Pie

Android P now easy as Pie

Google has officially announced that Android P will be known as Pie. While not as sweet as previous Kit Kat, Marshmallow or Oreo I guess we will have to live with it. Peach or Pecan Pie perhaps.

AI powers Pie. From predicting your next task (app actions) to prioritizing battery power (Adaptive Battery), screen brightness (Adaptive Brightness) for the apps you use most. Android 9 adapts to your life and the ways you like to use your phone.

As phones get bigger fingers don’t

The move to 18:9 or longer screens means one-handed use can be difficult. There is now only one home ‘button’. Swipe up to see a newly designed Overview where at a glance you have full-screen previews of your recently used apps.

Swipe up from anywhere to see full-screen previews of recently used apps and tap to jump back into one of them.

Smart text selection recognises the meaning of the text you’re selecting and suggests relevant actions. Google call it slices (of Pie). It shows relevant information from your favourite apps when you need it. If you start typing “Lyft” into Google Search, you’ll see a “slice” of the Lyft app, showing prices for your ride home and the ETA for a driver so you can take action more quickly and easily.

Tools to detox too – Digital Wellbeing

A new Dashboard that helps you understand how you’re spending time on your device.

App Timer lets you set time limits on apps and greys out the icon on your home screen when the time is up. The new Do Not Disturb silences all the visual interruptions that pop up on your screen. Wind Down switches on Night Light and Do Not Disturb and fades the screen to grayscale before bedtime.

Improved security – get your fingers out of my pie

In addition to continuously hardening the platform, and an improved security model for biometrics, Android 9 enables industry-leading hardware security capabilities to allow protecting sensitive data like credit card information using a secure, dedicated chip.  Android 9 also brings important privacy improvements, such as TLS by default and DNS over TLS to help protect all web communications and keep them private.

GadgetGuy’s take. Give me a slice of pie

We have a Google Pixel 2 XL and will be seeing what changes are in store soon.