谷歌^(Google)于去年8 月^(August)向自家手机Pixel 品牌^{(Pixel brand)}发布了Android Pie 。从那时起，包括三星^(Samsung)、摩托罗拉^(Motorola)、华为^(Huawei)、索尼^(Sony)、诺基亚^(Nokia)、荣耀^(Honor)、LG 等在内的各种安卓手机制造商都在为^(Android)他们的^(their)手机适配最新版本的安卓^(Android)（第 9 版） 。

Essential Phone 和 OnePlus^{(Essential Phone and OnePlus)}等一些产品于 2018 年底推出，而其他一些产品，包括三星^(Samsung)及其高端Note and S9+ models，直到2019 年1 月和^{(January and February)}2019 年 2 月才看到更新。

^{(Android Pie)}许多人称之为Android Pie或Android P是对之前版本^{(Android P)}Oreo的巨大更新。Android P具有全新的外观、许多新的生产力、便利性和安全性功能，以及对现有功能的多项功能更改。

要涵盖的内容很多 - 远远超出我在不撰写评论的情况下可以涵盖的内容，这需要您投入大量时间。因此^(Hence)，这篇评论集中在最重要和最有趣的变化上。

优点^{(Pros )}

• 新的 Material Design API^{(New Material Design API)}规则应该会带来更好、更一致的应用程序
• 提高电池寿命和省电模式^{(battery life and battery saver)}
• 智能旋转^{(Smart rotation)}按钮简单却别出心裁
• Digital Wellbeing是^(Anonymous)数 百万智能手机成瘾者的戒酒所^(Alcoholics)
• 新的外观很容易在眼睛上
• 可编辑的屏幕截图
• 一长串新的或改进的功能

缺点^(Cons)

• 未向第三方开发者提供的最新应用程序^(Apps)和其他功能（包括 Digital Wellbeing ）
• 新^(New)手势和导航栏替换^{(bar replacement)}有点多，令人困惑，但至少你可以将它们关闭。

底线：^{(Bottom Line: )}总体而言， Android 9是对^{(Android 9)}版本 8^{(version 8)}的改进，但谷歌^(Google)正在为自己的手机囤积一些更令人印象深刻的功能；即便如此，扩展的 AI 和其他改进也得到了很好的实施。

不过，重要的是要注意，并非所有制造商都采用所有新功能，有时他们对它们的调整与谷歌^(Google)在手机上部署它们的方式不同。一个很好的例子是Android P支持通过按住电源按钮^{(Power button)}然后从随后的菜单中选择屏幕截图来截取屏幕截图。^(Screenshot)

例如，三星 Note 9^{(Samsung Note 9)}已经提供了多种截屏方式，包括传统的Power + Volume Down 方法^{(Down method)}、手掌滑动手势^{(palm swipe gesture)}、通过Bixby 语音^{(Bixby voice)}激活（“ Hey Bixby，截屏”）以及通过S Pen， Note 的触控笔。它和其他一些三星^(Samsung)手机以及其他制造商的设备都没有部署电源菜单^{(Power menu)} 截图选项^{(screenshot option)}。

此外，对于一些制造商来说，采用新版本的Android是一个持续的过程，在后续更新中会添加新功能。当然，关键是根据您的手机，您可能无法获得所有Android P功能，或者它们可能不完全相同，有些可能会在以后出现。

还有一些，由于谷歌对其所谓的“合作伙伴”（其他手机制造商）使用的垄断策略，根本不提供给第三方手机。确定Android 9将为您的手机带来什么的唯一方法是联系其制造商或公司网站。

新面貌^{(A New Look)}

Android 9 的整体外观，也称为它的Material Design（或它的设计语言^{(design language)}），与它的前身不同之处在于它有更多，甚至更圆的圆角，单色图标，更多的留白，并且比以往任何时候都更扁平是。

换句话说，阴影几乎被消除了。我想，它是否更有吸引力是见仁见智的问题。对我来说，需要一些时间来适应。尽管如此，一段时间以来，iOS、macOS 和Windows中的更扁平、基本界面和更简单的图标已经成为常态。

您还可以更好地控制整体外观。我特别喜欢夜间模式选项^{(night mode option)}，它将界面从白色背景上的黑色文本反转为黑色背景上的白色文本，如下图所示^{(image below)}。

诚然，这主要是为了让手机在黑暗中更容易使用，但在我看来，它确实让它更容易随时查看和使用，而且更具吸引力。

请注意，这与Dark Mode不同，尽管它们看起来确实相似。但是，除了这些更明显的外观变化之外，您可能会注意到整个 UI 中更细微的变化，例如“设置向下钻取”中的更多颜色、“^{(Settings drill-downs)}搜索”^(Search)和其他字段（包括“通知”）中的圆角 等。

