Android P update: Rumour roundup

With the MWC just a few hours ahead, all smartphone manufacturers from the Android universe are prepping themselves to showcase this year’s flagship offerings with new features. Google is also supposed to be a participant in the MWC, debuting Android Go budget smartphones based on a watered-down version of Android 8.1 Oreo. However, the company is already working in full force to release the next version of Android, supposed to be called Android P, by the summer of 2018. And, several leaks have already started pouring in all the expected features that Android P will introduce to smartphones later this year.

Stricter privacy controls:

The first major feature that could bring a huge difference in the way Android smartphone work is the introduction of stricter privacy controls. With Android Marshmallow, Google gave users the power to control the access to all the installed apps. However, Android P could let user control whether or not an app can access the camera and the microphone. An XDA Developers’ report states that they found traces in the AOSP source code commit related to enhanced control over that hardware which can infringe on privacy without notifying, especially the camera sensors and the microphone. So, if you are worried about an app recording your audio while you are having a conversation or clicking your pictures secretly while you’re changing, Android P will let you block access to these sensors for the concerned apps.

The Notch is coming...

Moving ahead, Android P will also favour the notch. Yes, whether you love it loathe it, like the iPhone X, Android will gain native support for displays with notches on top of them, holding sensors and earpieces. A Bloomberg report states that Google believes that the notch is the new trend in the smartphone market, which will eventually catch on. Plus, putting the notch on Android smartphones is essential for Google to lure more and more iPhone users to switch to their open source OS. The Essential Phone PH-1 already came out with a notch last year and the upcoming MWC 2018 is also expected to showcase certain upcoming smartphones with the hyped notch.

Dark Mode:

Another highly-demanded feature by Android fans over the years has been the inclusion of a dark mode, like the one on OnePlus’ Oxygen OS. The dark mode has been found to sip on power efficiently on devices with an AMOLED display and it makes the user interface look cool. According to a report from XDA Forums, there’s a hint of the feature being considered for the upcoming version of Android. In the latest update to Android Issue Tracker, someone had pointed out the benefits to the battery life with the inclusion of a darker theme, to which Google’s developer team replied, “Our engineering team has added this feature. It will be available in a future Android release.”

Don’t get too excited yet, Android’s previous iterations had included a dark mode in their development stages, but never made it to the public release. However, with more and more manufacturers embracing AMOLED panels for smartphones, Google could finally show mercy and give us the highly anticipated dark mode as standard.

Weather widget on Always-On Display:

With the Pixel 2, Google had finally put out support for an Always-On Display. The feature is highly useful for those who prefer to get the most important notifications available at a glance. In the Pixel 2, the screen also shows any song playing nearby, if enabled. Now, Google could add the weather widget to the Always-On Display, which will only increase the feature’s productivity. We expect this feature to update the information in the background real-time.

While there’s still a lot of time before Google rolls out the first developer preview of Android P, we can expect some of these features to make an appearance in the next version of Android, based on these rumours. Google has already begun registrations for the I/O 2018 event and is expected to unveil Android P officially. Stay tuned for all updates related to Android P.

(source)