Android Oreo

The most interesting part is the way they are planning on tackling fragmentation in O onwards with Project Treble [0]<p>If your device ships with O it should be running an immutable semantically versioned HAL. In essence you should be able to be able to flash AOSP on every new device. No matter what the vendor does.<p>Edit: I can see it now, in the technical specs of each device you will see a list of HAL Versions. The newer your HAL the longer you can expect support from AOSP if not your vendor.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;androidbackstage.blogspot.co.uk&#x2F;2017&#x2F;08&#x2F;episode-75-project-treble-for-hal-of-it.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;androidbackstage.blogspot.co.uk&#x2F;2017&#x2F;08&#x2F;episode-75-pr...</a>

Project Treble is the most important thing in this release<p>&gt;The biggest change to the foundations of Android to date: a modular architecture that makes it easier and faster for hardware makers to deliver Android updates.<p>With any luck, this will end the huge security&#x2F;update problem Android has. Right now an update is dependent on the chip manufacturer&#x27;s drivers, then the OEM adding them to the ROM with their custom &quot;improvements&quot;, and finally the carrier pushing the update to devices. Right now it just takes one break in the link and a device goes without updates, which is a security disaster. If Google can push updates from the Play Store (presumably the end goal of Treble), none of this will be a problem.

Not saying that everything else is bad, but one thing that strikes me is how much they have run out of interesting things now that they had to use fillers[1] like:<p><i>Tooltips</i><p><i>Support for tooltips (small popup windows with descriptive text) for views and menu items.</i><p>Normally, this would be relegated to a git changelog in the support library. But this is on the global marketing landing page.<p>I like to imagine a fictional internal mail thread going like this:<p>&gt; <i>Folks! please, give us something, anything, to put on the landing page!</i><p>&gt; Someone replies <i>duh, maybe tooltips</i><p>&gt; <i>What&#x27;s a tooltip?</i><p>&gt; <i>uhh, small popup windows with descriptive text</i><p>&gt; <i>What&#x27;s a popup window?</i><p>&gt; <i>uhh...</i><p>&gt; <i>Nevermind, its on!</i><p>Obligatory &#x2F;s and yeah its Google, but seriously I can&#x27;t imagine any other circumstances on how this specific copy, which tries to explain what a &quot;tooltip&quot; is by using the words &quot;popup window&quot;, &quot;view&quot; and &quot;menu item&quot;, came up.<p>This could be a good sign though, of the maturity of the platform (and harder to feel left out if you didn&#x27;t upgrade).<p>1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.android.com&#x2F;versions&#x2F;oreo-8-0&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.android.com&#x2F;versions&#x2F;oreo-8-0&#x2F;</a>

Am I the only one who&#x27;s really disappointed by the platform&#x27;s shift in its stance on background execution? I was originally drawn to Android because it wasn&#x27;t iOS. I wanted to develop on a platform where I <i>could</i> run a service in the background if the user wanted that. Apps that were bad stewards of battery life and phone resources were supposed to be scrutinized by users and removed if they were too poor. You <i>can</i> be a good steward, it&#x27;s just harder especially when your monolithic app is an uninformed port of some legacy iOS code.<p>By issuing a hard restriction on background usage Google has brilliantly improved battery life for the masses while condonig the same lazy architectural patterns of the past, locked people into Firebase Cloud Messaging--a Google service not part of the AOSP, and potentially stunted Android adoption in domains outside of mobile. It&#x27;s the turning of an era for Android, and my interests have moved elsewhere (from an app platform perspective, embedded Android is still vialble since everything you ship runs as a system app with no restrictions).

Has Google ever released a report on how much time it takes an average flagship device to get the latest android version? Even if you&#x27;ve paid $$$$ in getting Samsung Galaxy S8 just recently, you&#x27;re not going to get Android O tomorrow morning. But that&#x27;s definitely the case with iOS. That makes a huge difference in the world where Software updates play a huge role in performance and functionality than hardware update (read. Image processing vs 13Mp to 16Mp camera) Google hasn&#x27;t been successful in that.

I know this is a non-issue for many, but those emojis look really dated. Every update they get harder and harder to read in small form. One of the things I observe, mainly on Instagram Stories is only people with iOS post with emojis attached, I never see Android ones. Too bad there is no way to install custom emojis in any system (without rooting&#x2F;registry tweaking), like we do with fonts.