或许 对Android P的^{(Android P)}Material Design更重要的是，在第 9 版^{(version 9)}中，谷歌^(Google)为第三方应用程序开发者提出了一个新的API（应用程序接口）标准，迫使他们像^{(application program interface)}苹果^(Apple)一样，遵守更严格的Android设计^{(Android design)} 合规性。换句话说，谷歌^(Google)（第一次）为应用提交实施了 Play 商店质量标准规则。

从现在开始，Play 商店^{(Play Store)}将只接受符合新API限制并支持新功能的应用提交，否则将不允许开发者发布更新或新应用。在Android^(Android)外观的所有变化中，这次幕后更新可能是最重要的。

您还将看到新的过渡和通知动画、^{(transition and notification animations)}环境显示^{(Ambient Display)}屏幕底部的新电池百分比指示器^{(battery percentage indicator)}，让您无需唤醒手机即可查看剩余电量。Weather也显示在Ambient Display中。

许多手机制造商和应用程序开发人员实现了这些功能，以及锁定屏幕模式下^{(Lock Screen mode)}的时钟之外的扩展信息，这也是很久以前Android P的新功能。^{(Android P)}如果你喜欢这种东西，还有一堆新的表情符号。

新的导航功能^{(New Navigation Features)}

在介绍 Android P 的新导航功能之前，首先要注意的是，谷歌^(Google)过去并不总是向其他手机制造商提供所有最新的导航选项。

因此，某些Pixel 导航^{(Pixel navigation)}选项与非Google设备上的导航有时会明显不同。在Android 9中，谷歌^(Google)已将导航更改提供给所有制造商，但并非所有制造商（例如三星^(Samsung)）都选择实施它们，而是提供自己的选项。

在Android P中，如果您选择（在“Gestures > Swipe主页按钮^{(home button)}上向上滑动”下的“显示^(Display)设置”中切换），则可以从导航栏^{(navigation bar)}上的标准“后退”^(Back)、“主页^(Home)”和“最近使用的应用^{(Recent App)}”按钮切换到单按钮导航选项^{(navigation option)}。然后，这些手势可从任何屏幕使用：

• 点击一次回家
• 长按启动谷歌助手^{(Google Assistant)}
• 向右滑动查看最新^(most) 应用
• 向右滑动并按住^{(Swipe right and hold)}最近的应用^{(Recent Apps)}程序
• 向上滑动^(Swipe)以显示最近的应用程序菜单^{(Recent Apps menu)}和建议的应用程序
• 向上滑动以打开应用程序抽屉^{(app drawer)}

根据您在 UI 中的位置，其他按钮会临时显示在主页或导航按钮旁边，包括键盘选择器^{(keyboard picker)}和智能旋转按钮^{(rotation button)}。

使用智能旋转，当您关闭自动旋转时，操作系统会识别您可能希望忽略该设置的应用程序（例如，视频播放器^{(video player)}），从而允许您旋转屏幕而无需更改设置。

如果您启用新的手势导航功能，Android P会为您提供两个版本的“最近使用的应用程序”屏幕^{(Recent Apps screen)}，一个带有Google 搜索^{(Google search)}栏和屏幕底部的建议应用程序（通过人工智能或 AI，根据您的使用情况），以及一张带有应用预览卡。

第一个显示一排应用程序卡供您刷卡。您可以通过向上滑动来移除应用，通过向下滑动或点击卡片进入应用，通过向右滑动显示^{(enter apps)}全部清除按钮^{(Clear All button)}。点击卡片顶部的应用程序图标会显示其他选项，例如应用程序信息^{(App Info)}、应用程序固定^{(App Pinning)}和分屏^{(Split-Screen)}。

通过滑动并按住右侧的导航按钮^{(navigation button)}可激活另一个“最近使用的应用程序”屏幕^{(Recent App screen)}，这会启动一组“最近使用的应用程序^{(Recent App)}”卡片。要打开应用程序，您只需在选择所需应用程序时松开按钮。

根据选择的内容，操作系统还会建议应用程序，包括用于URL的^(URL)Chrome、消息^(Messages)、联系人^(Contacts)或用于电话^(Phone)号码^{(phone number)}的电话。你明白了。您甚至可以从各个应用预览^{(app preview)}卡中复制和粘贴文本。

新的便利和生产力功能^{(New Convenience and Productivity Features)}

如前所述，Android Pie是一个重大更新，具有更多的新功能和外观变化，你无法动摇，或者我可以在这里讨论而不会占用你太多时间。下面是一个（有点长）新的生产力和便利功能^{(productivity and convenience features)}以及简要说明的列表。我试图在简洁和信息丰富之间找到平衡。

自适应电池：^{(Adaptive Battery:)} 借助自适应电池^{(Adaptive Battery)}，Android 9利用机器学习^{(machine learning)}或 AI 预测您可能在接下来的几个小时内使用哪些应用程序以及您可能不使用哪些应用程序，从而更明智地消耗电池电量。^{(battery power)}

