Android Q will be the successor to the Android 9 Pi, which is still to make a presence in the Android distribution chart as big as Android Oreo. The next Android version is speculated to be announced later this year if we go by Google’s tradition of announcing Android versions. While there is no confirmation on when the first developer preview of Android Q will be out, its early preview has leaked and reached teardown platforms who have found some interesting features in the upcoming Android version.
The first early preview of Android Q was flashed on a Pixel 3 XL device by folks at XDA Developers that led to the discovery of some granular updates on top of what Android 9 Pie already offers. Among the features spotted in Android Q build, the most anticipated is the availability of dark mode across apps.
According to the teardown information available, the Android Q will let the users apply dark mode to the entire ecosystem, including the Google suite of apps and third-party apps that natively support dark mode. Moreover, it was also found that a setting named ‘override force-dark’ sitting in the developer options will let users forcibly apply dark mode on the apps that don’t support it. The dark mode has also been mentioned in the reports that speculate the features of the upcoming Android version.
The other feature that has been prominently mentioned in the teardown report is the new permissions that will feature all the system permissions an app asks while in use or still inactive. The users could even turn off the permissions while the app is running on the system, giving them more control. Besides, the Android Q will offer two more features – ‘Time to take action’ and ‘Time to read’. While the first one let the users choose how long a temporary notification that asks them to take actions should be shown, the second one just lets them control the time the message is available to read before it automatically hides in the notification shade.
Android Q is taking the concerns on privacy to the next level by providing the users ability to shut the sensors completely off, which means basic sensors such as geolocation, proximity, accelerometer, and gravity can be stopped from being accessed by apps in the background. A better built-in files app is also in the offing with features such as filtering the files by images, documents, audio, videos, and more. The screen lock in Android Q will also be revamped according to the teardown report. A ‘Game Update Package Preferences’ setting will be available in the developer options that will let the users choose the graphics driver for a particular game. There will also be a desktop mode available to the users.
The features that have been uncovered from the early preview of Android Q may or may not make it to the final build. Some of them could even be modified after the developers give their feedback when the developer build is out.
