Android Beta works on devices from OnePlus, Nokia and Sony, among others
The test version of Android P will work on many more smartphones than just Google’s. The search giant announced this at developer conference I/O. The OnePlus 6, Nokia 7 Plus and Sony Xperia XZ2 are included in the test program.
In total, the test version of Android P will work on ten devices: the Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Essential Phone, Vivo X21, Oppo R15 Pro, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, Sony Xperia XZ2, Nokia 7 Plus and OnePlus 6. The latter in particular stands out, because OnePlus has not yet officially announced it.
The second developer preview of Android P shows more of the new layout of Google’s mobile operating system. For example, the Home button has been replaced by a horizontal stripe. A tap acts as a Home button, but a swipe up now opens the new multitask menu. It lists all the apps live and horizontally, with shortcuts below to other apps that Android thinks you want to open. Users can swipe the button to the right to quickly switch between apps. The multitask button is gone.
In addition, the app drawer gets shortcuts to frequently used functions within apps, such as sending a message to a friend. In addition, shortcuts within apps can appear in search results, making it easy to order a ride home via Lyft taxi service, for example, without having to open the app.
In addition, Google comes with ML Kit, a way for developers to put various machine learning applications in apps. This includes object recognition, text recognition and smart replies. Google is also trying to make Android phones more economical with the battery through an automatic brightness function that learns how users manually adjust the brightness during the day. In addition, Android apps that users probably no longer open quickly will close faster. That learning of usage patterns has been included in Huawei’s Android edition Emui for a year and a half.
The second preview version of Android P will be released on Tuesday. The final version will be released this fall and thanks to Project Treble, it should appear as an upgrade faster for more phones than just Google’s.