自适应亮度：^{(Adaptive Brightness: )}另一个人工智能驱动的功能，自适应亮度^{(Adaptive Brightness)}会记住您在不同照明环境中的首选亮度级别，并相应地调整照明。

如果你对灯光不那么烦躁^{(t fidget)}，那么人工智能当然不会有太多的工作要做。不过，一个很酷的功能是亮度滑块^{(brightness slider)}会自行移动以响应各种照明变化。

应用程序操作：^{(App Actions:)}这是前面提到的那些仍将出现的功能之一。此外，它可能只在谷歌的设备上可用。在任何情况下，App Actions都会根据^{(App Actions)}上下文^{(context and displays)}预测您接下来要执行的操作并显示该操作，从而无需启动相关应用程序本身，从而节省您的时间。

例如，如果您插入耳机，操作系统可能会启动默认音乐播放器^{(default music player)}并提供指向您当天早些时候正在收听的播放列表的链接。

App Slices： App Slices 允许您（和Google 搜索^{(Google Search)}）使用应用程序的一部分来执行特定任务，例如让Uber向最近的司机招呼，但在大多数设备上还没有准备好迎接黄金时段。它最终将与 Google Assistant一起使用，这可以从根本上消除启动某些应用程序的需要。  

省电模式： ^{(Battery Saver)}Android Pie中 改进的省电模式应用程序^{(Battery Saver app)}提供了更广泛的选项，可在您的电池开始耗尽时启用省电模式。^{(Battery Saver)}您现在可以告诉操作系统在电池电量达到 70 % 或以下时启用^{(percent or below)}省电模式^{(Battery Saver)}，而不是 在 5% 或 15% 时启用省电模式。此外，更新后的 省电^{(Battery Saver)}模式不再具有可怕的橙色条，而是^{(orange bar—instead)}您会看到一个持续的通知图标^{(notification icon)}。

更好的蓝牙：^{(Better Bluetooth:)}现在蓝牙^(Bluetooth)最多同时支持五个设备。例如，您可以连接^{(example connect)}到多个扬声器以获得真正的立体声（两个扬声器）或环绕声（五个扬声器）。不过别担心，如果你接到电话，操作系统足够智能，可以将声音限制在一个扬声器上，所以事情不会变得太奇怪。

Android P还会记住您离开蓝牙^(Bluetooth)扬声器或耳机时的音量，这样您就不会敲响您的耳鼓，而且，在支持它的耳机上，现在有一个设置可以尝试消除您手机之间恼人的蓝牙延迟^{(Bluetooth delay)}和你的耳机。

Digital Wellbeing： Digital Wellbeing是一种电子保姆，旨在保护您免受智能手机的伤害，或者更准确地说，保护您自己和您对手机的过度使用。不幸的是，目前Digital Wellness 应用程序^{(Digital Wellness app)}仅在Pixel上可用，除非您准备使用此 hack^{(using this hack)}来安装它。

该应用程序包含应用程序计时器、扩展的请勿打扰模式^{(Disturb mode)}（接下来讨论）和Wind Down 模式^{(Wind Down mode)}，根据您设置的时间范围^{(time frame)}，逐渐将 UI 变为灰度，提醒您停止的时间即将到来。

请勿打扰：^{(Do Not Disturb: )}DND已经看到Android 9和Android 8之间的许多变化，尽管其中一些属于Digital Wellbeing，如上所述，它仅适用于Google手机，除非您愿意按照上面链接中的说明进行操作段落。

无论如何，以前版本的Android具有三种模式：正常^(Normal)、优先^(Priority)和完全静音。现在你的选择是 On 和Off，但你有更多的例外，如果你愿意的话，基本上可以让你对DND进行微观管理。^(DND)您现在也可以关闭视觉通知。

双摄像头流媒体和外置摄像头支持：^{(Dual-Camera Streaming and External Camera Support:)}借助Android 9，开发人员现在可以使用来自两个或多个物理摄像头、具有双前置或双后置摄像头的设备的流来创建深度、散景、立体视觉、3D 和更多视频体验. 此外，Android 9现在支持某些移动设备上的外部USB / UVC

改进的生物识别支持：^{(Improved biometrics support:)} 生物识别（指纹^{(Biometrics—fingerprint)}、虹膜和面部识别）得到了极大的改进，但大部分改进旨在帮助开发人员和制造商更好地利用生物识别硬件。

以最近配备面部和虹膜扫描仪的三星手机为例。^(Samsung)您可以使用这些来解锁您的手机，因为Android API将锁定屏幕^{(lock screen)}的控制权交给了三星^(Samsung)，从而允许该公司构建对扫描仪的支持。

反过来，这允许三星^(Samsung)和其他智能手机制造商和应用程序开发人员创建三星^(Samsung)智能生物识别^{(Intelligent Biometrics)}等功能，允许您同时要求面部和虹膜识别以获得额外的安全性或/或更快的登录。现在可能性大大增加。

