less notification bombardments:

The Android will now let you group your notifications with different channels. Google first introduced this capability when it released Android Nougat last year and the developers were able to play around with the notifications in the slide down header. Targeted at tackling the notifications flood, now you would be able to better control the notifications you want to group and the way it would notify.

2. Support for Autofill APIs:

Well, this one is a bit technical. Google has added a platform in the operating system that would let applications play around with the auto-fill feature on different dialogue boxes. This capability will change the way an application stores the data that is to be used repetitively.

3. Fonts combined with XML:

In Android O, font resources have been put in XML. The said capability will let applications have more freedom in playing with the system fonts while in the process.

4. Picture in Picture:

Yeah, you read it right. If you could remember a sub-play screen that’d let you peek into a running video as you scrolled your YouTube feed – Google has incorporated that feature into the operating system. The Android O video applications will now let you play the video through a “picture in picture” display even if you switch to a different application.

5. Limits on applications running in the background:

Background limits for the applications have been set, that will let the operating system automatically kill some abilities of an application if it is running in background. For now, these limits have been applied in three domains which include background services, implicit broadcasts, and location updates. This means that the batteries would now last more.

6. Wide-gamut color displays for applications requiring it:

Now such applications could also be built that would let the developers take hold of the exceptionally good displays on the current flagships. The operating system would let applications requiring a bigger color palette use a wide color profile if it is told beforehand.

7. Connectivity improvements:

Different upgrades have also been introduced into the connectivity segment. Like for example, the audio played through blue-tooth will sound even better for it will now use the Sony LDAC codec.

8. Better support for keyboard navigation:

This feature, although has essentially been made for the Chrome OS, will allow developers to get a better operating system support if they ever want to use keyboard based arrow and tab navigation capabilities.

9. Customizable icons:

The users will be able to customize the icons across the operating system. The said functionality will let developers take control of making the icons adaptive to specific usages. This means that we will soon be able to download applications with icons telling us through animation if there is a notification on it or not.

10. Support for latest Java 8 APIs:

Google has put in support for the latest Java Language APIs into the Android O. While developing their applications, developers will be able to take use of the latest Java APIs that were released with the latest Java version 8.

Since its launch in 2008, Android has made it to one of the most widely used operating systems across the globe. It has also regularly been updated since then. In the last couple of years, Google has made a habit to introduce a pre-version of the next Android version that lets developers try their hands on it. As far as this year’s update is concerned, we haven’t seen noticeable changes on the User Interface part. Instead, Google has focused on improving the core features and capabilities of the operating system.

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