Premiere exclusive look of Android Q: best gestures, live captions and dark mode

Android 10 Q Beta 3 is available today on more devices than any of the previous beta versions of Android was previously available.

A full release is expected this fall, but Google announces major new features for the tenth version of Android today on Google I / O. Android Q has often requested the user interface changes as the dark mode and improved gestures. Although these are the things most people will notice, they are not the most important (or impressive) parts.

The most important parts are the elements that meet the real needs of users and solve long-standing problems with the Android platform. There is a new accessibility option called Live Caption that is really amazing. Improvements have also been made to Android's security and privacy models, many of which have been around for a long time. Finally, Google is also trying once again to solve the problem of constantly updating Android with a new solution that is a moment "finally" striking.

It's hard to find a global theme for this array of features and enhancements. In summary, I would say that what we are looking at here is that Google is trying to finish a lot of the work started with Android 9 Pie.

Dark theme

Google tells me that a group of Android team members are waiting for the new dark theme to receive the biggest applause during the Google I / O speech. We'll see, but that seems to be a popular demand – and also a trend, with Mac OS under Windows 10, as well as iOS support assumed for later this year.

I do not quite understand why Google chose to call "dark theme" instead of "dark mode" because there does not seem to be any support for other themes, available on other Android variants . Maybe it will come in a future update.

Whatever it is, the activation of Dark Theme in Android Q is quite simple. You pull down the Quick Settings menu, press a button and the interface goes from white to black. Real black, not very dark gray that we saw in some dark modes. Theoretically, this will contribute to the battery life. In fact, the activation of the battery saver on Android 10 Q will also activate Dark Theme automatically.

Application support is just as important as the system-wide dark theme, and Google is committed to publishing dark themes for all of its proprietary Android apps. Some will probably be available earlier than others. I've seen the dark theme in Google Calendar and Google Photos, although it's darker gray than black.

For third-party developers, Google of course creates an API allowing applications to know when Dark Theme is activated. It also gives developers the ability to add a single line of code to their apps to create a quick dark theme. If a developer chooses to use it, its application will simply have its colors inverted when Dark Theme is activated. This is very much a hacking, but some applications take advantage of it as they work to implement a more elegant dark theme.

Gesture navigation and the back button

I expect the new gesture navigation system to be the most controversial part of Android. Q. There are two reasons for this. The first is that Q simply raises his set of basic gestures from the iPhone. The second is the way Google decided to implement the back button in a gesture. Let's take them one by one.

In Q, there is a long white bar at the bottom of the screen. You slip to go home. You slide up and drag to go into a multitasking view. You swipe it quickly to switch between applications. (The way you will get the Google Assistant remains to be determined). To access the application drawer, you slide up from the home screen.

In fact, the main difference between this system and that of the iPhone is that the bottom bar is in its own separate part of the screen instead of covering the bottom of the application you are using. I suspect that all these gestures and animations inspired by the iPhone will generate a combination of anxiety, schadenfreude, mockery or relief depending on the person who reacts.

I am in charge of the team.

This system is not only familiar to anyone moving away from the iPhone, but is also more consistent than the Android 9 Pie, which mixes buttons and slips. I called the Pie system a risky gamble when it was launched, but in hindsight it was not big enough. Navigating around Android 9 Pie often ended up feeling uncomfortable. Whether you're using buttons or gestures, you've lost a ton of space on your screen, with no purpose.

I am also happy to announce that the quality of animations is much better than on Android 9 Pie. Where was moving in the system previously felt nervous, now everything is smooth. I have only tried the new system on Pixel 3 phones, so I can not say how well it will work on less powerful phones.

So, with the central gestures, Google just acted, gritted its teeth and did the obvious thing: copy the system that already works well on iPhones. With the back button, Google has done something much more surprising.

On Android 10 Q, you slide from the left edge or right side of the phone to come back. As you do, a small "<" symbol will be inserted to indicate that the action is working. This back sweep works through the all The left and right edge of the screen is similar to the way Huawei implemented the gestures on its version of Android.

I also suspect that Google will do its best to make this system one of the standards of all variants of Android Q devices, to ensure consistency and predictability. Given the trends in the design of Android apps and Trends in the way some manufacturers like Samsung have customized the operating system, it's a big problem.

A ton of Android developers followed Google's advice on its new material design system in 2014 and created applications with application drawers on the left side. In Android applications, it is very common to see a drawer with many options when you slide your finger from the left side of the screen. Since then, Google has been trying to get developers to have a broader view of the meaning of Material Design and has focused on the buttons in the lower row, but the left drawer remains the standard.

So what happens in Q when you slide from the left edge? Well, here is today's plan: the default is to "disable" the first scan as a back button. Instead, the first shot would open the drawer and a second one would return. And individual developers can change this behavior. And all this plan could still change when 10 Q will be shipped. Frame.

But the back button gesture will present a whole host of tough choices to Android manufacturers. All the left and right rail of the screen represents a huge amount of space – space that companies have already started using for something else, like the Samsung Edge Screen feature.

