Android P Developer Preview 1 Announced: Evolution

[DocSwag]

Sources: https://9to5google.com/2018/03/07/android-p-developer-preview-1-new-features-gallery/, https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2018/03/previewing-android-p.html

 

Google just announced the developer preview 1 for Android P. And while it doesn't have any major changes (nothing like what we saw on Lollipop), it does include a couple of nice changes that I'm personally really happy to see.

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A small change to picture-in-picture mode adds a gear icon to the top-left corner of all windows. This shortcut opens system settings and allows users to disable the PiP permission  for an app.

This one is kind of cool, but not that interesting IMO. 

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For the most part, Android P retains the design that Google introduced with Oreo. However, it is no longer stark white thanks to colorful icons. Meanwhile, some organzation has been also been rearranged. For more, check out our hands-on post.

I do think that the Android Oreo lockscreen was a little bit too dull, so it's nice to see Google spice it up. However, I think they may have gone a little overboard with this. Some color, maybe some blue here and there, would be nice. I'm not sure if I like the huge variety of colors that the new settings app has...

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With Android P, the Pixel’s always-on display adds the battery percentage at the center bottom of the screen. Meanwhile, another tweak (which is also found on the lockscreen) shorters the day instead of displaying the full word.

Android P also adds on to the always on display by adding a battery percentage. It's nice to see Google add more functionality to the OSD, but I'd really like to see them make it more customizable, with the user being able to enable/disable a bunch of different things on the OSD

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Notifications get another revamp in the latest version of Android with P focusing on visibility and increased functionality. This includes the ability for notifications to show conversations, photos, stickers, and smart replies, like Google’s new Reply app.

There is also a new quick settings panel with rounded icons. For a more in-depth look, visit our hands-on post.

On Nougat and the original Pixel phones Google decided to begin to unify Android under a more circular design, rather than stick with the whatever-size-and-shape app icons and whatnot that Android had had for ages.

 

This meant that, especially with the pixel launcher, many apps changed to having circular app icons. However, the icons in the notification shade continued to be all kinds of sizes and shapes. It looks like Google is looking to change this and will be making all the icons in the notification shade circular.

 

TBH, I kinda liked the funky whatever-shape motto Android had before, but the circular design doesn't really bother me either, so I don't really care much about this.

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When adjusting the volume in Android P, the slider bar is no longer horizontal and at the top of the screen. Rather, it is vertical and to the right to match the physical placement of the volume keys, at least on the Pixel 2.

 

Meanwhile, there is a shortcut underneath to set ring, mute, or vibrate only mode. For more, read our hands-on post where we also cover the new Bluetooth controls.

I feel like this puts the volume slide bar more out of the way, which is something I kind of like. The addition of being able to change notification level straight from the slider though is really cool, though I question how much it matters since you can put it in the notification shade anyways.

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Similar in placement to the aforementioned vertical volume bar, there is a new Screenshot shortcut. Accessible by pressing down on the power button, it appears underneath the Power off and Restart options. This is similar to pressing the physical button combination with the full status and navigation bar captured.

 

The shortcut goes hand-in-hand with the new ‘Markup‘ built-in screenshot editor app.

This is really nice. One of the main things I regretted going from a OnePlus phone to a pixel was the lack of being able to screenshot by holding the power button. I've gotten used to using volume down+power button for screenshots but I still think this way is way more convenient, so I'm really happy to see this.

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In Android P we've put a priority on improving visibility and function in notifications. Try the new MessagingStyle notification style -- it highlights who is messaging and how you can reply. You can show conversations, attach photos and stickers, and even suggest smart replies. See the details here.

This is cool. Integrating messages more into the notifications is definitely nice to see. One small thing I also noticed in this picture is the rounded corners on the notifications and the separation between the notification bar and the notifications. Currently on 8.1 corners aren't rounded and there's no gap between the notification bar and notifications.

 

Under the hood improvements

 

Android P also brings a bunch of under the hood updates. This includes the better notch support (due to all those iPhone X copies that are now gonna result because stupid manufacturers try to copy it), a multi camera API that supports streams from more than 1 camera at the same time, HDR VP9 Video support (allowing for HDR movies from places like youtube and play movies), autofill improvements, improvements to power efficiency, and more.

