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As we enter the final phase of the countdown to the public version of Android P, a new intriguing twist becomes more and more obvious: Android P is primarily the first version of Android Google Android
This, my friends – to put it mildly – is a pretty seismic change.
We first had a glimpse of this new reality at the Google I / O Developer Conference in May. Dave Burke has made the following warning before unveiling some of the most important changes of Android P:
You will find these improvements on any device that adopts Google version of the Android UI like Google Pixel and Android One devices.
This was a casual side – quite easy to ignore among the other ads catching the attention of the day. But it could actually be the most monumental Android P development of all. And to be clear, we're not just talking about things like designing Google's default home screen here. We are talking about full system type elements such as the new Android gesture navigation system and radically updated application change interface. These are basic elements, defining the operating system and elements that have traditionally existed as part of the OS itself.
With Android P, it seems like they are leaving these boundaries – and this transition may be more important than anything else. P provides.
Now, wait – before we go any further, let's get one thing straight: on one level, the Android OS development was at least partially on Google's self-controlled phones for some time. Samsung and other manufacturers have long mingled with the Android interface and have ignored Google's direction in order to do their own things, so the visual changes introduced with each new version have often ended up being relevant primarily for Pixel, Android One, and (in the past) Nexus Devices
But this time, something is different. With Android P, you see, once the functions at the central system level seem to have been removed from Android itself and put directly in the Pixel Launcher – The launch application of the Device specific to Google for its Pixel phones. Such an arrangement seems to be the case with the gesture navigation system and the new application change interface mentioned above (and therefore also with the new features Smart Selection and App Actions of Android P). release, are explicitly framed as exclusive not only for the Pixel line but for the Pixel 2 phones specifically.)
And yes, Google slowly but surely pulls Android tracks and puts them in standalone applications for several years now. What's different here, though, is that the pieces in question are not put into widely available Play Store apps that will be pre-installed or at least available for any phone; they are bundled with a pixel-specific entity created for and limited to Google's own products.
While the previous deconstruction of the operating system was done on behalf of faster updates of these elements for everyone, in other words, this little unbundling seems to be more about restricting access to items so that they are only available to those who use Google's Android phones. And beyond that, the elements involved here are incredibly fundamental – one might even say defining – features of the software.
If the Android P gesture navigation system and the application switching interface end up being Pixel exclusives (or even Pixel and Android) an exclusive) – and baduming that & # 039; They end up being activated by default possibly, if not immediately – Google's Android phones could actually exist as their own mini-nations in the large Android ecosystem. We are not talking about different "skins" and presentations of the same basic elements here, as has often been the case in the past. We are talking about a very different system to bypbad your phone – one of the most distinctive aspects of the Android experience.
(There is, of course, another way of proceeding: it is possible that Google does not limit all the elements specifically to its Pixel or Pixel and Android One devices, it could instead use some of them as a carrot to entice businesses to adopt its implementation of Android in order to get the Android P package "full" for their devices. Would be a pivot just as remarkable, if that is the case , and could essentially be a step towards turning these phones into Android-One extensions of the Google Android family.)
Now, do not get me wrong: An operating system update is about a lot more than the surface substance. Heck, there is an argument to make that the underlying performance improvements, security enhancements, and other items under the hood are actually more important than any one. which element at the level of the interface. (And we can not forget about all the changes related to the API, that is – many of which serve to extend what third-party applications on the platform are able to do.) But as you and I all know, most typical users The changes that they notice – and those who make the most eye-catching points around a new operating system version – are the ones that relate to the user interface and its most visible or fundamental functions. And with Android P, it seems that the most important of these progressions may be less on Android as a whole and more on Google Android devices.
Given Google's current tendency to focus on itself As an ecosystem, it seems really important
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[Android Intelligence videos at Computerworld]
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