I do not know how it's going to work, and it's possible the beta reaction will change Google's plans. I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the entire system, but then again, I am also a right-handed person and I will probably get used to getting from right to right.

Security Updates

Every year, Google tries something new to make Android OS updates faster and more consistent. It's still something different, but it's only recently been really successful, and there's still a long way to go. This year, we have acted a little more aggressively, at least as far as security updates are concerned.

There are two main types of Android OS updates to know: the main ones that carry cute dessert names, like Oreo and Pie, and the smaller monthly updates that provide security patches. But these monthly security patches fail to reach enough phones. It's still up to each manufacturer to apply and distribute security updates on their phones – and the operators are also involved.

So, Google has created a new initiative called Project Mainline to more systematically distribute these smaller security patches to more phones by distributing the updates themselves with the help of the Internet. Google Play Store infrastructure. This is the obvious solution to the problem of updating: intermediaries have slowed things down, so Google is trying to eliminate them from the process.

Mainline Project is very limited in what it can update, with a focus on security. To begin, Google focuses on 14 "modules" of the operating system that can be updated directly, including multimedia components. Basically, in the same way that Google can update Google Chrome on Android at any time, it can also update at any time certain critical security components of the operating system.

Most Mainline updates are simply updated by an APK download, the same basic file with which Android apps are created. Some use a new system called APEX, which Google will certainly explain this week (Ron Amadeo of Ars Technica has some clever assumptions about it here, in the meantime). Here is the list of modules:

• ANGLE
• APK
• Connection to the captive portal
• Conscrypt
• DNS resolver
• UI Documents
• ExtServices
• Media codecs
• Components of the multimedia framework
• Configuring network permissions
• Network components
• Permission controller
• Time Zone Data
• Module metadata

One thing you should notice is that this list is indeed a set of pretty nonsexy things, not dealing with the user. Mainline will not be a feature of Android phones upgraded from P to Q, but rather new phones shipped with Q by default. Finally, some manufacturers may disable some of these updates.

All these warnings should tell you something: Mainline could be a big problem, but again, this is only for some security updates and this will not have any impact immediate on the whole of the Android ecosystem. I always say that Android ads at I / O take two years to really filter in the ecosystem, and Mainline is no different.

For phones that are do not On the infrastructure of Google Play (all in China, for example), Google is still outsourcing all updates that come from Mainline and can also collaborate with companies to propose others. distribution methods in order to accelerate their dissemination.

It will be fun to see what the European Union thinks of all this. The EU has fined Google $ 5 billion for antitrust and was forced to create a browser-based ballot. Project Mainline means at least that Google is more committed to updating Android than before.

Oh, and with regard to the major and numbered upgrades of the operating system, Google has embarked on an engineering effort called "Project Treble" a few years ago. This has led to a slight rise in adoption of Android 9 Pie, although it is clear that much remains to be done. According to the latest figures, 10% of devices currently use Android 9 Pie nine months after its public release (80% of them consisting of operating system upgrades). These numbers are not very interesting, but they are twice as numerous as Android with Oreo a year ago.

On the other hand, more manufacturers participate more than ever in the Android 10 Q beta program. In addition to Google and its Pixel phones, 12 companies offer the beta on 15 different devices.

Permissions and confidentiality

Many improvements to the Android security and privacy model have already been announced in earlier versions. Google likes to get the items that will have the most impact on early app developers so that they can adapt. So we already know that Google obscures hardware credentials, blocks startups in the background, locks storage a little more, and so on.

We also know that Google is finally fix the operation of access to the location on Android. As the iPhone has done for a long time, Android will give you the ability to limit access to the location of an application only when it is open and active on your screen. Now, when an application accesses your location, it also displays a small notification in the status bar indicating that this is happening.

In addition to everything thisGoogle adds a new section above Android's settings called "Privacy". Inside, you'll see a mix of settings and dashboards to view and control access to your data. This includes some Google-specific settings, which means you can delete them directly instead of searching for them somewhere in your Google Account settings.

There is also a hub for all application permissions on your phone. It will show you a simple list of data types to which you can grant access (contacts, calendar, calls, microphone and location), will tell you the number of applications having access to each of them. at the top level, then you will: dig and refuse what you want.

In all, Google offers more than 40 different updates on how security, permissions, and privacy are handled in Android 10 Q. As we get closer to the current version of the operating system, we Let's take a closer look at what's changing and what it means to you

Live Caption

I started with a dark theme and gestures because I know that's what you hear about. I switched to updates and privacy because they are critical issues affecting the 2.5 billion active Android devices on the planet.

But the feature that has impressed me most and that seems to me the most exciting is Live Caption.

Live Caption allows you to get a real-time transcription of what is being said in any video or audio, in any application, across the entire operating system. It uses local machine learning, so nothing is sent to the cloud and an internet connection is not needed to use it. And after what I've been able to say in a few hours, it works incredibly well.