 

Overall, Android P is simply another evolutionary update for Android, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's not anything major I really want to see from Android, so these small minor updates are totally fine to me.

 

The only thing that I really want to see addressed is standby battery life. Android standby battery life is still eh at best. As well, the battery tracker in settings is absolute trash and the battery used up by all the apps don't even add to how much battery was drained. It would be nice to see Android fix that sometime in the past, but it looks like P won't be fixing this.

[Zando_]

Looks pretty nice! Stink there aren't many pure android ROMS for my S6 though... and I doubt it'll get any support for this. 

[DocSwag]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

Looks pretty nice! Stink there aren't many pure android ROMS for my S6 though... and I doubt it'll get any support for this. 

Did you get Oreo on your S6? If I understand Treble properly I think you may be able to flash any ROM onto it thanks to Treble.

[Zando_]

3 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Did you get Oreo on your S6? If I understand Treble properly I think you may be able to flash any ROM onto it thanks to Treble.

No, it's still on 7.0... and what's Treble?

 

EDIT: Apparently some aren't supported, only ones shipping with Oreo are guaranteed compatibility: https://www.androidauthority.com/project-treble-818225/

 

[DildorTheDecent]

1 minute ago, DocSwag said:

Did you get Oreo on your S6? If I understand Treble properly I think you may be able to flash any ROM onto it thanks to Treble.

Treble is just a way to bring android updates faster since it'll just update the android framework without touching the vendor interface.

 

Or something like that anyway. I'd love to get more than two major releases tbh (S7 Edge came with 6, gets 7, getting 8 and would like 9)

[DocSwag]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

No, it's still on 7.0... and what's Treble?

With 8.0 google introduced something called Treble, which basically let Android run on devices without the drivers from manufacturers like Qualcomm. If I understand it correctly, it can let you flash custom ROMs from others onto the kernel easily and without issues, making porting custom roms way easier.

 

It basically separates the kernel and ROM better and by doing so makes flashing custom roms and making them work way easier.

https://www.androidauthority.com/project-treble-818225/

[Trixanity]

11 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Snip

It's essentially separating the hardware from the software meaning you can update them separately and won't have to rewrite everything to make it work. Any new Android software would run on the existing device specific implementation. 

 

Like with Play Services there's a test suite to ensure compliance resulting in forwards compatibility. The vendor partition can still be updated (eg updated wifi or graphics driver - it can even be done through Play Store) but it's no longer necessary. That means it's easier and faster for device makers to update your device if they want to since they don't need to wait on Qualcomm or any other partners to update their stuff before working on updates. 

 

In addition, any device must be able to boot up a generic system image. That's where things get interesting for custom software development: they no longer need to hack or patch devices to make them work with newer software. It just works. In theory anyway.

 

I suspect compatibility will break in the future though. Google expanded the Linux kernel support from 2 to 6 year. I think we can expect things to stop working when support is dropped or more specifically: no more updates without going back to hacking things. Then it'll probably be required to have the next version of the Linux kernel to get updates going forward unless they drop Linux and go full on with Fuschia.

 

Anyway: back on topic.

I think we can expect things to be much more fleshed out in the next preview. I believe that was the case with Oreo.

 

The interface seems whiter than ever. That sucks. I really loved the splashes of color of Material Design. It looked really good to me. The white UI is too sterile and too iOS-like for my taste. Also: system wide dark theme. How hard can it be to make an API and require developers to create two profiles of color schemes. I can't imagine setting colors for UI elements is the bane of an app developer's existence.

[DocSwag]

21 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

The interface seems whiter than ever. That sucks. I really loved the splashes of color of Material Design. It looked really good to me. The white UI is too sterile and too iOS-like for my taste. Also: system wide dark theme. How hard can it be to make an API and require developers to create two profiles of color schemes. I can't imagine setting colors for UI elements is the bane of an app developer's existence

What they probably need is something like a night mode or something similar.