Lift to Wake：也许更方便的功能之一就是谷歌^(Google)所说的Lift to Wake，这听起来就是这样。在Lock Screen > Motion and Gestures中打开它后，与面部或虹膜识别结合使用，当您拿起手机时，生物识别扫描仪开始工作，手机解锁。

当然，如果生物识别失败，您将不得不输入密码、密码或图案解锁。这似乎是一个平庸的变化^{(mediocre change)}，但我使用它比任何其他新功能都多；每次我想检查或查看某物时，唤醒手机的正常程序是乏味的。通常，登录所花的时间比我想在设备上执行的操作所花的时间要长。

锁定模式：^{(Lockdown mode:)} “锁定^(Lockdown)”模式在概念上类似于 Apple 的USB 受限模式^{(USB Restricted mode)}，通过按住电源按钮^{(power button)}并从列表中选择锁定来触发。^(Lockdown)这会清除锁定屏幕上^{(lock screen)}的所有通知和个人信息。

要解锁，您需要输入密码、图案或PIN - 没有^(PIN—no)生物识别选项可以解锁您的手机 - 没有指纹、面部解锁^{(face unlock)}或虹膜或三者的组合。此功能可防止窃贼或任何其他可能强迫您向手机展示您的脸或强迫您的手指放在阅读器上的不法分子。（哎呀！）

预览中的消息图像：^{(Message images in previews:)} 根据您的消息应用程序和制作者，消息通知现在可以在^{(messaging app)}通知预览^{(notification preview)}中显示图像，而不仅仅是文本。

更多媒体格式：^{(More media formats:)} Android P增加了对最新视频和音频格式^{(video and audio formats)}的支持，包括：

• HDR： High Dynamic Range VP9 Profile 2，让您很快就能在YouTube、Google Play 电影^{(Google Play Movies)}和其他服务上观看支持 HDR 的^{(HDR-enabled)}电影 。HDR扩大了视频的亮度和色彩范围，以提高图片质量和整体体验，如下图^{(picture quality)}所示^{(image below)}（以及您的显示器能够做到的）。
• 高清音频：^{(HD Audio:)} 改进了对高清音频性能的支持，提供更清晰、更丰富、更锐利的整体音质。
• HEIF： HEIF 照片改进了图片的压缩并减少了所需的存储量。

新表情符号：^{(New Emojis:)} Android 9 提供了另外 157 个表情符号，您可以将它们添加到您的电子邮件、消息和文档中，好像我们已经拥有的 2,275 个左右还不够。

这一次的新^(New)事物是热、冷、聚会和喝酒的笑脸；科学偶像，例如DNA、实验室外套^{(lab coat)}和护目镜；以及大量新动物、食物、建筑、标志、运动等等。您还可以找到各种形状和风格的人，包括超级英雄和超级恶棍。

新的凹口和边对边支持：^{(New notch and edge-to-edge support:)}现在支持具有切口或凹口的设备以利用可用的屏幕空间，以及对具有 18:9 和更高纵横比的设备的边对边屏幕支持。

新的安全和隐私功能：^{(New security and privacy features:)}安全改进包括随机MAC地址，使您难以在公共访问 Wi-Fi 环境中跟踪或利用您的手机。

此外，闲置的应用程序无法再访问传感器、麦克风或摄像头。当后台应用^{(background app)}发出此类请求时，Android会通知您，询问您是要允许还是拒绝访问。现在，应用程序还必须在运行 Wi-Fi 扫描之前请求许可，这样它们就无法收集您的位置数据。

Android 9 还默认阻止不安全的HTTP连接，要求应用改用^{(apps use)} HTTPS连接，这与 Chrome 最近在桌面上切换到HTTPS是一致的。^(HTTPS)

电源菜单选项：^{(Power menu options:)}如前所述，电源菜单^{(power menu)}现在有一个屏幕截图选项。此外，还有一个新的锁定选项^{(Lockdown option)}可以添加到电源菜单^{(power menu)}中，它可以隐藏所有通知、阻止Smart Lock并禁用指纹扫描仪^{(fingerprint scanner)}。

您可以在锁定屏幕^{(lock screen)}设置中找到该选项，一旦启用，它也会出现在主界面中。此外，如果屏幕在超时期间变暗，您现在可以通过触摸指纹扫描仪^{(fingerprint scanner)}来反转它。

截图编辑：^{(Screenshot editing:)} 除了新的截图方式之外，Android P还附带了一个截图编辑器，可以在您拍摄后立即使用，或者在图库^(Gallery) 和其他图像编辑器中使用。您可以根据需要调整屏幕截图的大小、裁剪、添加文本和绘图。

选定文本放大和 AI：^{(Selected text magnification and AI:)} iOS 中另一个流行的功能是选定文本放大。现在，当您在消息、电子邮件和文档中选择文本时，Android会将其显示在光标上方的放大框中。

