Google Unveils Android Oreo, Latest Operating System
While people across North America donned protective glasses, used pinhole projectors and even held up pieces of paper for their glimpse at the solar eclipse, Google unveiled the name of its latest Android operating system: Oreo.
During the once-in-a-lifetime coast-to-coast eclipse, Google officially launched its newest mobile operating system at a Manhattan event. While none of the new features are groundbreaking, Oreo does come with a slew of updates.
“It’s smarter, faster and more powerful than ever,” said Sameer Samat, vice president of product management in a blog post.
Android Oreo powers up devices faster—up to twice as quickly on Google’s Pixel—and minimizes background activity on least used apps, saving precious battery life.
Oreo is the first Android platform to come with a picture-in-picture feature. When you’re watching videos on YouTube or Netflix (or video calling with your mom), users can shrink the video into a movable window and open up another app at the same time to double their phone engagement.
The tech giant also introduced notification dots. Similar to iOS, this notification feature will allow a user to quickly see what alerts are new, press the icon to reveal a pop-up action menu, and clear notifications by swiping across the screen.
Another feature that’ll save users time is the smart copy-and-paste tool that’ll automatically detect what kind of text is being highlighted and offer actions that coincide with the text, like looking up an address in Maps or displaying the phone app to call a number.
A refreshed operating system wouldn’t be complete without an emoji update, and Android Oreo boasts a “fully-redesigned” set and 60 new emojis to boot.
While Oreo isn’t rolling out on Android devices just yet, users won’t have to wait to take advantage of a beta version of the updated platform.
Samat said Google has pushed the sources to Android Open Source Project for everyone to access right away.
The first Oreo-powered devices will come from Pixel and Nexus 5X/6P—both have entered carrier testing—followed by Pixel C and Nexus Player.