Does Google pay these candy companies to use the name or do they pay Google?<p>There&#x27;s obviously <i>some</i> contractual relationship but I can&#x27;t figure out who&#x27;s on which end of it.

The awful scroll hijacking implementation on this page really distracts from the content.

Android has really been annoying me lately. Maybe I didn&#x27;t care before but now that I can&#x27;t root my phone I am forced to deal with it.<p>Still can&#x27;t disable or customize to stupid &quot;share&quot; menu that puts you one click away from accidentally sending something to a stranger you contacted once on sms or facebook messenger or email.<p>Still can&#x27;t revoke certain permissions from apps (like vibration). There is zero reason why my browser should need to ever vibrate or use the accelerometer&#x2F;gyro.<p>Still no good system wide ad blocking solution. (not likely, but one of the biggest things I miss from having a rooted phone)<p>How about those superpowers, Google? I have been an Android user since 2010 but I am quite sure my next phone will be an iPhone (with a headphone jack).

&gt; Android Oreo helps minimize background activity in the apps you use least, it&#x27;s the super power you can&#x27;t even see.<p>I&#x27;m looking forward to this. It seemed to me in the switch from iOS to Android that the battery life definitely suffered. I wish the Samsung Galaxy&#x27;s &quot;ultra power saver mode&quot; was available in more devices. The &quot;battery saver mode&quot; in my current Android phone is decent but doesn&#x27;t seem as effective.<p>&gt; Integrated printing support<p>&gt; Compatible with all Mopria-certified printers, which make up 97% of printers sold worldwide.<p>Gee, I&#x27;ve never heard of &quot;Mopria&quot; but this sounds interesting.

All I want is for my stupid phone to stop annoying me with new features I don&#x27;t want. Google just now suggested with a notification that I should ask its voice thing a question and try it out.<p>Every time I think I&#x27;ve blocked every $_#&amp;#- thing that annoys me, more show up. As of a week ago I now get these Throw notifications that cannot be dismissed or blocked.<p>I also despise apps that insist on being updated and disallow being uninstalled.<p>These itches are so bad now that I&#x27;m pretty disenchanted with Android altogether.<p>I want a no nonsense phone that literally does nothing out of the box except the app store and make phone calls.

Wondering if the following feature is enabled by default:<p>&quot;Wi-Fi Assistant<p>Auto-connects you to high quality open WiFi and secures your connection with a VPN back to Google.&quot;<p>I <i>really</i> do not want to tunnel my <i>whole</i> traffic through Google&#x27;s servers.

I know programming within the constraints of mobile devices isn&#x27;t easy and I want to take nothing away from the release, but when you are still used to Desktop computing it&#x27;s kind of funny to see how seemingly trivial nice to have features like picture-in-picture or notification dots get all hyped up in the press release.

&quot;new emoji&quot; is an OS-level feature now. Welcome to 2017.

Really sad about the loss of the blob emojis. Will probably have to root my phone to use a third party emoji switcher app to preserve them.

&quot;Coming to a device near you&quot;<p>Yeah, but not on my device. I didn&#x27;t even get Android 7 :)

Going to take advantage of an Android thread here to ask something that has driven me crazy for ~3 years:<p>How do I disable &quot;pop-down&quot; notifications? i.e. facebook messenger, on receiving a message, drops down a little message box from the top with that message. It stays there for about 2 seconds and then disappears... unless further messages in that chat appears.<p>The only way I can disable this is by muting that chat, which is not ideal. Same for Hangouts and other messaging apps. It drives me insane.

I have an HTC One M8 which I purchased in summer&#x2F;fall of 2015. The phone works great but it makes me sad that I am still on Marshmellow and the phone is no longer supported.<p>lately I have been been wishing there is a way I can just run some version of linux like debian&#x2F;fedora on my phone and be able to run apt-get update and upgrade (or yum) as updates are released.<p>IIRC it cost $600, and technically it does more than I need, but the fact I am becoming more and more concerned that security updates are not being received is making me call into question I actually want a &#x27;smart&#x27; phone.<p>I understand android is based on linux but it is above my head to compile this realease on my own and it is difficult for me to trust rooting the device if there was an option to install oreo on htcone m8 with my &#x27;old&#x27; chipset.<p>any thoughts? did I miss any truely &#x27;free&#x27; linux smartphone OS that I would be able to use?