这使您更容易看到您的选择。此外，在Android Pie中，谷歌^(Google)增加了对所有应用程序的智能回复功能。通知已经有智能回复按钮，可以将预先生成的文本发送到应用程序。智能^(Smart)回复是一项正在进行的工作，但谷歌^(Google)表示它将成为一个新工具包的一部分，该工具包旨在为开发人员提供机器学习^{(machine learning)} API^(APIs)，而无需学习复杂的编程或人工智能工具^{(programming or AI tools)}。

工具包ML Kit于去年5 月^(May)推出，带有用于人脸检测^{(face detection)}、文本识别、图像标记^{(image labeling)}、地标检测和条形码扫描的^{(barcode scanning)}API^(APIs)，最终，智能回复将包含在该工具包中。

智能旋转：^{(Smart Rotation:)} 现在，您无需在“设置”^(Settings)中打开和关闭“允许屏幕旋转^{(Allow Screen Rotation)}” ，您可以激活屏幕旋转按钮^{(rotation button)}，让您在每次旋转手机时决定是否旋转屏幕。

音量控制：^{(Volume controls:)}在Android 9之前，在一些设备上，在听音乐时，音量按钮会调整手机的系统音量^{(system volume)}设置。Android Pie中的一项新设置允许您将音量键切换为默认控制媒体音量。

此外，在谷歌^(Google)手机和其他一些设备上，音量滑块^{(volume slider)}已经从水平变为垂直，它们位于音量键旁边，而不是在手机上伸展。

判决^(Verdict)

谷歌^(Google)表示，它认为你的手机应该是个性化的，因此应该适应你的生活，而不是相反。因此^(Hence)，与以前的版本相比，Android在尝试学习和调整功能（例如^(Android)应用程序抽屉^{(app drawer)}、显示、电池使用^{(battery usage)}以及其他几个应用程序和功能）以适应您的工作方式的人工智能方面要重得多。

换句话说，它试图帮助您提高工作效率，而且在许多情况下，它只是通过更方便来实现。在许多方面，它实现了这一点。它在许多方面也更加精简和有吸引力，尽管我希望看到更多功能扩展到第三方手机。

然而，这在很大程度上取决于手机制造商本身，而不一定是谷歌——有时是^{(Google—sometimes)}. 无论如何，在彻底查看了这个新操作系统之后，我需要随身携带并使用它几个星期，我发现几乎没有什么可抱怨的——而且，在评估操作系统升级时，这通常表明新的版本是成功的。

Android Pie (version 9) Review – The “Techie” Smartphone OS Gets Smarter and Friendlier

Gоogle releaѕed Android Piе to its own phones, namely the Pixel brand, in August of last year. Since then, the variouѕ manufacturers of Αndroid phones, includіng Samsung, Motorоla, Huawei, Sony, Nokia, Honor, LG, and others, have been adapting the latest version of Androіd (ver. 9) to their phones.

Some, such as Essential Phone and OnePlus, rolled out in late 2018, while others, including Samsung and its higher-end Note and S9+ models didn’t’ see updates until January and February 2019.

Android Pie, or Android P, as many folks call it, is a huge update from the previous version, Oreo. Android P has a new look, lots of new productivity, convenience, and security features, as well as several functionality changes to existing features.

It’s a lot to cover—far more than I can cover here without writing a review that would require a huge commitment of time on your part. Hence, this review concentrates on the most important and interesting changes.

Pros

• New Material Design API rules should make for better, more consistent apps going forward
• Improved battery life and battery saver
• Smart rotation button is simple but ingenious
• Digital Wellbeing is the Alcoholics Anonymous for millions of smartphone addicts
• New look is easy on the eyes
• Editable screenshots
• Long list of new or improved features

Cons

• Recent Apps and other features (including Digital Wellbeing) not offered to third-party developers
• New gestures and navigation bar replacement are a bit much, confusing, but at least you can turn them off.

Bottom Line: Overall, Android 9 is an improvement over version 8, but Google is hording some of the more impressive features for its own phones; even so, the expanded AI and other improvements are well-implemented.

It’s important to note, though, that not all manufacturers adopt all new features, and sometimes they adapt them different from how Google deploys them on its phones. A good example is that Android P supports taking screenshots by holding down the Power button and then choosing Screenshot from the ensuing menu.

The Samsung Note 9, for instance, already offers several ways to take screenshots, including the traditional Power + Volume Down method, a palm swipe gesture, via Bixby voice activation (“Hey Bixby, take a screenshot”), and via S Pen, the Note’s stylus. It and some other Samsung phones, as well as devices from other manufacturers, have not deployed the Power menu screenshot option.

In addition, for some manufacturers, adopting a new version of Android is an ongoing process, with new features added in subsequent updates. The point being, of course, that depending on your phone, you may not get all the Android P features, or they may not be exactly the same, and some may come later.

