How to try the best new features of Android 10?

If you have a pixel or an essential phone, chances are you have – or are about to – the full, stable version of Android 10, which has many exciting new features that deserve to be verified.

But where do you find them? Yesterday, I installed Android 10 on my original Pixel XL (yes, I still have the first version of the Pixel, so sue me), and apart from some stylistic changes, the new features were not immediately obvious.

You can find them quite easily, however, if you know where to look.

Installing Android 10

First, of course, you need to make sure that the new operating system is installed. If you have not received a notification, it is quite easy to find:

• Open your phone's settings
• Select System> Advanced> System Update.

(Note: Before installing a new operating system, it is always a good idea to make sure your phone is backed up, in case. Google has a feature that automatically backs up your phone. to Configuration and select System> Backup If under Start, it should go, you can press Save to see what is backed up and when it happened.)

It took about half an hour to my phone to install the new operating system and update the applications; Your mileage may vary.

So now that you have the new operating system, here are some tips to try.

gestures

For several generations of Android, you have navigated using the three symbols at the bottom of the screen, including the Back, Home and Toggle recent tasks buttons. Google has now replaced this format with a gesture system similar to that used by the recent iPhone.

If you are the type of person who is resistant to change, do not panic: Google has made use of these optional gestures. In fact, when my phone was updated on Android 10, the old symbols were still there.

Whatever your initial opinion on the gestures, it is not useless to try them. Here's how to activate gestures:

• Go to Settings> System> Gestures> 3-button navigation
• From the three choices on the page, select "Gesture Navigation." A GIF at the top of the page illustrates the different things you need to do. There is also a brief overview of how to use them in our review.
• There is a cog setting to the right of "Gesture Navigation," which allows you to adjust the screen sensitivity when performing a reverse scan. You will probably want to leave this setting alone until you have played with gestures for a while.

Now, instead of the three icons, all you will see at the bottom of your screen will be a black band with a white dash in the center. (Or vice versa, depending on the background color of the page.) Of course, if you finally decide not to be a gestural person, you can go back and restore the previous format of your phone.

Dark mode

Dark mode is very popular these days. It is supposed to help extend the life of your battery (I can not say either thing without testing it), but I find it very useful when I use my phone at night. While many Android apps have, over the years, provided their own dark modes, Android now has a dark universal theme. To turn it on:

• Go to Settings> Display
• Switch to "Dark Theme". You will get a pop-up window telling you that the supported applications will also switch to the dark theme.

If you look in your quick settings menu (the one you get when you slide from top to bottom), you can also access a rocker in dark mode. If you do not see the icon immediately, click the pencil icon in the lower-left corner of the Quick Settings drop-down menu.

As we mentioned in our review, it would be much nicer to find a way to get the phone to go dark automatically at sunset. Maybe in a future iteration.

Focus mode

Yes, I am easily distracted. For example, when writing this article, I found myself clicking on an article that I had found in my Google drawer and I had to force myself to remember that I had work to do . So Focus mode, created to help reduce distractions by pausing specific applications, can be very useful, at least in my case.

Before describing how to find the Focus mode, a note: in order to use it, you must be part of the Digital Wellbeing beta program. If you do not see Focus mode in your Digital Wellbeing app, just sign up for the beta and wait until the app is updated with the beta. it should only take a few minutes.

Ready?

• Go to Settings> "Digital Welfare and Parental Controls"
• Scroll to "ways to disconnect"

Here are three choices to help you manage your level of distraction. Tap each to configure it.

• Dashboard allows you to set timers for specific applications so that they stop if you exceed the allotted time.
• Wind Down allows you to avoid interruptions at night; you can use Night Light to tint the screen to get dim lighting, ask the app to remind you that it's time to go to bed by putting your screen in gray and of Do not disturb mode, among other features.
• Focus mode (mentioned above) allows you to immediately pause applications such as Facebook or Twitter to focus on the task at hand.

As with the dark mode, you can also find the focus mode in your quick settings menu.

Location Permissions

Many applications require permission to track your location. In Android 10, you can now set this permission so that the app can only track your location if it's used rather than all the time. To search for current apps that are allowed to track your location and change their permissions:

• Go to settings
• Select Apps & Notifications> Authorization Manager> Localization.
• You will get a list of all the apps that are allowed to track your phone's location, followed by those that are allowed to follow you only when they are in use, and then to those who have denied the right to follow your location. Tap the name of each app to change its permission to "Allow all the time," "Allow only when using the app" or "Decline."

A new category in the settings: Privacy

By the way, you can also find the permissions manager in another place: the new privacy category in your settings list. You can also find here the "Show passwords" toggle (so that you can see the passwords as you type them), your notification checks for your lock screen, your automatic fill manager for forms and many other privacy features.

There are of course a number of other new features that will simply pop up according to your needs – for example, more details about some notifications. And a very interesting new feature, Live Caption, is not yet available; it should offer closed captions for all audio and video files on the phone. As with all new operating systems, Android 10 is a work in progress. The features described here are probably just the beginning.

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