Not saying that everything else is bad, but one thing that strikes me is how much they have run out of interesting things now that they had to use fillers[1] like:<p><i>Tooltips</i><p><i>Support for tooltips (small popup windows with descriptive text) for views and menu items.</i><p>Normally, this would be relegated to a git changelog in the support library. But this is on the global marketing landing page.<p>I like to imagine a fictional internal mail thread going like this:<p>&gt; <i>Folks! please, give us something, anything, to put on the landing page!</i><p>&gt; Someone replies <i>duh, maybe tooltips</i><p>&gt; <i>What&#x27;s a tooltip?</i><p>&gt; <i>uhh, small popup windows with descriptive text</i><p>&gt; <i>What&#x27;s a popup?</i><p>&gt; <i>uhh...</i><p>&gt; <i>Nevermind, its on!</i><p>Obligatory &#x2F;s and yeah its Google, but seriously I can&#x27;t imagine any other circumstances on how this specific copy, which tries to explain what a &quot;tooltip&quot; is by using the words &quot;popup&quot;, &quot;view&quot; and &quot;menu item&quot;, came up.<p>This could be a good sign though, of the maturity of the platform (and harder to feel left out if you didn&#x27;t upgrade).<p>1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.android.com&#x2F;versions&#x2F;oreo-8-0&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.android.com&#x2F;versions&#x2F;oreo-8-0&#x2F;</a>

Nice Marketing coop for an OS where 50% of devices won&#x27;t get updates.<p>I don&#x27;t get it. They bring frequent major updates with such important features like 60 new emijis or antivirus software instead of just doing their homework and implementing the number one feature for an OS: Direct OS updates from the OS vendor and nobody else.<p>Don&#x27;t tell me it&#x27;s a problem and the driver situation is so difficult. This is just a bad excuse. They want to keep people buying new Android phones.

&gt; Native C&#x2F;C++ API for high-performance audio. API function for high-performance audio including Native C&#x2F;C++ audio API.<p>I wonder if this will be good enough to close the gap with the rich music creation ecosystem on iOS.

&gt; that makes it easier and faster for hardware makers to deliver Android updates.<p>They still don&#x27;t get it. Google as the OS vendor should update all phones and NOT the hardware makers. Hardware manufacturers can still update their special features on the side after an OS update got deployed but I want that the OS and its core become updates directly and only from Google. Why is this so hard?

Don&#x27;t let the project treble eclipse the limitations imposed over background services,<p>Android seems to have taken iOS approach towards saving power,<p>&quot;When an app goes into the background, it has a window of several minutes in which it is still allowed to create and use services&quot;<p>Though iOS&#x27;s background restrictions goes up to socket level (e.g VPN, which android O seems to have whitelisted entirely); this is going to be a huge impact over consumers and of course pain in the <i></i>* for developers.

Has google forgotten how to do great marketing?<p>You open the page. Scroll down. What should be the first thing you see? Obviously it should be the greatest, the best feature of the new OS. What is it instead? &quot;Quick boot up time&quot;. Really? That&#x27;s the best thing in Android Oreo? That when I reboot my phone once every 4 months, it&#x27;s going to start quicker? Surely they could have picked literally anything else as the first thing to mention?

A lot of people complaining about using a brand name here -- isn&#x27;t Kitkat (the &#x27;K&#x27; release) also trademarked?

Android has been improving so much in the performance department I think the phone that will replace my aging S3 will be... another S3 if I can find one.<p>Seriously. Software has improved so much but the hardware nowadays is trash for my needs at least.

Would be nice if they added a switch to disable connecting to open wifi networks. Or at least to realize that the wifi is connected but its waiting for a sign in so internet traffic should still be routed through 4g.

&quot;Auto-connects you to high quality open WiFi and secures your connection with a VPN back to Google.&quot;<p>Hmmmm. So Google can have even more of your data.