And some, because of the monopolistic tactics Google uses against its so-called “partners” (other phone makers), are simply not offered to third-party phones. The only way to know for sure what Android 9 will bring to your phone is to contact its manufacturer or the company web site.

A New Look

Android 9’s overall appearance, also known as its Material Design (or its design language), is different from its predecessor’s in that it has more, even rounder rounded corners, one-color icons, more white space, and its flatter than it has ever been.

In other words, drop shadows have been all but eliminated. Whether it’s more attractive is, I guess, a matter of opinion. For me, it took some getting used to. Even so, a flatter, basic interface with simpler icons has been norm in iOS, macOS, and Windows for some time now.

You also have a little more control over overall appearance. I especially like the night mode option, that reverses the interface from black text on a white background to white text on a black background, as shown in the image below.

Granted, this is designed primarily to make the phone easier to use in the dark, but it really does, in my opinion, make it easier to see and use all the time, and far more attractive.

Note that this is not the same as Dark Mode, though they do look similar. Other than these more obvious appearance changes, though, you may notice more subtle variations throughout the UI, such as more color in the Settings drill-downs, rounder corners in Search and other fields, including Notifications, and more.

Perhaps more important to the Material Design of Android P is that, with version 9, Google has come up with a new API (application program interface) standard for third-party app developers, forcing them, as Apple does, to comply with stricter Android design compliance. In other words, Google has (for the first time) implemented Play Store quality standard rules for app submissions.

From now on, Play Store will accept only app submissions that adhere to new API restrictions and support new features—or developers will not be allowed to post updated or new apps. Of all the changes to the appearance of Android, this behind the scenes update may be the most significant.

You’ll also see new transition and notification animations, a new battery percentage indicator at the bottom of the screen in Ambient Display, saving you from having to wake the phone to see battery life remaining. Weather, too, is displayed in Ambient Display.

Many phone manufacturers and app developers implemented these features, as well as extended info beyond a clock in Lock Screen mode, which is also new to Android P, long ago. There’s a bunch of new emojis, too, if you’re into that sort of thing.

New Navigation Features

Before going into Android P’s new navigation features, it’s important to note, first, that in the past Google has not always made all its latest navigation options available to other phone makers.

As a result, some Pixel navigation options and navigation on non-Google devices are sometimes notably different. With Android 9, Google has made the nav changes available to all manufacturers, but not all, such as Samsung, for example, have chosen to implement them, instead coming up with options of their own.

In Android P you can, if you choose (toggled on and off in the Display settings under Gestures > Swipe up on home button), switch from the standard Back, Home, and Recent App buttons on the navigation bar, to a single-button navigation option. These gestures then become available from any screen:

• Tap once for home
• Long press to launch Google Assistant
• Swipe right for most recent app
• Swipe right and hold for Recent Apps
• Swipe up to display Recent Apps menu and suggested apps
• Swipe higher up to open the app drawer

Dependent on where you are in the UI, other buttons temporarily display beside the home, or navigation, button, including a keyboard picker and a smart rotation button.

With smart rotation, when you have auto-rotation turned off, the OS recognizes apps in which you might want to ignore that setting (say, a video player, for instance), allowing you to rotate the screen without having to change the setting.

If you enable the new gesture nav feature, Android P gives you two versions of the Recent Apps screen, one with a Google search bar and suggested apps (via artificial intelligence, or AI, based on your usage) at the bottom of the screen and one with app preview cards.

The first presents a row of app cards for you to swipe through. You can remove apps by swiping upwards, enter apps by swiping down or tapping the card, display the Clear All button by swiping right. Tapping the app’s icon at the top of the card displays other options, such as App Info, App Pinning, and Split-Screen.

The other Recent App screen is activated by swiping and holding the navigation button to the right, which launches a set of Recent App cards. To open an app, you simply release the button when the desired app is selected.

Depending on what’s selected, the OS will also suggest apps, including Chrome for a URL, Messages, Contacts, or Phone for a phone number. You get the idea. You can even copy and paste text from the individual app preview cards.

New Convenience and Productivity Features

As mentioned, Android Pie is a major update, with more new features and appearance changes than you can shake a stick at, or that I can discuss here without taking up too much of your day. What follows is a (somewhat long) list of new productivity and convenience features and brief descriptions. I’ve tried to find a balance between brevity and informative.

Adaptive Battery: With Adaptive Battery, Android 9, utilizing machine learning, or AI, predicts which apps you’re likely to use in the next few hours and which you’re likely not to, so that battery power is expended more wisely.

Adaptive Brightness: Another AI-driven feature, Adaptive Brightness remembers your preferred brightness level in different lighting environments and adjusts lighting accordingly.

If you don’t fidget with your lighting much, the AI won’t have much to work with, of course. A cool feature, though, is that the brightness slider moves by itself to respond to various lighting changes.

App Actions: Here’s one of those still-to-come features mentioned earlier. Furthermore, it may turn out to be available only on Google’s devices. In any case, App Actions predicts what you’ll want to do next based on context and displays that action, saving you time by not having to launch the app in question itself.

