Google’s annual developer conference, the Google I/O kicked off this Tuesday and it was all about how Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are here to make our lives easier. Among the bunch of products that CEO Sundar Pichhai announced including a more powerful Google Assistant, Google Compose that helps you to write emails faster, a revamped Google News app powered by AI and Google Lens, what caught the attention is the newest Google OS, dubbed as Android P. Let’s take a look at the 10 best things that the OS will bring to the smartphones.
Dashboard
Android P will have a dashboard to help the users keep a track of their smartphone usage. It will tell how many times a user has unlocked the phone, checked notifications and how much time has been spent on the apps. For example, if you spend too much time on Facebook, it will suggest you to take a break.
App Actions
With App Actions, Google predicts what app you are going to use next and give you suggestions. For example, if you plug in your earphones, it will suggest to resume the playlist that you were listening to, or open Spotify.
App timer
The app timer will allow you set a timer to limit the app usage. Once the limit is about to be reached, the user will get a nudge to remind that he needs to do something else. It will then turn grey for the rest of the day.
Gesture Based navigation
Android P aims to make navigation easier than before with the help of gestures. There’s a single home button that you can swipe up to see a newly designed Overview screen where you can easily resume recently used apps. Swiping up a second time will get you all the installed apps.
Smart text selection
The new text selection feature recognises the meaning of the text that you’ve selected and suggests relevant actions based on that.
Adaptive Battery
Google partnered with DeepMind, the world leader in Artificial Intelligence, for a feature called ‘Adaptive Battery’, that determines which apps you are likely to use over the next few hours and prioritise them over the others. This will help in squeezing the most out of the phone’s battery.
Smarter Auto Rotate and Volume Panel
Finally, Google has decided to make the auto-rotate feature less frustrating. In Android P, a new rotation icon will pop up to let you choose if you actually want to rotate the screen. The volume panel has also become more intelligent. It is now vertical and instead of ringer volume, it will adjust the media volume by default. Also, you can mute the ringer or set it to full with just once touch.
Adaptive Brightness
Android P will use Machine Learning to discover how you set the brightness settings on your smartphone. It will set your brightness in a power-efficient way, based on the ambient lightning environment.
Shush Mode
The Do Not Disturb feature has got an improvement with the Shush mode that not only silences the phone calls and notifications but also any visual interruptions. Also, if you turn your phone over on the table, it will automatically enter the Do Not Disturb mode.
Wind down
The Wind Down mode is an extension of the night mode which not only silences the phone but also turns the display to grayscale that help you to put the phone to rest and go to sleep.
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