Android P: Google’s most ambitious update in years

Google kicked off its biggest event of the year – Google I/O – on Tuesday, where the company showed off some of the new features and improvements we can expect in the forthcoming Android P operating system.What Google is promising comes in three broad buckets: intelligence,simplicity, and what the company is referring to as your digital well-being, or helping you strike a balance between your digital and off-device life.

A public beta for Android P, as it’s still known, is out today for those who want to try the software for themselves. Google has made the beta available on devices beyond the company’s own Pixel smartphones. Google says those who own the Essential Phone, Nokia 7 Plus, Sony Xperia XZ2, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, Vivo X21, Oppo R15 Pro, and the OnePlus 6 (when it comes out) will be able to access the early build alongside those with a Pixel or Pixel 2 phone.

Google want to help people to detox from digital by introducing new controls to do it.  Google I/O is typically dedicated to showcasing updates coming to Android, with features focused on artificial intelligence and tools that would make you want to use your phones more. But, the announcement looks to help people spend more time with the real world.

There are few features that might alter the way you use smartphone.

Predicts what you do next

Google says Android P can learn from how you use your phone and anticipate what you’ll want to do next. The goal is to save you some time, and as a bonus help preserve your phone’s battery.

Google is teaming up with its UK-based artificial intelligence unit DeepMind on a feature called “Adaptive Battery.” Via machine learning, this will figure out which apps you’ll use in the next few hours and which you won’t use until later, if at all today.

That’s not the only adaptive feature coming to Android, as Google announced Adaptive Brightness as well.

Adaptive Brightness seeks to fix this by learning your preference over time. It takes into account your environment and activities, but also allows you to manually adjust the brightness slider, learning from the adjustments to (you guessed it) adapt to your preferences.

With Android P, Google is taking this further based on through what it refers to as “App Actions.” Based on your usage patterns, Google is trying to help you get to the next task you want to tackle faster.If you always open Google Play Music at 2pm and queue up some Lady Gaga, App Actions might just start suggesting playing Lady Gaga when the time comes.

A new way to navigate around your Android phone – swiping gestures.

The traditional Android navigation buttons, like the app multitasking and universal back buttons, are gone. In Android P, a simple pill-shaped home button is all you’ll find at the bottom of Android P phones.

Instead, you’ll swipe around your screen to go between apps, as you do on the Apple iPhone X.

This new navigation will only be available on Android phones like Google’s Pixel 2 at launch.

Android p also have much better volume control as never before. Google’s latest volume control adjusts the media volume by default instead. And you really do want to silence the ringer, you can still do that too.

Android Dashboard will let you limit how much you use your apps

Android’s new Dashboard feature is designed around “digital wellbeing.” It’ll show you stats like how much time you spend in apps, how many times you’ve unlocked your devices, and how many notifications you’ve received. Dashboard’s purpose is to make you more mindful of just how much you use your devices.

Wind Down mode

Android P helps you fight that urge with another new feature called Wind Down. It will automatically turn on Do Not Disturb mode and fade your screen’s colour to black and white at a time you set for bedtime. Your screen will return to its full colour mode when you wake up. And there is also a Do not Disturb mode when you flip phone onto its front on a flat surface, your phone will go into an enhanced Do Not Disturb mode that will prevent the screen from lighting up and potentially distracting you.