Google has been presenting the developer previews of the upcoming Android versions in the month of March since the last two years. This year too, it has come up with the first developer preview of Android P in March and the launch is expected sometime in the third quarter of the year. Though nothing much has been revealed about the user-facing design changes in the all-new version, there are some new features that Google is talking about. Developers can learn about these features and work with them to test existing apps as well as create new ones for modern Android devices. Also, businesses that are going to invest in android app development services in the near future need to know about them. Let’s check them out:
Built-in Support For Notches
Android P features built-in support for notches, which refer to camera cutouts. This will make the devices at par with other mobile phones such as iPhone X and Essential PH-1. This feature will enable developers to alter the status bar height automatically to accommodate the notch. They can check if a device has a cutout and ensure that full-screen content flows around it.
New Look For Notifications
The new version presents a new look for notifications so that messaging apps are enabled with more informative alerts. With this revamp, the user will be able to see the messages with recent conversation and send AI-powered smart replies to these notifications. They can even see attached images directly in the notification. Again, this feature makes it very similar to the way notifications are handled by iOS.
Multi-camera API
As a majority of Android devices today are equipped with multiple cameras, Android P has come with a multi-camera API to ensure native support for multiple cameras. With this, the apps will have more granular control over multiple cameras. Also, developers will be able to add features such as display-based flash and image stabilization to the apps.
Indoor Positioning
Another feature that Android P has introduced is WiFi Round Trip Time (RTT), which will facilitate precision in indoor navigation for the user with the use of IEEE 802.11mc Wi-Fi protocol. The apps will be able to get indoor positioning data by measuring the distance to Wi-Fi access points. The data will be accurate enough to pinpoint the user location within 1 to 2 meters.
Enhanced Privacy
Since privacy is the key concern for users these days, Android P has done some work in this context too. It has come up with a restriction system for device cameras, sensors, and microphones which restrict the access by apps that are not active. With this system, an app marked as idle will not be able to access these features at all.
Native Support For HDR And HEIF
The version brings built-in support for HDR VP9 Profile and HEIF, which means that the users can get better experiences with images and videos. While HDR empowers the device users to watch HDR movies on HDR-compatible devices, HEIF enables them to store images more effectively by compressing them to half the size of a JPEG yet maintaining their quality.
In addition to these key features, there are several more that are making developers eager for the update. They can expect better performance for apps written in Kotlin. Also, it will render a smarter Autofill feature to make things easier for password managers. Additionally, support will be added for several operations including SpaceToBatchND, BatchToSpaceND, Pad, Mean, Dive, Transpose, and more. All in all, these features make this update an awaited one.
Although there is still time for the final Android P version to be officially released, it is time that developers gear up so that they can create apps that leverage it once released. At Android Developer, we are a trusted name for Android App Development in India and abroad. We specialize in creating high-tech Android apps that cater to diverse industries and requirements. Connect with us to hire android app developers for your next project.
