Google reveals secrets about Android O and its main features

A good part of the team of developers of Android O met this week at Reddit for a 'question and answer' session regarding the system. During last Wednesday, engineers and others involved in the creation of the system talked about important points of the next update – themes like personalization, tablets and the famous 'Project trebble' commanded the conversation.

It is expected that the Android O be full of news, both visible and invisible to the user. We already know that the system will bring, for example, visual changes in the notifications bar, adaptive icons and, above all, a new layered development that, in theory, promises to speed up the process of updating non-Google devices, the Project Treble.

still no name

Nobody knows how the Android O will, in fact, be called. According to the engineers, the real name will only be revealed in the system launch – which, for the expectations of the media and of many enthusiasts, will happen in the middle of August.

New emojis, death to 'blobs'

As much as Google had good intentions when introducing 'blobs' on Android Kit Kat, in 2013, few were those who really liked her look. You emojis of Google try to be too 'different' and, therefore, end up confusing many people.

Android O will debut a new emoji pack, with 69 fully redesigned characters. When asked about the matter, the system engineers said that the reason for the change would be the incompatibility of the so-called 'blobs' with the new standards. Unicode – but everyone knows that the real reason is their appearance: they are nice, but at the same time, they are strange.

The new notification bar

Unlike almost all previous versions of the system, the notifications bar Android O will be white, eliminating years of dark or completely black backgrounds. In Google's words, the change will make the look more compatible with the rest of the system – the notifications themselves, for example, are already white;

Although the change is welcome, it is worth remembering that manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, HTC and company are totally free to change the look of the system – meaning that, eventually, they can decide to not adopt the novelty.

Good themes are hard to make

Although the customization is one of the biggest advantages of Android, the pure version of the system has always failed to bring great customization possibilities. Over time, applications have gained more control over the system visual, but still, pure Android does not offer complete themes or with major visual changes.

The explanation that Google gives for this is extremely technical, which sounds curious since, for a long time, customized interfaces such as Touchwiz, or even so-called custom ROMs, offer this more complete type of customization.

In short, engineers say that customizing the system is not difficult, however, on the other hand, a more customizable look can bring problems of compatibility, accessibility and performance. Making Android more open to modification would make it more 'heavy', and this is far from the desired experience for the system.

Google also responded with something similar about changing colors in the navigation bar, the one that houses the Home, Back and Multitasking keys. Answering the question about why the current Pixels don't allow the manual bar color change, let alone an automatic change based on color predominant of the open app, the company said it tested the idea and 'everything looked very flashy'.

'A colored navigation bar would distract from the app itself,' they said.

Tablets

O Android never paid much attention to tablets. With the exception of 3.0 Honeycomb, which sinned precisely because it was exclusive to this type of electronic, all other systems had practically identical, regardless of whether they were being used in tablets ou smartphones.

Mike Cleron, one of the engineers behind Android O, says that Google is 'still working on a way to make Android more tablet-friendly'. For him, the issue is not about competing with Apple and its specific features for the iPad, but about making Android tablets more compatible with the Chrome OS. The intention would be to make both one thing only (or nearly so).

This is precisely why Google has been working so hard to make Android apps work. compatible with Chrome OS, he explains.

120FPS is pure satisfaction

Highly responsive screens are not restricted to gaming monitors. A few months ago, Apple surprised everyone with the new iPad Pro and its displays ProMotion, with a refresh rate well above the traditional 60Hz.

In addition to improving the usability of the Apple Pencil, screens with a higher frame rate per second they also make the animations more fluid, beautiful and, believe me: satisfactory. The thing is so cool that many expect something similar in the next iPhone.

Android developers were also asked about this. Currently, the little robot's refresh rate is limited to 60FPS, at most, which isn't too bad until you see a display with twice that much. For Romain Guy, one of those responsible for Android's code structure, the technology has a lot of potential and is not being ignored for Google.

Anyway, Guy didn't comment about the adoption of more responsive screens in the Android O or in the near future.

Project Treble

O Project Treble was the most difficult process in the entire development of Android O. Second Stephanie Cuthbertson, modifying the internal structure of Android was a complete 'surgery' on the system, but it will bring great advances in the way Android, and consequently the devices that use it, will receive future updates.

The idea behind Project Treble is modularize Android development. Speaking of kids, Google will separate the different types of code related to the system, differentiating what is done by hardware manufacturers (Samsung, Qualcomm and the like) from what is inherent to the system itself.

The idea is that he arrives soon manufacturers and receive just a 'makeup' from them, without them having to intervene in your internal structure, as it is today.

With this, it is expected that the apologies of manufacturers to delay the release of updates are reduced, however, it is important to note that Google there is not a real influence on this process – with this, the updates will continue to be the responsibility of each manufacturer.

Street: The Verge