The company's tradition of naming each successful edition of the hugely popular software alphabetically (as the latest previous version is called Nougat), and after a candy or sweet, is expected to continue with the new O initial.
Before now, Google releases the developer preview of the newest Android version at its I/O keynote; but according to the company, it has been “pushing hard on improving its engineering processes so they can share works earlier and more openly with its partners.”
Android O's biggest update is perhaps a tweak meant to conserve smartphone's juice, thus ensuring better battery-life.
Google places a limit on what apps can do while they are not actively in use on the phone, for instance, apps won't be able to do as much with location updates while running in the background with Android 0.
Other new stuff includes: more control over notifications, better Android's WebView functionality, and split-display mode for phones and tablets.
Android's WebView is a nifty service that take advantage of browser technology to secure your smartphone, by making it harder for a maliciously coded app to steal your personal information.
While the split-display mode view on phones and tablets means you can keep watching a video while using other apps, along with a new overlay window for apps to use instead of the system alert window, as well as multi-display support.
There are bevy of smart changes under the hood in Android O for developers, such as ability to use fonts in XML layouts as well as define font families, as well as declare the font style along with the font files.
But, the current developer preview of Android O isn't the main beta program, so developers will need to manually flash the ROM to their devices to get the feel. The company, however, has promised to open up the main beta program as development continues, and giving “a deep dive on all things Android” at I/O in May.
