Google is making beta 3 of the upcoming Android Q available to select handsets, essentially providing too previews of the feature upgrades and enhancements that will get unpacked with the new operating system. Will things get better as Android Pie moves closer to the exit door and makes way for version number 10?
To put it more appropriately, Android Q is designed to put emphasis on the improvements made by Google engineers on existing OS features. According to The Verge, version 10 will impress more on the things that got better for Android, and not exactly on the new functionalities that will be introduced.
But it doesn't mean there are no fresh treats coming from Google. For sure, Android fans will applaud as the company is finally making official Dark Theme that will take effect system-wide. Basing on the beta reviews so far, the implementation is both gorgeous and perfect.
"Activating Dark Theme in Android Q is pretty straightforward. You pull down the Quick Settings menu, tap a button, and the interface goes from white to black. True black, not the very dark gray we've seen on some dark modes," The Verge said on its report.
Expectedly, the use of dark mode will have a significant impact on battery life, which will be the case for phone models blessed with AMOLED or OLED display panels.
Alongside the introduction of Dark Theme, Google intends to kill the screen back button, something that was hinted when Android Pie was released with an obvious preference on gesture-based navigations. So for the next version, Android is doing away with the back button and in its stead the side-swipe gesture.
Users will only need to swipe from either side of the handset and the maneuver will serve the same function as the back button. In the same way, a swift swipe on the same area of the device will summon a side menu and swiping twice afterward will bring back the previous screen state.
Another big bump for Q is the huge bumps that user privacy and security will be getting. Per Google's estimate, this crucial area of the mobile operating system counts up 40 ways of improvements and modifications, and all done to make the platform as robust and as trustworthy as ever.
Even more important is the system's security updates that for the longest time have been plagued by late delivery of patches. Google's answer to this "Project Mainline" and the objective is to send out important updates by making use of the existing Google Play Store architecture.
As the latter is common to all handsets running on Android, it is hoped that Project Mainline will speed things up in the updating process of the OS or at least make the update intervals more consistent than in the past.
Google is keeping close to its chest the exact label that Android Q will bear when it officially debuts. However, Android Central is convinced that the release date of the OS happening only after beta versions 4, 5 and 6 have been issued. With that, the best bet for a public release is sometime between August and September 2019.