[themctipers]

[SpaceGhostC2C]

37 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

It's essentially separating the hardware from the software meaning you can update them separately and won't have to rewrite everything to make it work. Any new Android software would run on the existing device specific implementation. 

 

Like with Play Services there's a test suite to ensure compliance resulting in forwards compatibility. The vendor partition can still be updated (eg updated wifi or graphics driver - it can even be done through Play Store) but it's no longer necessary. That means it's easier and faster for device makers to update your device if they want to since they don't need to wait on Qualcomm or any other partners to update their stuff before working on updates. 

 

In addition, any device must be able to boot up a generic system image. That's where things get interesting for custom software development: they no longer need to hack or patch devices to make them work with newer software. It just works. In theory anyway.

Are you telling me that Android is finally catching up with 20th century operative systems?  

[GoodBytes]

Another important improvement that everyone misses, is that Android P will FINALLY have privacy control on the Microphone and Camera. [correction]Will disable reporting information to apps if the phone is detected to be idle[/correction]

 

Why this is important. Many apps under Google Store, uses the phone microphone when the app runs, to listen to conversation without the user knowing. Its not the app itself, but the implemented advertisement. An advertisement agency made a solution for app dev to implement (and get money that way as a source of revenue), to listen to conversation all the time, and detect TV audio signature, and mixes with personal phone data to build profiles of people to know what TV ads they watch. Google is aware of such apps implementing this system, and they allow it.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/theres-a-spike-in-android-apps-that-covertly-listen-for-inaudible-sounds-in-ads/

 

What sucks in all this, is that Google isn't adding this security feature to current Android users. You need to have a phone with Android P.

[GoodBytes]

If you have Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, and the Pixel C tablet, Google said that you won't get Android P, ever.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/3/7/17093250/android-p-compatibility-nexus-5x-nexus-6p-pixel-c-tablet

 

 

[Salv8 (sam)]

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

If you have Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, and the Pixel C tablet, Google said that you won't get Android P, ever....

ever....

my device is stuck on the Android Oreo beta update and i don't want to reset my device to get it off the beta update!!!

[Drak3]

Well fuck the new volume slide placement.

[GoodBytes]

 

[captain_to_fire]

What if "Android P" means "Android Popcorn" and since Android naming schemes is all about sweets, they're probably naming it after the sweet, caramelized popcorn?

 

[GoodBytes]

1 minute ago, hey_yo_ said:

What if "Android P" means "Android Popcorn" and since Android naming schemes is all about sweets, they're probably naming it after the sweet, caramelized popcorn?

 

NinjaBytes is quick!

[captain_to_fire]

2 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

NinjaBytes is quick!

Well you beat me to it

[Guest]

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Another important improvement that everyone misses, is that Android P will FINALLY have privacy control on the Microphone and Camera.

Dang, didn't know stock Android lacked that (I'm spoiled by LineageOS's Privacy Guard)

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

If you have Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, and the Pixel C tablet, Google said that you won't get Android P, ever.

You'll never stop me Google! (Proceeds to wait on other people to port it) Though with custom roms there is far less of an incentive for newer versions of Android.

[Trixanity]

9 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Are you telling me that Android is finally catching up with 20th century operative systems?  

Yup. It's a bit weird but it seems like every single update, even a security update, would or could result in things breaking. Any major update was a rewrite in some form. That was insane.

 

We don't know how successful Treble will be though. For starters, the thing wasn't finalized till 8.1 so 8.0 devices may still have issues depending on the device. That means we may not see the full effect until we go from P to Q (or P to P M1). And then we still have to rely on the whims of device makers to actually update it. Easier doesn't mean they'll do it.

[LAwLz]

10 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Are you telling me that Android is finally catching up with 20th century operative systems?  

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think any mobile OS has a Treble-like development platform today.

iOS and Windows Mobile also struggles with needing device-specific updates, although Apple might but because the position they are in they might need to do other things to get iOS working.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

10 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Another important improvement that everyone misses, is that Android P will FINALLY have privacy control on the Microphone and Camera. A feature that iOS and Windows users (PC and mobile) enjoyed for a very long time. Now you can block apps that have no business using your microphone without you knowing.

