Gadgetory

Google surprised almost everyone when they released the Android and preview ahead of Google i/o now we can catch a glimpse of what the next version of Android is going to be like and how it's likely going to act I'm Joe Handy from Android authority comm and this is a quick look of Android n let's first tackle the general look and feel of Android n on the surface it looks and acts very much the same as lollipop and marshmallow with your usual home screens Google now of settings notification quick settings and for now the app drawer remains as it was in marshmallow getting around the OS is pretty much the same as it ever was and there are no big changes there one of the first noticeable changes is the quick settings you can now drop down your notification shade to see a set of toggles nestled at the top these allow you to interact with the usual variety of settings including flashlights Bluetooth Wi-Fi airplane mode do not disturb mode and all of the others you can of course swipe down a second time and see the quick settings in there full majesty unlike prior versions of Android the quick settings are paginate encima than one set also unlike prior versions of Android the quick settings can now be edited without using the system UI tuner it's worth noting that the edits you make will also change the available toggles when you first drop down your notifications you can short press some of the settings such as Wi-Fi and open up a window for more options please note this does not work with all of them but mostly with things like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth at any point whether viewing the toggles or the quick settings you'll be able to long press each thing and be directed to that functions page in the settings menu finally it's worth noting that Google will include an API where developers can create their own quick tiles they're being encouraged not to use them just to launch the application but performing quick tasks associated with the app for instance we imagine that Google keep will have a toggle to create a quick note personally I'd love to see a toggle for music controls but that's just me while we're hanging out in the notification shade area let's talk about the new notifications they received a visual tweak where the notifications are now more flushed with the size of the screen and with each other which gives a cleaner more organized look although it can be a tough to tell the notifications of parts especially if you're just glancing at them quickly you'll also get to see bundled notifications in marshmallow receiving multiple notifications from the same app forced you to open up the application in Android and you'll be able to unbundle the notifications and deal with them individually this is definitely an improvement and great for those who want to respond to a message but ignore all of the other ones for right now on top of that is the new quick reply feature which is only available in Google Hangouts for right now it will open up a quick reply window right there in the notifications so you don't actually have to open the application this is going to be a godsend for messaging and SMS apps where you can get really tedious opening the application over and over again on top of that some notifications will also have little arrows that you can tap to expand the notification which is pretty nice this can be tripped by tapping on the top half of the notification so you don't need to type the button with your fingers or risk missing the press you can also have swipe through notifications a way to reveal a Settings button that can change the apps notification settings or block the application from sending notifications altogether the recent apps screen received a few visual tweaks as well the application cards will now be larger and easier to read which makes better use of the screen real estate there are some function tweaks for the recent apps screen as well if you continuously tap the recent apps button you'll cycle through each application quickly until you find the one that you want additionally a little timer will go off in the form of a loading bar and when it reaches its end it'll automatically open the application for you this is quick and simple but occasionally too quick if you take more than a second to decide or remember which application you were looking for you can also quickly switch between two applications by double tapping the recent apps button this has been frequently compared to the alt tab functionality in Windows albeit not as powerful during our testing we were only able to cycle through two applications but in most cases that's all you need it's a pretty nifty little feature while we're in the recent apps let's talk about split screen there are currently two ways to launch split screen mode the first is to launch an application and then long press the some apps button this will drop the application into the top pane of the split screen and allow you to choose the second application that will go with it the second way is to enter the recent apps screen and then long press the colored banner at the top of any applications little Carden you can then drag and drop the application in to split screen mode this feature loses a little bit of its charm on such a tiny little phone as the nexus 5x here but on devices like the pixels C or the Nexus 9 the large screens can definitely handle two applications comfortably and it will be a welcome change for those wielding tablets obviously applications will be updated to make better use of this feature although we found that even incompatible applications generally worked okay most of the time and then you can leave split-screen any time by long pressing the recent apps button and the application populating the top pane will become full screen and split screen mode will come to an end it's also worth mentioning that Android TV devices are also getting picture-in-picture supports although there is code that suggests that tablets could possibly get this functionality as well there is also evidence to support that Google may eventually give us floating windows in the future just like you see in well Microsoft's Windows the system UI tuner has been revamped as well for those who don't know you get to the system UI tuner by long pressing the Settings icon in the quick settings and then the system UI option will be available in the settings menu inside the system UI tuner you'll find a few really fun new options dark mode has returned to Android and like it was in the marshmallow previews but this time around it only works in the settings menu my best guess is that individual applications will have to code dark mode support in before it'll work for any applications you'll also be able to add just a tint which overlays a bit of color to help lower the harshness of the screen on your eyes at night finally you can have the OS lower the brightness and turn on during certain times of the day and only in certain lighting conditions which is also kind of cool perhaps the most awesome addition to the system UI tuner is the ability to control the red green blue values for your screen this gives you the ability to change the tint of your screen manually so you can perfect your white