If, for example, you plug in your headphones, the OS might launch the default music player and offer a link to a playlist you were listening to earlier that day.

App Slices: App Slices, which allow you (and Google Search) to use the part of an app to execute specific tasks, such as having Uber hail the nearest driver, isn’t ready for prime time on most devices yet, either. It will eventually work with Google Assistant, which could essentially eliminate the need to launch certain apps at all.  

Battery Saver:An improved Battery Saver app in Android Pie offers much wider options for enabling Battery Saver as your battery begins to drain. Instead of enabling Battery Saver at 5 or 15 percent, you can now tell the OS to enable Battery Saver once your battery reaches 70 percent or below. In addition, the updated Battery Saver no longer features that hideous orange bar—instead you get a persistent notification icon.

Better Bluetooth: Now Bluetooth supports up to five devices simultaneously. You can, for example connect to multiple speakers to get a true stereo (two speakers) or surround sound (five speakers). Don’t worry, though, if you get a call, the OS is smart enough to restrict the sound to one speaker, so things don’t get too weird.

Android P also remembers the volume at which you left your Bluetooth speakers or earphones, so that you don’t blast your ear drums, and, on earphones that support it, there’s now a setting that tries to eliminate that annoying Bluetooth delay between your phone and your earphones.

Digital Wellbeing: Digital Wellbeing is kind of an electronic babysitter designed to protect you from your smartphone, or more precisely, from yourself and your obsessive use of your phone. Unfortunately, right now the Digital Wellness app is available only on the Pixel, unless you’re up to using this hack to install it.

The app incorporates app timers, the expanded Do Not Disturb mode (discussed next), and Wind Down mode, which, according to the time frame you set, gradually turns the UI to grayscale, reminding you that the time to stop is approaching.

Do Not Disturb: DND has seen many changes between Android 9 and Android 8, though several fall under Digital Wellbeing, which, as mentioned above, works only with Google phones, unless you’re willing to follow the instructions in the link in the above paragraph.

In any case, previous versions of Android had three modes: Normal, Priority, and complete silence. Now your choices are On and Off, but you have a lot more exceptions, allowing you to, essentially, micromanage DND if you want to. You can now turn off visual notifications, too.

Dual-Camera Streaming and External Camera Support: With Android 9, developers can now create depth, bokeh, stereo vision, 3D, and more video experiences using streams from two or more physical cameras, devices with either dual-front or dual-back cameras. Also, Android 9 now supports external USB / UVC cameras on certain mobile devices.

Improved biometrics support: Biometrics—fingerprint, iris, and face recognition—have been improved greatly, but much of the improvements are designed to help developers and manufacturers make better use of biometric hardware.

Take, for example, recent Samsung phones that come with face and iris scanners. You can use these to unlock your phone because the Android API passes control of the lock screen to Samsung, allowing the company to build in support for the scanners.

In turn, this allows Samsung and other smartphone makers and app developers to create features like Samsung’s Intelligent Biometrics, that allows you to require both face and iris recognition for extra security or either/or for faster login. The possibilities are now greatly increased.

Lift to Wake: Perhaps one of the more convenient features is what Google calls Lift to Wake, which is what it sounds like. After you turn it on in Lock Screen > Motion and Gestures, used in conjunction with face or iris recognition, when you lift the phone, the biometric scanner(s) go to work, and the phone unlocks.

If, of course, the biometrics fail, you’ll have to enter a passcode, password, or pattern unlock. This may seem like a mediocre change, but I use it more than any of the other new features; the normal routine of waking my phone each time I wanted to check or look at something was tedious. Often it took longer to log in than the time for what I wanted to do on the device took.

Lockdown mode: “Lockdown” mode, which is similar in concept to Apple’s USB Restricted mode, is triggered by holding down your power button and selecting Lockdown from the list. This clears all notifications and personal information from your lock screen.

To unlock you’ll need to enter a password, pattern, or PIN—no biometric option will unlock your phone—no fingerprints, face unlock, or, iris, or combination of the three. This feature prevents thieves or any other nefarious who might force you to show your phone your face or force your finger onto the reader. (Yikes!)

Message images in previews: Depending on your messaging app and who makes it, message notifications can now display images in the notification preview, instead of just text.

More media formats: Android P adds support for the latest video and audio formats, including:

• HDR: High Dynamic Range VP9 Profile 2, allowing you to watch HDR-enabled movies on YouTube, Google Play Movies, and other services soon. HDR widens brightness and color range of video to improve picture quality and the overall experience, as shown (as well as your display is capable of) in the image below.
• HD Audio: Improved support for HD audio performance, delivering overall clearer, richer, and sharper, sound quality.
• HEIF: HEIF photos improves compression of pictures and reduces the amount of storage required.

