Nine new features of Android 9

Android’s latest version, which is 9.0, is termed as the Pie. The previous few versions of Android brought in a few tweaks, but Pie has some considerable additions that must be appreciated. Herein, we discuss nine new features introduced by Android mobile app development.

More information about notification

This topic consists of the following three navigations:

• To view more info, tap See all from last 7 days.
• To view the apps that have pinged you recently, refer to the Recently sent section.
• To view those apps that have been sending distracting notifications, tap Notifications in Settings > Apps & notifications.

Selection of text has become easier

In case your routine involves a lot of copy and paste, there is one useful change in Pie. When you do a long-press to select text, a little magnifier pops up. It displays the text that you are exactly selecting.

Selectable dark mode

A dark mode was included in Android Oreo. However, the decision to enable it depending on the wallpaper was automatically decided by the system. Now in Pie, you can do the selection yourself. For this, tap Device theme, after moving to Settings > System > Display > Advanced.

Improvement in sound and volume

Oreo had two Bluetooth options, while Pie has increased them to five. You can have these connections simultaneously. These calls can reach those Bluetooth devices that can handle the calls. Now, the phone remembers the individual Bluetooth device volume. Thus, if you use the Bluetooth speaker at maximum volume, the possibility of blowing your ears out with the earbuds does not exist. The following functions exist:

• To make detailed adjustments after opening the Sound menu, select the Gear icon.
• To unmute or mute media audio, tap the Note icon.
• The Calls volume can be toggled among Mute, Vibrate, and Ring by tapping the icon above the Note icon.
• If the Volume button is pressed, the slider does not appear on the top but the right side.
• If you press Volume buttons, rather than the ringer volume, the media volume gets altered. This simple change in volume functionality facilitates avoiding opening of a YouTube video and playing it at maximum volume accidentally.

Rotation of the screen has become easier

Depending on how the screen is situated, Android changes the orientation of the screen automatically. If you need to switch from landscape to portrait and vice versa frequently, locking the orientation to one of these becomes troublesome. However, it has become possible to lock the orientation. If you turn off Auto-Rotate and rotate your device to landscape, a new icon is displayed on the right side of the navigation bar. If you tap this icon, you can lock the landscape orientation. To rotate back to the portrait orientation, you need to tap the icon again.

Panacea Infotech is an Android app development company USA, which can use all these new features.

Shortcut to the new screenshot

For shortcuts, the default combination is the Power + Volume down button. This is a little cumbersome to use. In Pie, it is possible to use the Power menu to take a shortcut. The notification has the Edit command, which when tapped seems to make changes to the screenshot.

Accessibility menu

Several accessibility features exist in Android, which cannot be easily accessed. Pie has a new menu, which simplifies access to common functions. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Menu to enable this menu. You have to turn the Use service slider on, and then confirm the prompt. Now, to the right of the navigation bar, you can view a new icon. If you tap this icon, a large menu is displayed. It has shortcuts to Quick settings, Recent apps, and Volume, etc. Due to this, users can have easy navigation to access Android’s features.

Digital Wellbeing

This is a very interesting feature. You can understand how often you use your phone. You can also know the apps with which you spend maximum time. This feature has a dashboard that displays how frequently you check the phone, the duration you spend in handling apps, and the number of notifications sent by the apps to you. It is also possible to set daily time limits to prevent yourself from indulging in time-consuming apps.

When it is time to sleep, the Wind Down feature changes the phone to gray-scale. The Pie also has a Do Not Disturb feature, which turns off video and audio notifications. Thus, it serves as a blockage for all distractions. The Digital Wellbeing feature is expected in Pie in the future.

Better security

In emergency situations, the phone is safeguarded by the lockdown mode. To enable this, go to Settings > Security & location > Lock screen preferences > Show lockdown option, and then on the Power menu, tap Lockdown. This action hides notifications on the lock screen, disables Smart Lock and fingerprint unlocking, and locks the phone. To unlock the phone, you should use your pattern, password, or pin. This is a very helpful method in case a thief coerces you to use biometric methods to unlock the phone.

A second feature is about restriction to SensorManager sensors, camera, and mic from idle apps. It happens that you have given permission to your app to access the microphone. However, unless you are actively using the app, this app cannot access the microphone.

In addition to the above, the Android mobile app development has resulted in Pie having rounded corners across the OS, refreshed fonts, and more colorful Settings menu.