After activating the Android accessibility settings, a new button appears under the system volume slider. Touch it and a black box appears on the screen and begins to provide captions. The delay is usually less than a few seconds maximum. You can move the area to the screen, double-tap it to enlarge and adjust the font size and text settings itself.

The system relies on the same technologies as the accessibility feature launched by Google earlier this year, Live Transcribe. Like Live Transcribe, Live Caption does not allow you to save the text of your transcripts.

I've tested it on some videos recorded by Google on the camera's camera, on YouTube videos and on podcasts streamed in Chrome. It works whether you have the multimedia volume mounted or completely muted on your phone. Google will allow some apps to block it if they wish (I hope nobody will). In applications such as YouTube that already support closed captions, the Live Caption button might instead enable its own closed captions.

In one case, I activated Live Caption during this episode of the Vergecast, where Nilay interviews Aurora CEO Chris Urmson about autonomous cars. In the middle of the episode, Urmson describes the mathematical model that his company chose: the quaternions. Live Caption had the exact word. Unfortunately, it will only be English, but Google hopes to add more language support in the future.

At its official launch, I think Live Caption will be a major asset for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. I'm not, but I'm happy to use it myself in situations where I want to watch a video but I can not listen to the sound. It's simply an excellent accessibility feature.

Parental Control and Focusing Mode

Last year, Google and Apple both introduced dashboards that allow you to control the time you spend in applications and set time limits. Google has also introduced the "Down Down" mode, which turns on your screen in gray to remind you to put your phone and go to bed.

This year, Google is expanding its so-called "Digital Wellness" features by integrating parental controls into the same section of your settings. For some time now, Android controls the parental control via the Family Link app in the Google Play Store, but in Q, it will be integrated with the operating system. I am not a parent myself, but I think my favorite feature is a parent device button called "5 minutes more", which gives exactly that to a recalcitrant child who wants to continue using his apparatus.

I'm intrigued by a new feature called Focus Mode, although I think it might be better off from the usual Do Not Disturb mode. With Focus Mode, you can select a list of apps that you find disturbing or tempting. When you turn it on, these apps become grayed out and their notifications are hidden.

The idea is that instead of waiting for a timer to go off and alerting you that you have lost a lot of time in an application, you can proactively protect yourself right away. It's interesting, but I think Android may present us with options rather than solutions. You will now have application timers, do not disturb, debug mode and ridiculously detailed controls on notifications – including their appearance, noise or more, and even more detailed checks in each app . That's a lot.

The notifications

Every year, Google does something to change how notifications work on Android. Early versions of Android Q had revealed that it was impossible to slip back and forth to ignore a notification. Instead, one direction excludes and the other reveals options such as repeating or changing settings.

The main change of notification in Q is a new way to automatically reply to incoming chats. At the operating system level, Android Q can recommend responses based on the context of the message you received. So, if someone sends you an address via SMS, you can press a button to reply with "Be There" or another button to open Google Maps. The company is careful to state that it uses only local machine learning and nothing is passed to the cloud.

It is managed by a system called "Notification Assistant" and XDA developers discovered evidence that in addition to processing automatic responses, he might also be able to change the priority of a notification for you. So it may be that Google has more planned the operation of notifications it does not announce today.

We also saw a new thing called "bubbles", which is halfway between a notification and an application window. Like with Facebook Messenger's Chat Heads or Samsung's Windowing System, you can set up an app for it to appear in a small pop-up window that you can drag, and then it shrinks itself to an icon that persists at the top of your screen.

If you squint before the bubbles, application continuity and resizable windows of Android applications on Chrome OS, you can almost see the beginnings of a new windowing system for widescreen devices. I'm not saying that this suggests the return of the Android tablet, but it could mean more interesting options for portable tablets and Chrome OS tablets.

Last year, Google introduced a ton of new concepts on Android. I called Android 9 Pie the "most ambitious update for years". But if I saw it later in the fall, it became clear that even though the ideas in it were ambitious, they were too big to be done in one update. Android 10 Q is trying to advance many of the ideas we discovered in Pie: digital wellness, an AI-optimized operating system and gesture navigation, all of which make progress.

The same modest improvements from one year to the next apply to updates. It takes about two years before the Android versions are actually released, and it's too long. I hope Project Mainline will solve the problem of security updates, but the end result is that Android will never have adoption adoption numbers that benefit iOS.

There is no big theme in Android Q, no paradigm shift in mobile computing. I called it a handbag at the beginning of this piece, and it's true. There are even a lot of things I have not mentioned yet, such as the continuity of applications and other supports for foldable applications. Google also says that Android is ready for 5G as well, as the system will finally show applications how good their internet connection is.

Many changes in Android Q are long overdue, if not late. But they are associated with really useful features like live captioning and intriguing things like the focus mode. And how the Android world (users and manufacturers) will react to this new system of gestures is really guess anyone.

Since it is difficult to establish a single theme or feature, I think Android 10 Q will probably be considered an iterative update once everything is said.

That's good: iteration is underestimated.