So according to the release the new features are:<p>-Picture in picture (dual app onscreen)<p>-Notification dots and &quot;force-touch-like-feature&quot; (my words, not Google&#x27;s) to preview<p>-Google Play Protect (an antivirus) [0]<p>-Minimize unintentional overuse of battery from apps in the background<p>-Faster boot speed<p>-Support forAndroid Instant Apps<p>-Over 60 new emoji (sic)<p>Under the hood stuff, not in the release (thanks u&#x2F;izakus)<p>- Project Treble that splits hardware HAL layer away from the OS layer. Plan being that this allows updating the OS without having to update the whole hardware driver stack (and thus avoid being dependant on Qualcomms of the world to update their proprietary blobs for each release) - GPU drivers are now updatable via Play Store (by OEMs)<p>More new features listed on the main Oreo page [2]:<p>-Accessibility button: Allows you to quickly access from the navigation bar accessibility features, like magnification, and functionality within accessibility services, like Select to Speak.<p>-Accessibility volume: Accessibility services can optimize the audio experience for users with disabilities.<p>-Adaptive icons: Developers can now provide a full-bleed square shaped icon and OEMs will mask the icon to ensure intra-device consistency.<p>-Ambient screen: Highlights the incoming notification with larger font, highlighted app name and immediate access to actions.<p>-Background execution limits: More control over how apps run in the background for better overall system performance.<p>-Background location limits: Limits the frequency of location updates in the background for better overall system health.<p>-Deep color: Enables applications to render richer visual content with more vibrant colors and subtler gradients. Supports full color management which allows applications to render images in the format and quality they were intended.<p>-Downloadable fonts: Applications no longer need to bundle custom fonts, which helps reduce their size.<p>-Install unknown apps: Hostile downloader apps can&#x27;t operate without permission; users now permit the installation of APKs per-source.<p>-Integrated printing support: Compatible with all Mopria-certified printers, which make up 97% of printers sold worldwide.<p>-Linkable files: API that allows you to share files across the Internet via web links.<p>-Native C&#x2F;C++ API for high-performance audio: API function for high-performance audio including Native C&#x2F;C++ audio API.<p>-Notification categories: More granular and consistent control over which notifications can appear and how intrusive they are.<p>-Notification snoozing: Lets users hide notifications for a period of time, similar to Inbox snoozing.<p>-Pointer capture: Pointer capture allows the app to capture all mouse input.<p>-Project Treble: The biggest change to the foundations of Android to date: a modular architecture that makes it easier and faster for hardware makers to deliver Android updates.<p>-TextView autosizing: Developers can now let the size of their text expand or contract automatically based on the size and characteristics of the TextView, making it much easier to optimize the text size on different screens or with dynamic content.<p>-Tooltips: Support for tooltips (small popup windows with descriptive text) for views and menu items.<p>-Wi-Fi Assistant: Auto-connects you to high quality open WiFi and secures your connection with a VPN back to Google.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.android.com&#x2F;play-protect&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.android.com&#x2F;play-protect&#x2F;</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.android.com&#x2F;topic&#x2F;instant-apps&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.android.com&#x2F;topic&#x2F;instant-apps&#x2F;index.html</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.android.com&#x2F;versions&#x2F;oreo-8-0&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.android.com&#x2F;versions&#x2F;oreo-8-0&#x2F;</a>

&gt; Compatible with all Mopria-certified printers, which make up 97% of printers sold worldwide.<p>I wonder if every Mopria-certified printer prints anti-privacy tracking dots.

Seems like the most notable part of this release will be the emoji upgrade :-P Rustaceans will appreciate the crab

Instant Apps: I think this can impact very positively the environment but there are almost not mentions to it.

Please use a PNG for the emojis image... it&#x27;s so painful to see the JPEG halo&#x2F;bleeding artifacts...

Quite excited by the &quot;high-performance audio API&quot;. Could drive a different consumer segment.

Not related but does Google have to pay Oreo money for using its name&#x2F;image?

This seemed like the best choice in name and yet I wonder if they&#x27;ll draw the same ire from the community as they did when choosing Kit Kat.<p>Honestly I like it; it was better than basically all the other alternatives.

A non-generic brand name for their O-release? Did they strike a deal with Nabisco&#x2F;Cadbury? I can&#x27;t imagine Google doing this without some form of legal go-ahead from the trademark owner.

