This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this folio. Terms of use.

Android P

We all expected Google to launch the Android P developer preview around the center of the calendar month, but the latest version of Android dropped a little before than that. Google has appear Android P , which won't get a real name or version number until afterward. All the same, we've got details on the features and improvements Google is building for the adjacent version of Android. You tin can download the Android P developer preview right now, simply it just runs on a handful of Google phones.

What's New

Like Android Oreo, the P release doesn't come with a lot of major characteristic additions. There are several notable additions, and then a massive number of small tweaks and API changes for developers.

Probably the most interesting change is native support for screen cutouts and notches. Devices like the Essential Telephone and Asus ZenFone five are already sporting notches, the latter of which is basically an iPhone X clone. In Android P, Google will provide the necessary tools for developers to work with the notch rather than against it. Icons in the status bar won't be clipped, and apps tin can movement content around a phone'due south notch without relying on each OEM to release an API. It supports diverse notch designs including the Essential U-shape and bars more similar the iPhone X.

The quick settings and notification UI is new in Android P — the aforementioned pieces are still there, but everything is rounder. Google moved the clock to the left side of the condition bar, too. Messaging notifications volition also get an overhaul with more than rich content like epitome previews and smart replies. This is an expansion of the direct answer feature from Nougat that lets you input a reply manually right from the notifications.

The addition of IEEE 802.11mc in Android P allows phones with compatible Wi-Fi antennas to practise what'south called Wi-Fi Round-Trip-Time (RTT). Without even connecting to networks, your device tin can measure how long it takes for signals to laissez passer betwixt you and an access point. With at to the lowest degree iii nearby APs, apps can determine your indoor location to within i-2 meters. This feature still requires location permissions at the system level in order to preserve your privacy. RTT could be used in dwelling house automation apps or to heighten voice input with contextual data.

Background services will run across changes in Android P also. For 1, Google will block access to sensor information including the microphone and camera. This is a privacy mensurate to keep sketchy apps from snooping in the groundwork. Apps plugged into the Android JobScheduler for background operations volition too gain the ability to manage data cost when batching operations. For example, carriers can report when a network is congested or unmetered, allowing apps to complete big downloads in the background at more logical times.

Android P includes a myriad of smaller tweaks like a new neural network API, autofill improvements, and a multi-camera API. The APIs are nonetheless far from final, so developers shouldn't go too comfortable with how things work right now.

How to Get It

If y'all want to try Android P today, it'southward available every bit a free download. Still, it but runs on select phones — you demand a first- or 2nd-generation Pixel telephone to flash the first developer preview. The Pixel C and 2015 Nexus phones are no longer supported in the preview, marker the first time in that location hasn't been a tablet for programmer testing. This points to the probable terminate of Android tablets every bit we know them.

pixel back

The dev preview comes as a arrangement image or an OTA file. The automatic Android beta isn't supported withal, probably because Google doesn't want to brand information technology that easy to install an unstable early on preview Bone on your main telephone. You will demand the Android SDK on your computer and drivers to recognize the phone. A system image can flash the phone to Android P from whatever quondam software, but information technology requires an unlocked bootloader. The OTA tin update from current stock software only, but it doesn't need an unlocked bootloader. In both cases, you demand to download the file from Google and install it via the SDK tools.

If you wait a month or two, Google will open up upwardly the beta program so you can more than easily experience a somewhat stable version of the Os. At that place volition be 5 developer preview releases between now and the concluding release in Q3 2018 (that's too when nosotros acquire the version number and proper name). That'southward about the same fourth dimension every bit all the recent Android releases. That version volition launch on the new 2018 Pixel phones and will roll out as an update to the 2016 and 2017 Pixels.

If you aren't using a Google phone, your wait for Android P will be much longer. Almost device makers take several months to prepare updates to a new version of Android. For phones that shipped with Oreo, the wait might not be as bad. Oreo included Project Treble, a modular framework that makes system updates faster and easier.

Yous can go on up with the development progress of android P on the Android Developers site . That'southward as well where you can get the system images for Pixel phones.