Android Q, the tenth version of the green robot’s operating system, will arrive on our smartphones by the end of the summer, but the beta version is already available for a small (but much less small than in the past) number of smartphones. This was announced by Google, during its annual conference for developers Google I/O 2019.
The beta of the new mobile operating system was the second big news presented by Mountain View, after the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL smartphones. It features several new features, including the long-awaited dark mode. The “dark mode”, or “dark theme” as Google prefers to call it, is now native and you no longer have to activate it through specific themes or various tricks. And it’s a really dark mode, with black being the dominant color. You can activate it with a simple tap on a toggle in the Quick Settings menu.
Android Q: more news coming soon
Android Q also brings you Live Caption, a feature designed especially for the hearing impaired but that will come in handy for everyone: it’s basically an automatic transcription of speech from podcasts, audio and video files, including those recorded with your smartphone, which works even without an Internet connection. There’s also something new in terms of privacy, with a much more intuitive and clearer section of the settings dedicated to it, thanks to which the user can understand (and choose, by modifying app permissions) what data is collected when using the smartphone. For example, the user will be able to know if an app in the background is detecting and recording its position.
Thanks to the integration of new gestures with Android 10 Q, the user interface also changes, getting closer to what we have already seen on iOS: there is no longer the dark bar with the basic commands (typically: back, Home and change application) in the lower part of the display, but to execute those commands we will have to use gestures. To go back we’ll have to swipe from left to right, to go to Home from bottom to top, and to switch apps we’ll have to do two taps.
New features also with regards to well-being and controlling the time we spend in front of the screen: Focus Mode arrives, which allows you to mute notifications from a group of apps so as not to distract the user’s attention from the main one, and a more effective Parental Control arrives as well.
Android Q: come provarlo in anteprima
Google, quest’anno, ha allargato notevolmente la lista degli smartphone sui quali è possibile scaricare e installare la versione beta del nuovo sistema operativo Android. Andando sulla pagina di Android Beta è possibile iniziare a usare e testare Android Q in anteprima su una ventina di modelli di smartphone:
- Asus ZenFone 5Z
- Essential PH-1
- Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL
- HMD Global Nokia 8.1
- Huawei Mate 20 Pro
- LG G8 ThinQ
- OnePlus 6T
- Oppo Reno
- Realme 3 Pro
- Sony Xperia XZ3
- Tecno Spark 3Pro