Android P developer notes

The official Android Pie release has been announced in a Google blog post which promises the rollout of some pretty substantial changes to authentication, navigation UI, task prediction, and more. With the software currently in beta and waiting for its official release, it’s important that developers get ready to start planning their next moves in order to strike while the iron is hot!

What's new in Android P for developers?

• One of the more important features that developers need to know about, is the new Slices feature for Google searches on Android P installed mobile devices. The feature has already been implemented for Pixel and Essential phones. But with the release of Android P, Google will be releasing Slices to all other devices. Slices allow developers to provide additional content that might be relevant to a user whenever your app appears in a phone search. For instance, if I’m a ride-sharing app I might want to include information like the estimated time of arrival, estimated cost, and even estimated waiting time to get a ride to any popular location that a user frequents in a little card that would appear whenever the user searched for my app.
   
• Android P also ships with a new feature called App Actions. App Actions defines the context in which a user uses an app, listens to music, reads a book, etc,… and then will begin tailoring the UI to show those tasks whenever a user reenters a similar context. So if you are on your daily commute to work and you like to habitually listen to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” in the car, Android P will have you covered.
   
• Authentication also has a couple of changes which now allows apps to utilize the phone’s authentication services to add an extra layer of security for when users are buying a product, making a payment, and more. That way your kid won't be able to buy nearly $200 worth of Fortnite skins without your permission...
   
• On the more technical side of things, it looks like a Precomputed text will now be added to provide developers with a quicker way of representing static text. A new way of implementing text that leaves only 10% of the work left whenever the text is being shown on the screen, which can help increase frame rate. The OS will also sport a fancy new text highlight magnifier that looks very similar to Apples. To learn more about text changes, I would recommend a talk at Google I/O 2018 named "Best practices with text.”
   
• The new Android P OS update will feature all new brightness and battery management AI that will detect the optimal battery settings individually for each user to maximize performance without sacrificing battery life.
   
• The new Android P OS will also feature a whole new set of navigation UI functionality that many complain about being an imitation of Apple’s iPhone X style gestures. Needless to say, Android P definitely won’t take too much-getting use to for those Apple to Android converts.
   
• With the new wave of concerns about mobile phone addiction, Android and Apple have both made plans to help user’s curb their addiction by providing them with an app that tracks their app usage, phone time, and even notification frequencies in pretty sleek looking data-rich apps. Needless to say, I will definitely be using this feature whenever the OS drops. The OS will also feature new time limit capabilities which will warn you whenever you have surpassed the time a user has allocated daily for an app. Another feature set to help deter phone addiction.

Make sure to also read our guide on handling the notch! Because oh yeah, the notch is going to be deeply integrated with Android's future plans.