Android 10 is Here.

In August 2019, beta 6 gave a clear idea about android 10, which is not so far for the official release and finally google started rolling out stable Android 10 update for pixel lineup from Sept 3, 2019. Yeah, it’s just Android 10. Since version 1.5 we used to call it as a cupcake, every version of Android has a dessert name but from this version, android started getting a mature name. Google said they are abandoning the dessert names for an android version from now for good, so from this version, all future android version will call by its number.

Apart from name android branding is also changed since the last change was done in 2014. Android text is getting a new fresh look with the head of the robot logo, now on every time we see android text with robot logo. Now let’s move our focus to the main improvements/changes in android 10.

Farewell of Back Button

Navigation buttons on different android skins look different, past in android pie, google also take one step in that area and launched a two-button gesture method for simplicity but this time they added a new gesture method for navigation which lacks our traditional back button. For the back button, user can either swap from the right side of the screen or left. to avoid its a mess with hamburger menu of apps they allowed users to set the sensitivity of back gesture, of course for iPhone users this is not a new thing. Now those who don’t like this new one-button gesture, they can switch to back two-button gesture or traditional three-button gesture.

System-Wide Dark Mode

A big, Woooooowwwwwwwwww for this.

Finally, Google added the feature for which we all eagerly waiting for, Unlike android pie, this time dark mode is not limited for notification tray or app drawer, It can be applied for the entire System user Interface. Not only this but Google also created a new API that developers can use to have their apps go to a dark theme as well when the dark mode for the system is turned on.

Live Captions Looks Awesome

It is very difficult if you forgot to bring earphone or to deaf people to watch video/podcast or any media where words are spoken without captions. In android 10 google introduced this feature named live caption which shows the real-time caption of whatever media is playing on a device locally without net connection. However as per said in io, for now, this feature only available on high-end phones so, if you have one then you can turn this feature on in the accessibility menu.

Privacy Controls

As technology moves on forward, we just can’t ignore privacy factor because it is biggest concern in our day to day life where we interacting technology. In Android 10, Google implemented some features for application permission to give a better understanding, app control to users. There is a special option for privacy in the settings menu where we can manage our privacy/permission settings. Apps that ask for your location now reveal a new pop-up asking you if you want to grant location access all the time, only when the app’s being used, or not at all. If any app using specific sevice then users will see it’s an icon on status bar.

Native Support for Foldable Phones

In 2019 we got to see that companies started to make foldable Android phones, so it will not a surprise for us when we see many foldable phones in the future. To provide smooth user experience of foldable devices, Google is giving native support or you can say they optimized Android 10 for foldable phones. Here is what they say, “To help your apps to take advantage of these and other large-screen devices, we’ve made a number of improvements in Android Q, including changes to onResume and onPause to support multi-resume and notify your app when it has focus. We’ve also changed how the resizable activity manifest attribute works, to help you manage how your app is displayed on foldable and large screens.”

Other Highlights

With the Android 10, Google announced its project mainline in which security patches will provide directly from play store to devices.

Addition of some new colors for theming your phone. Here is the complete list of all available colors.

• Black
• Green
• Purple
• Cinnamon
• Ocean
• Space
• Orchid

A Mysterious theme app for pixel appeared in beta 2 but not available for current pixel lineup. We can expect this in the upcoming Pixel 4 series.

Share menu is improved with the addition of a new feature named “sharing shortcuts”, unlike before menu will load instantly when it’s launched since the shortcuts are published in advance.

Smart Reply now suggests actions. So when someone sends you a message with an address or a YouTube video, you can open and navigate in Google Maps or open up the video on YouTube — no copying and pasting required. And Smart Reply now works across all your favorite messaging apps.

Addition of Focus mode in Digital Wellbeing to keep users away from distracting apps while working.

Now Family Link is part of every device running Android 9 or 10, right in settings under Digital Wellbeing. Parents can use these tools to set digital ground rules like daily screen time limits, device bedtime, time limits on specific apps, and more. They can also review the apps children install on their devices, as well as their usage.

Availability of Android 10

Currently, Android 10 is officially available for Pixel Lineup and Essential Phone, But manufacturers like Xiaomi surprising their customers by providing a stable update for selected devices. As we saw in io, there are 15 non-pixel devices eligible for beta, so they will get update faster as compared to others. All android one phones are eligible for Android 10 update. Nokia recently announced the time period of providing Android 10 update to its phones, Followed by Samsung and Oneplus officially announced the list of devices eligible for Android 10 update. Apart from this, it totally depends on different manufacturers to which device they provide Android 10 update.