Android "O" is the codename of an upcoming release of the
Android mobile operating system. It was first released as an
alpha quality developer preview on March 21, 2017. The second developer preview was released on May 17, 2017, and it is considered
beta quality and the third developer preview was released on June 8, 2017 and finalizes the API.
[2] On July 24, 2017 a fourth developer preview was released which includes the final system behaviors and the latest bug fixes and optimizations.
[3]
On March 21, 2017, Google released the first developer preview of Android "O",
[4][5][6] available for the
Nexus 5X,
Nexus 6P,
Nexus Player,
Pixel C, and
Pixel smartphone devices.
[7] The second, considered beta quality, was released May 17, 2017.
[8] The third DP was released on June 8, 2017.
[2] The fourth and final beta release was released on July 24, 2017.
DP3 finalized the release's API to API level 26,
[2] changed the camera UI, reverted the Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity levels in the status bar back to Wi-Fi left, added themed notifications, added a battery animation in Settings: Battery, a new icon and darker background for the Clock app, and a teardrop icon shape for apps.
[9]
Notifications can be snoozed, and batched into topic-based groups known as "channels".
[10][11] Android "O" contains integrated support for
picture-in-picture modes.
[12][13] Adding a custom ringtone, alarm or notification sound is simplified.
[14][15] The "Settings" app features a new design, with a white theme and deeper categorization of different settings.
[16] Android TV features a new launcher.
[17]
Android "O" will add support for Neighborhood Aware Networking (NAN) for
Wi-Fi based on
Wi-Fi Aware,
[18] wide
color gamuts in apps,
[19] an
API for
autofillers, multiprocess and
Google Safe Browsing support for WebViews, an API to allow system-level integration for
VoIP apps, and launching activities on remote displays.
[4] Android Runtime (ART) features performance improvements
[4] and better cache handling
[20]. Android "O" contains additional limits on apps' background activities in order to improve battery life.
[21] Apps can specify "adaptive icons" for differently-shaped containers specified by themes, such as circles, squares, and
squircles.
[22]
Android "O" supports new
emoji that will be included in the
Unicode 10 standard. A new emoji font was also introduced, which notably redesigns its face figures to use a traditional circular shape, as opposed to the "blob" design that was introduced on
Android "KitKat".
[23][24]
The underlying architecture of Android is being revised so that low-level, vendor-specific code for supporting a device's hardware will be separated from the Android OS framework using a
hardware abstraction layer known as the "vendor interface". Vendor interfaces will be required to be
forward compatible with future versions of Android; due to these changes, OEMs will only need to perform their necessary modifications to the OS framework and bundled apps to update a device to a future version of Android, while maintaining the same vendor interface.
[25]
The operating system will offer a tailored distribution for low-end devices known as Android Go, which will be used on all devices with 1 GB of RAM or less. These devices will ship with platform optimizations designed to reduce mobile data usage (including enabling Data Saver mode by default), and a special suite of
Google Mobile Services designed to be less resource- and bandwidth-intensive (such as YouTube Go).
Google Play Store will also highlight lightweight apps suited for these devices
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