 

The current build of Lineage OS (Android 7.1.2) allows me to control those permissions just fine.

In fact I've been able to control those for ages, wouldn't be surprised if I had it on 6.x in the Cyanogenmod days already. 

 

- - -

 

Had to block out a work-related app for privacy reasons. 

I do run my phone with as little apps as needed and all of them are open-source (via f-droid instead of Google Play, none of that Google nonsense here).

 

Those who paid attention may notice that one of my camera apps has no mic permissions.  This is because I haven't tried to shoot a video with that app yet.  By default my apps have no permissions.  When I do something that requires a certain permission for the first time, the app will ask for it.  It only gets the permission when I manually grant it. 

 

Other app permissions that I can set per app : Body Sensors (for fitness trackers etc), Calendar, Contacts, Location, SMS, Storage, Telephone and "Additional Permissions" (which on my phone only shows "read email", a permission used by my ROMs default mail app)

 

 

[LAwLz]

11 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Another important improvement that everyone misses, is that Android P will FINALLY have privacy control on the Microphone and Camera. A feature that iOS and Windows users (PC and mobile) enjoyed for a very long time. Now you can block apps that have no business using your microphone without you knowing.

What are you on about? Apps need to ask for permission to use the cameras or microphones already.

When an app tries to access your camera, or microphone (or basically anything else), you get a popup asking if you want to grant the app permission to do so. It's been like that since Marshmallow (6.0).

 

11 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Why this is important. Many apps under Google Store, uses the phone microphone when the app runs, to listen to conversation without the user knowing. Its not the app itself, but the implemented advertisement. An advertisement agency made a solution for app dev to implement (and get money that way as a source of revenue), to listen to conversation all the time, and detect TV audio signature, and mixes with personal phone data to build profiles of people to know what TV ads they watch. Google is aware of such apps implementing this system, and they allow it.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/theres-a-spike-in-android-apps-that-covertly-listen-for-inaudible-sounds-in-ads/

The problem is that people grant apps permissions without thinking about it.

Flashlight wants to read your contracts? Sure why not!

There isn't really anything Google can do about it without going in and micromanaging every app on the market.

Users need to stop being dumb.

 

11 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

What sucks in all this, is that Google isn't adding this security feature to current Android users. You need to have a phone with Android P.

No, it was introduced in 6.0. No need for Android P.

Actually, it goes back even further. In order to record audio you've always had to add this to your app:

Manifest.permission.RECORD_AUDIO

That API has been in Android since API level 1.

What changed in 6.0 was that instead of asking the user to grand all permissions at install, Android Marshmallow changed it so users get prompted to allow/deny once the app tries to access things the first time.

 

 

What @Captain Chaos posted pictures of is built into Android. It's not something you need a third party ROM for.

 

Edit:

I found an article from 2015 which talks about this, and even uses microphone as an example.

http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/google-will-let-users-restrict-permissions-for-bloatware-in-android-6-0/

[Sniperfox47]

12 hours ago, Trixanity said:

 The vendor partition can still be updated (eg updated wifi or graphics driver - it can even be done through Play Store) but it's no longer necessary.  

Since when can the vendor partition be patched through the store? I thought the CDD required signing on the Vendor and System partition?

11 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Another important improvement that everyone misses, is that Android P will FINALLY have privacy control on the Microphone and Camera. A feature that iOS and Windows users (PC and mobile) enjoyed for a very long time. Now you can block apps that have no business using your microphone without you knowing.

What are you on about? Stock Android has had this since Version 5.0... And it's been user visible since 6.0... I've got mic and camera access blocked in pretty much every app on my Pixel.

8 hours ago, tjcater said:

Dang, didn't know stock Android lacked that (I'm spoiled by LineageOS's Privacy Guard)

You'll never stop me Google! (Proceeds to wait on other people to port it) Though with custom roms there is far less of an incentive for newer versions of Android.

It's not lacking it. It's part of stock Android that LineageOS is leveraging. GoodBytes just has no idea what he's talking about regarding this.

[Sniperfox47]

5 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

~snip~

It was in 5.0 too, just not user visible. You could get into it with some adb trickery though.