Android nougats successor has just arrived and it’s named as android O. Google has just released the 1st developer preview of Android O for the developers and the final build is coming in the 3rd quarter of 2017 and most probably this version of Android is going to be called Android 8.0. Now as we know this is going to be the next major update of Android.

So here are 10 most interesting changes and newly added features that Android O brings to the table.

Excited? So let’s get started.

 

Video Guide (Highly Recommended)

 

 

1- New Simplified Settings

The major cosmetic change in Android O is the new simplified setting menu, this strongly focuses on simplicity and now the menus are more sorted. There is no longer any slide-out menu and the categories on the main page of the Settings.

There are 13 main headings with short descriptions of what’s inside.

Further if we go inside the Settings menu, some of the categories have also received design refreshes, including Battery. The overall colour scheme has a black and white approach with blue accent and personally i like this redesigned setting menu.

 

2- App Badges

Finally Android O bring the support for App badges, and maybe some of the viewers don’t know what an app badge is, so let me explain you that an App badge is basically a number bubble which will pop up over your icons Every time you receive a new notification to show your unread notification count’s.

For instance if you got a message on your WhatsApp and you didn’t read that message yet, then that message will pop up as an app badge to notify you that you have one unread WhatsApp message. This will basically help you out with the notification Management to make things simpler.

But in case you don’t like this feature then don’t worry you can easily toggle individual apps from the app notification settings.

 

3- Navigation Bar Tuner

Next up is the Navigation bar which received a new layout option. If you go through the system UI tuner you will find a new navigation bar option which lets you tweak the layout of your on screen navigation buttons. Here you will find layout option that lets you choose between normal, compact, left – leaning and right- leaning which will comes in handy if you want to use your device single handed.

Now you also have the option to add extra left and right buttons on your navigation bar and you can choose from several options like clipboard, key code or keyboard switcher.

 

4- Lock Screen

The lock screen of android O looks quite similar to android nougat in terms of designs but don’t go with the looks because there are features buried inside System UI tuner.

In the previous versions of android users are not allowed to change the lock screen shortcuts but not anymore with android O now you can change the shortcuts according to your liking. This feature lets you choose either an app or a setting shortcut to show up in the lock screen.

 

5- Improved Audio quality

Now a days 3.5 mm Jack is becoming less standard as the major smartphone manufacturer are getting rid of it and focusing more towards wireless audio. And that’s the reason why Google is working with Sony to get the LDAC codec in android O. It means if you have a Bluetooth headphone that supports LDAC then you will get a much improved audio output.

Not only LDAC android o also supports other codec like SBC, AAC Aptx and Aptx HD. Additionally there are also options for sample rates, bits per sample and channel mode.

 

6- Unknown Sources

Until android N, if we want to install any APK file then in order to install it first we have to enable the unknown sources. But in android O this option has been removed but it doesn’t mean that we cannot install APk files.

Now in android O if you want to install an APK file then you will need to authorize each sources separately. For instance you have to downloaded an app using Chrome browser, now after downloading the app when you click to install that app you will be prompted as “Application Installed from external Sources are blocked”. So to install app click on external sources. Now select chrome and enable trusted apps from this source and you are good to go.

 

7- Notification Channel

Android O focuses more towards notification management and that’s why they added a new feature called notification channel. This feature lets you choose between less useful and more useful notification for a specific app.

For instance this feature could be handy with filtering notifications from certain conversations in messaging apps. To access this head over to the app notification and select the app for which you want to enable this. Now click on miscellaneous and here you will see lots of options regarding notification. You can choose from options like NO SOUND OR VISUAL INTERRUPTION, SHOW SILENTLY, MAKE SOUND AND POP UP ON SCREEN and many more.

 

8- New battery Menu

If we go through the setting menu then battery here you will see that the battery menu has received a major redesigned and I personally liked it. This time I think the option are more sorted and the best thing that I like is the simple representation of statistics for Screen usage, screen consumption and mobile network, now you can easily keep track of battery usage.

 

9 – Snooze Notifications

As I mentioned earlier that android O focuses more towards notification management. So here is another feature that has been introduced in Android O and by using this you can snooze the notifications.

For instance you got a WhatsApp message and you want to read that later on. Just swipe the notification to right and tap this clock icon to snooze the notification. This will make the message go away for 15 minutes, then come right back when the time is up. You can also change the snooze length right after you’ve snoozed a notification.

 

10 – Notifications shade

When you swipe down the notifications shade you’ll see the first visual changes in Android O. The strip of six toggles at the top of the notifications shade now takes up a little more space on-screen and there’s a little re-ordering of the toggles in Android O.

You can also see that your current network status, Wi-Fi status and battery status are neatly shown at the top of the notification shade, right next to the settings shortcut.

At the left I am holding oneplus 3t which is running on android Nougat 7.1.1 and you can clearly see the difference.

 

How to Install Android O

 

 

Do Checkout my YouTube Channel XtreamDroid