&gt;Google Play Protect:<p>&gt; Working to keep your device and data safe from misbehaving apps by scanning over 50 billion apps per day, even the ones you haven&#x27;t installed yet!<p>Also known as anti-virus.

&gt; &quot;Native C&#x2F;C++ API for high-performance audio&quot;<p>This is good to hear. But, this makes me wonder about Android&#x27;s ability to prevent people from pirating apps. Due to the nature of Android, I&#x27;ve never wrote an app that wasn&#x27;t free.<p>On iOS, there are a number of audio apps that do quite well. I&#x27;d be hard pressed to port an app to Android, if taking the apk was as easy as it&#x27;s always been.

So, it was announced during the eclipse (dark and bright). It&#x27;s called Oreo which is the same but they still didn&#x27;t bother with a dark mode?

&gt;&gt; Swift moves, behind the scenes<p>Translation: we developed better compression algos for uploading your personal data to our servers

&gt; Wi-Fi Assistant: Auto-connects you to high quality open WiFi and secures your connection with a VPN back to Google<p>VPN back to Google?

I wonder if the visual play of the Oreo mimicking a solar eclipse on the homepage [1] is a coincidence, seeing as how it was released on the 21st.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.android.com&#x2F;versions&#x2F;oreo-8-0&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.android.com&#x2F;versions&#x2F;oreo-8-0&#x2F;</a>

I&#x27;m looking forward to Google finally allowing PiP to work in the YouTube app on iOS...

My experience with my Android-based TV is that every Android update and every update of Google&#x27;s own apps (e.g., YouTube) is a regression is so many totally unnecessary ways that it almost seems deliberate at this point.

I remember being excited about new Android releases. Boy times have changed.

This looks interesting:<p>&quot;Linkable files: API that allows you to share files across the Internet via web links.&quot;<p>Will this mean that I don&#x27;t have to download a pdf to view it? I wonder what this feature means.

Not on my LG and Asus devices, no sir.<p>And I don&#x27;t believe OEMs and telecom operators will release updates even with Treble, if Google doesn&#x27;t force them to do so.

Reminds me of a windows release.<p>Except that, if mobile OS&#x27;s could still disrupt the desktop, there&#x27;s still many features to go?

Did google forgot how to design web pages?

I love the intro video of Android Oreo launch as they used the context of Solar Eclipse on 21st August.

Too bad most Android devices will never get this update. This is where Android sucks compared to iOS.

FYI Oreo Battery Life on the Nexus 5X is really bad. Don&#x27;t upgrade if you have one.

Express yourself in more ways than ever: Share the feels with a fully redesigned emoji set, including over 60 new emoji.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nedroid.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;08&#x2F;phone-home&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nedroid.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;08&#x2F;phone-home&#x2F;</a>

classic hacker news thread on new tech: i only learned negative things.

Finally Android will stop Facebook apps from sucking my RAM secretly!

New EMOJIS? O-M-G finally! I&#x27;ve waited so long!

I love doing &quot;Two things at once, at once.&quot;

Why on earth did they go with a restricted trademark, Oreo?<p>Oreo must have payed a good sum of money I suppose?<p>Coming up with the legalese on how and where Google is allowed to use the Oreo trademark seems difficult.

These scroll to reveal sites have to die now.

The easter egg is the worst ever.

&gt; Swift moves, behind the scenes<p>Seriously?

All these releases are meh... I&#x27;m waiting for the Reese&#x27;s release to bite

Don&#x27;t name Android versions after brands. Now we&#x27;re stuck with 2 (k,o)

mjjhmmj .

For people complaining they cant get this, it&#x27;s their own fault. People keep buying carrier phones knowing fully well the problems with locked, bloated androids. Either just buy unlocked phones that you can control or face the consequences.

I don&#x27;t like the product placement in the release name.

&quot;Allows you to see two apps at once, it&#x27;s like having super strength and laser vision.&quot; really

As a half-black, half-white man, I find this name incredibly offensive. #halfblacklivesmatter<p>I&#x27;ll leave it up to you to figure out if I&#x27;m serious or not (and yes, I really am mixed so this is plausible).