balance or overcome issues on your own it's a very welcome addition and while we're in the settings let's take a look at what's changed there the settings is more or less the same as it's always been with a couple of new things added in the first is a slide-out menu from the left side of the screen this lets you maneuver between parts of the settings menu without having to go back to the main list the slide-out menu is also available while on the main page which gives you two identical lists of settings options which I thought was kind of goofy and amusing because it is in effect totally worthless on the main page you'll also start receiving setting suggestions at the very top for popular settings that you may not have looked at yet for me it was encouraging me to set up the off screen voice recognition for google now which I eventually did you'll also see an alert at the top notifying you if you're in do not disturb mode just in case you may have forgotten them a little thing that was added to these settings is the ability to add an emergency information if need be this can be found in the settings under the user section you can have a name address phone number add an emergency contact info and that's a medical info like your blood type any medications you're on and more it's a little bit of a hassle to get it on the lock screen but this could be a very useful feature especially for those who are chronically ill we imagine that this feature will be improved over time google has also integrated universally accepted call and SMS blocking this is accomplished by going into the dialer application and then going into the settings and then you can add numbers from there this is universal and should work everywhere once it's in place this is another feature with api's that will help improve the feature over time as more developers and mobile carriers use it there is also a call screening feature built directly in where you'll have more control over who calls you whether those calls get recorded on your device or even answered at all another new feature for the tinkers and our audience is the new special access app settings originally these were kind of like permissions but didn't appear in the traditional permissions list now when you go to the configure apps by pressing on the Settings icon in the apps section of the settings you'll have quicker easier access to special access settings and you can approve or deny applications that way for further control some of the things you can change include notification permission data permissions and battery optimization permissions there were a few other under-the-hood things that came with Android and and we'll go over those briefly in the developer options there is a new option for Android webview settings for now the only option is chrome stable but some pundits have predicted that you'll be able to change that to chrome beta or chrome dev eventually under the display settings you now have the option to change your screen size no your Nexus 5x will not magically get any larger but it will change how things are displayed to make them appear larger or smaller this is OS wide as well so it'll work in the settings on home screens and even other apps doze mode has been slightly recalibrated before the device had to remain perfectly still with the screen off before doze mode would work now there is a kind of lighter doze mode where the screen still has to be off but the device can now be in motion and we really like that a lot Android n includes a new data saver feature where it'll turn off background data usage from applications in order to save data you can also whitelist applications to allow them to use data in the background through this service if you want to android end is also redoing how it optimizes application for faster boot times before we were graced with the infamous optimizing apps screen after things like system updates now you'll be able to boot faster and the applications will become optimized in the background after the boots they should result in slightly slower app loading times slightly faster application installs and much faster boot times ok so now we've been through the new features and you want to know if this is something that you could run on your daily driver everyday those who may be thinking of running the Android and preview will have a few issues that they're going to deal with for starters there are virtually no applications with direct Android and support and while most applications will work perfectly fine there are still plenty that have issues on top of that voicemail playback doesn't work various settings and toggles may not work properly Gmail is a little bit broken bluetooth is unstable video playback is unstable NFC is a bit goofy and your ringtone may or may not go off what that means is that this is definitely not daily driver material so be sure to only install this on a test device or a secondary device because well it's just not a good idea to use this on your main phone in case you need it to do something this is after all a Developer Preview and not meant for consumer level devices overall Android and does feel like a bit of an iteration over Android marshmallow rather than a full refresh and that's perfectly okay there are a lot of positive changes in Android in a few new features for good measure and a great deal of polish from features carried over from marshmallow there are a few new things like split screen and some visual tweaks to freshen things up a bit but the main positive force here is the under the hood stuff like the revamp doze mode screen calibration settings and the display size settings when you add it up it gives you unprecedented amount of control over your device and we expect those other new features to grow as well that said not everything is all that great the notifications can become cluttered and visually confusing if you have a lot of them to deal with it once since they all look so similar with so little space between them also some of the best features are locked behind hidden menu items the ability to calibrate your screen for instance is hidden in the system UI tuner which isn't necessarily easy to find for average users I understand that's probably by design but still mid kinda sucks mostly though the only thing that Android and really needs is some developer loving and polish which we assume is going to happen over the course of the next several months and we'll see the results of that over the next few developer previews even still Android and seems to be a positive step forward at least for right now do keep in mind that this is just the first Developer Preview and will likely see changes as things go along so don't be surprised if some or all of this information changes before the final release come this fall and that about does it for this video folks if you'd like to give us a thumbs up and if not tell us why in the comments we have lawns review of the Samsung Galaxy s7 edge linked up on the screen and in the video description below if you're looking for something else to watch finally don't forget to subscribe to Android Authority because we are your source for all things Android thanks again for watching everybody and have a wonderful day you