Android 8.0 Oreo is here. Here are a few key changes we saw

Different versions of Android have either been drastic visual overhauls to the entire operating system as was the case with Ice Cream Sandwich and Lollipop or slight changes with numerous refinements as was the case with Jellybean, KitKat, and Marshmallow. Android 8.0 Oreo is a combination of both in equal measure.

Android as a platform has matured over the years and Android O is not a huge departure from the general design language. Although most of us see Android through the eyes of the manufacturer’s UI skin we chose, the design of pure stock Android is still relevant as it acts as the foundation onto which the manufacturers build their skin on. Also, so many manufacturers are now ditching their in house UI for stock android.

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Google has recently launched Android 8.0 Oreo and there are a ton of changes and we cannot possibly cover them all. Here are some of the key features in Android O we liked.

  1.  Whiter and brighter notification shade from the traditional greyish we have seen from Android 5 Lollipop. Whether this is a good or a bad change is up-to personal preference though, in my opinion, it looks a lot cleaner.
  2. The biggest revamp is in the settings menu. gone is the slide out hamburger menu from Nougat that many manufacturers implemented on their skins too, in Oreo, the whole settings menu has been rearranged, all the 13 sub menus. this has makes it a lot simpler to navigate settings. the search functionality in settings that we got in Android M Marshmallow is still here.
  3. The status bar animations are much more seamless and streamlined. Also, media players can integrate colorful artworks to the notification shades.
  4. A handful of updated emojis come with Oreo. These will no doubt be integrated by developers into their apps in no time.
  5.  Notification channels is a new feature that allows app developers to integrate their apps’ notifications to the system, making it a lot easier for the user to manage all those notification settings from one place. You can also choose different priorities for each of these so say you only want to get notified of you DMs on twitter and not all mentions, you don’t have to go to Twitter settings, head on to your system notification settings.
  6. Oreo also allows you to snooze independent notifications individually so if you don’t want to reply to that email right now, you can have it reappear in your notification shade after a few hours.
  7. Auto-Fill is a feature on Android Oreo that allows android to remember your usernames and passwords to help you quickly sign into apps and services on your device. This also means third party password managers like Dashlane and LastPass will play nice with Android O and work much better.

There is truly so much that’s new in Oreo. For a complete changelog of Android 8.0 Oreo from Android 7.1.1 Nougat, visit the official Android O page here.

You can also watch AndroidCentral’s review here.

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