Google has officially released Android 9 Pie which is the latest big update to the company's mobile operating system. There is a new design, gesture navigation, another artificial intelligence. In addition, if you sign up for the beta, the “Digital Wellbeing” tools will help you learn more about your laptop usage. There are also the other useful stuff, like the adaptive battery which learns your usage patterns and restricts the power usage of apps you rarely open..
I'm not going to talk about any of this stuff today.
On the contrary, I would like to tell you about some more interesting but less well-known features that Google has installed in Android 9.0..
It's party time for bluetooth speakers
Android 9 Pie allows its users to connect to five Bluetooth devices and easily switch between them. According to Google, if there is a call, Android P will pass it to the Bluetooth speaker or connected audio accessory that is capable of handling calls. On the other hand, Android O supports two Bluetooth audio connections at the same time. So you can decide for yourself which one is the best.
Android Pie remembers your preferences for the volume of each Bluetooth device
As for Bluetooth, we've all been through those times when the wireless headsets / car audio system suddenly burst out like a loud blast every first time we connect them to the laptop..
This problem will no longer bother you. Android 9.0 remembers the last sound level of devices connected to it.
Google added a rotate button to the navigation bar that will only appear when you need it.
It might sound a little weird, but it's a really good tool. If you're like me, you've probably turned off automatic screen rotation on Android to prevent your laptop from switching between “Portrait” and “Landscape” orientation when you don't want to. In Android 9 Pie, Google added a great button for us.
With Pie, whenever an app that supports landscape mode is opened and you turn your laptop this way, you'll see a new rotation lock icon appear on the far right of the navigation bar. Tap on the icon, and the app display will rotate. It does not change the system setting. By pressing this icon, you only lock this application in "Landscape" mode. To turn it over, turn your laptop to “Portrait” mode and tap the icon again.
Easy check to see which apps have recently sent you notifications and are bothering you the most
Is an app bothering you with annoying or totally unnecessary notifications? Even if you haven't encountered this kind of problem, Android will make it easy for you to see which apps are bothering you and prevent it from happening again in the future.
Go to "Settings" → "Apps & notifications". Then tap on the "Notifications" option which is near the bottom. Apps that recently showed a notification will show up like this.
If you tap on "See all from the last 7 days" you will see a more useful option. Instead of sorting apps by date, you can choose “Most Frequent” to see which of them annoy you the most.
Android Pie offers you to turn off notifications that you frequently ignore
If Android 9.0 notices that you usually swipe for notifications from an app to ignore them, the system will bring up an option asking if you would prefer to turn off notifications from that app so that they are no longer displayed.
There is a new useful "Accessibility Menu"
Google has added a new "Accessibility Menu" to Pie. After you activate it, you will see its own icon in the navigation bar. The new “Accessibility Menu” offers a shortcut (and larger icons) for functions that are often used, such as Google Assistant, opening the app switcher, scrolling through settings / hidden notifications, screenshot, etc.
The "Lock" mode temporarily blocks facial and fingerprint authentication on the locked screen
You may have noticed that the new screenshot option would appear when you hold down the power button on your Pixel laptop. It is convenient! But there is another new secure button that you can choose to add to your laptop. The "Lock" mode button is disabled by default.
When you tap this button, “Lock” will close the screen, hide all your current notifications and ask for your password to unlock the device.
Even if you really are trying to unlock the phone, other authentication methods (facial recognition, fingerprint, etc.) will not be able to unlock. There is only the PIN and the pattern. You will need this mode if you are worried that someone (the authorities, a thief…) is trying to unlock your phone by showing your face or forcing you to touch the fingerprint scanner.
Google made little mention of "Lock" mode before the release of Android Pie. To activate this mode, go to "Settings" → "Security & location" → "Lock screen preferences" and toggle the "Show lock" option to the activated (blue) position.
The "Mobile access point" will be deactivated automatically if no device is connected
Here is a very simple measure to save battery consumption: If you have enabled the “Mobile hotspot” in Android 9 Pie, there is a new function that will automatically disable it when Android notices that no device is on it. connect. This feature is enabled by default. If you prefer it to be disabled for any reason, you will find it in the advanced section of the “Mobile Hotspot” settings.
Finally, there will be a magnifying glass when you select the text
When you need a more precise copy and paste, you'll be happy to have a magnifying glass appear over the text you're trying to type.
New function can help avoid audio lag when using your wireless headphones
Google added support for "Report sound delay" to Android 9 Pie. This feature can solve the audio delay issue that you sometimes experience when watching videos with wireless headsets - especially those that are wireless.
Now headsets that also support this feature can notify Android of the exact delay time and the operating system will use this information to keep the audio and video synchronized correctly.
Note that manufacturers must first install the audio delay reporting feature in their devices before you can use it. If your headsets do not have it, you may have to deal with desynchronization between audio and video.
“Ambient display” shows climate and battery level
This last function is simple but it's a nice improvement: “Ambient Display” on Google Pixel 2 shows current climate / temperature conditions corresponding to Google's goal of “Digital Wellbeing”.