New Emojis: Android 9 offers another 157 emojis you can add to your emails, messages, and documents, as if the 2,275 or so we had already weren’t enough.

New this time around are hot, cold, partying, and drinking smileys; science icons, such as DNA, a lab coat, and goggles; and a slew of new animals, food, buildings, signs, sports, and a lot more. You also get people in various shapes and styles, including superheroes and supervillains.

New notch and edge-to-edge support: Support for devices with cutouts, or notches, to make use of available screen space are now supported, as is edge-to-edge screen support for devices with 18:9 and taller aspect ratios.

New security and privacy features: Security improvements include randomized MAC addresses, making it difficult to track or exploit your phone in public access Wi-Fi environments.

In addition, idle apps can no long gain access to sensors, mic, or camera. When a background app does make such a request, Android notifies you, asking if you want to allow or deny access. Now, apps also have to ask for permission before running Wi-Fi scans, so that they can’t gather your location data.

Android 9 also blocks unsecure HTTP connections by default, requesting that apps use HTTPS connections instead, which is consistent with Chrome’s recent switch to HTTPS on the desktop.

Power menu options: As mentioned, the power menu now has a screenshot option. Also, there’s a new Lockdown option you can add to the power menu that hides all notifications, blocks Smart Lock and disables the fingerprint scanner.

You can find the option in your lock screen settings, and once enabled it appears in the main interface as well. In addition, if the screen dims during a timeout, you can now reverse it by touching the fingerprint scanner.

Screenshot editing: In addition to new ways to take screenshots, Android P also comes with a screenshot editor that becomes available immediately after you take the shot or in Gallery and other image editors. You can resize, crop, add text, and draw on your screenshots as desired.

Selected text magnification and AI: Another feature popular in iOS is selected text magnification. Now, when you select text in messages, emails, and documents, Android displays it in a magnified box just above the cursor.

This makes seeing what your selecting much easier. In addition, with Android Pie, Google has added the ability for smart replies to all apps. Notifications already have smart reply buttons that send pre-generated text to an app. Smart replies is a work in progress, but Google has said it will be part of a new toolkit designed to provide developers with machine learning APIs, without having to learn complicated programming or AI tools.

The toolkit, ML Kit, launched in May of last year with APIs for face detection, text recognition, image labeling, landmark detection, and barcode scanning, and eventually, smart replies will be included in the kit.

Smart Rotation: Now, instead of having to toggle Allow Screen Rotation on and off in Settings, you can activate a screen rotation button that allows you to decide in each instance that you rotate your phone whether to rotate the screen.

Volume controls: Before Android 9, on several devices, when listening to music, the volume buttons adjusted the system volume setting for your phone. A new setting in Android Pie allows you to switch the volume keys to default to controlling media volume.

Also, on Google phones and some other devices, the volume slider has changed from horizontal to vertical, and they reside beside the volume keys, instead of stretching across the phone.

Verdict

Google says that it believes that your phone should be personalized, and, therefore, should adapt to your life, instead of vice-versa. Hence, Android is much heavier on artificial intelligence that tries to learn and adapt functionality—such as the app drawer, display, battery usage, and several other apps and features—to the way you work, than did previous versions.

It tries, in other words, to help you become more productive, and, in many instances, it does so by simply being more convenient. In many ways, it accomplishes this. It’s also in many ways much more streamlined and attractive, though I would like to see more features expanded to third-party phones.

However, much of that depends on the phone makers themselves, and not necessarily Google—sometimes. In any case, after a thorough look at this new OS, which entailed carrying it around with me and using it for a few weeks, I found very little to complain about—and, when evaluating OS upgrades, that’s usually an indication that the new version is a success.

Related posts

• 修复 Android 中“找不到打开 URL 的应用程序”的 9 种方法

• 适用于 Android 智能手机和平板电脑的最佳基准应用程序

• 如何降级您的 Android 操作系统版本

• 在 Android 智能手机或 iPhone 上设置附加电话号码

• 如何使用 Feem 在智能手机和 Windows PC 之间共享文件

• 华硕 ZenFone Max Pro (M2) 评测：配备大容量电池的智能手机

• 回顾摩托罗拉 Moto G6 Play：预算紧张的 Android 智能手机

• 如何在Android修复Google Chrome Pop Virus

• 如何远程擦除Your Android Phone

• 如何在Android中禁用Samsung Pay

• 7 Best Camera Apps用于Android

• 修复 OS X 上的“无法安装打印机软件”

• Android的Free Best Apps至Download Movies（2021）

• 指南：Android Phone上的Install Ubuntu Touch1

• 6 Best动画Weather Apps用于Android or iPhone

• iPhone or Android上的Instagram Keeps Crashing？ 8修复尝试

• 8 Best Android Video Player Apps

• 不能Send Text Messages From Android？ 4修复尝试

• Android and How使用它是什么Digital Wellbeing

• 回顾 Energizer Power Max P550S：配备大电池的简单智能手机