Google launches First Android Q Beta For Pixel Smartphones

Anita - Apr 01, 2019

Google launches the first Android Q beta with improved privacy controls, support for foldable screens, and more.

Google has released the first developer preview of Android Q. Also, this tech giant revealed a beta update, the next Android OS early version which is scheduled to be available by the end of this year, along with various new features on its Android Developers Blog.

The next generation Android OS applies new security and privacy features for ultimate users, camera improvements and more media codecs, various new APIs, and enhancements for foldable phones.

Users of Android-Q are likely to give applications permission to see their location at all times, only when the application is running or never. For example, ride-share applications like Uber will not need to get the location-enabled all the time when users do not actively look for a ride. Android-Q users can allow Uber access to their locations only when the application is running.

Additionally, the tech giant is finally repairing the slow speed of Android’s sharing menu. It is putting a new shortcut into the menu named Sharing Shortcuts, which allows users to turn to other applications to share the content.

According to the explanation from Google, the developers are able to publish their share targets which release a particular activity in their applications with attached content, and they are demonstrated to users in share UI. Since they are pre-published, the share UI is able to instantly load when released.

In addition, the new Settings Panel API will use Slices feature of Android, allowing developers to directly show the system settings inside the apps. For the ultimate users, it means that applications like browsers can display pop-ups with system information such as Airplane Mode and Wifi toggles. Let’s take a look below:

Android Q has also supported AV1 video codec, which offers enhanced streaming quality with less bandwidth as soon as content providers start supporting it.

For further information, the first developer preview of Android Q now available for any Google Pixel phones comprising of the Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 2, Pixel XL, and Pixel. Pixel users can download the images of the system here and set up them manually or register for the beta of Android Q here. Registering for this beta may be the fastest way to bring Android Q to your Pixel device at present.