Android O vs Android Nougat – 8 Awesome Changes You Should Know!
The New iteration of Android which is Android O is getting closer, with lots of details expected to be unveiled during Google I/O 2017. The first developer preview was released in the mid of March and it is already available for nexus and pixel devices and the final build will arrive in the 3rd quarter of 2017.
So I thought why not make a video on how Android O which is expected to be called Android 8.0 is different from existing Android Nougat and also what are the major changes and newly added features in this early build of Android O.
Excited? So let’s get started
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Table of Contents
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- Simplified Settings
One of the major Change is the Redesigned Setting menu which is completely different from previous android versions. Now the menus are more sorted and there is no longer any slide-out menu and the categories on the main page of the Settings. You can clearly see the difference, on my left I have the oneplus 3t which is running the latest version of android Nougat 7.1.1 and on the right I have nexus 6p which is running the 1st developer preview of Android O.
Now there are 13 main headings with short descriptions of what’s inside which results in much shorter stetting list.
Further if we go inside in 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.
- No More Unknown Sources
Now as you may know in Android installing apps from third party sources was quite simple as compared to iOS. By just enabling the unknown sources from the setting menu you can install apps from anywhere.
But now in Android O there is a little bit of twist now 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.
This basically means that if you want to install any app from external sources then you have to grant permissions for each and every sources individually.
- Picture in Picture
Last year Android Nougat introduces picture-in-picture mode which basically shrinks a playing video into a floating window. But at that time this feature was only available for Android TVs but not anymore. Now with this new Android O update you can use this feature on your smartphones also but first you have to enable it.
So to do that head over to the System UI tuner then navigation bar. Now from here click on extra left button and add a key code after that go back and now here you will find a new option which says left key code click on that and type a 171 and press OK. Now this will basically trigger the secret picture-in-picture window. You can also change the icon according to your preference, once that is done open YouTube and play a video now to shrink the window just press this left icon and boom you have entered in the PIP mode.
- Custom Lock Screen Shortcuts
Now if we take a closer look over the lock screen of android O then you will find that it 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.
This basically means that now you have the ability to add some useful shortcuts that really make sense. For instance now you can add apps shouts cuts like YouTube, play store, file manager or whatever you like.
- Notifications
Android N itself saw some pretty big changes with notifications but Android O tends to take it to the next level. When you swipe down the notification shade you can clearly see some changes like now you have 6 tiles instead of 5. Rather then that at the top right corner you will see the battery indicator which now show battery percentage also, next to that is th e setting menu icon and a tiles dropdown arrow and if you look at the android N notification shade then it’s just bank at right side.
Except the cosmetic change it also include some really cool features like Snooze notification. 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.
Another newly added feature is called notification channel. This feature lets you choose between less useful and more useful notification for a specific app and none of these features were available on Android Nougat.
- Built-in File Manager & Cleaner
The previous versions of android were criticised by their users for not having its own inbuilt file manager. But in Android Nougat we had a hidden file manager inside storage setting and that was very basic.
But now in Android O you will see a dedicated icon for the file manager in the app drawer inside which the categories are more sorted now.
Rather than that now we also have a dedicated junk file cleaner inside the storage setting to clean the unwanted files stored on your device.
- 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.
But this was not possible in the case of Android Nougat. In Android O you will get 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.
- 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. But these codecs are not available for android nougat.
So guys these were 8 major changes which android O brings to the table and if you think we had missed any change then do let us know that I the comment section.
