Google has launched its latest Android 9 Pie, which the company claims is the smartest and most intelligent version in the Android family. With more use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the core of the operating system, Android 9 Pie has features that will learn from users and will work better for them.
Android 9 Pie comes with an Adaptive Battery feature, which learns the apps one uses most, prioritising the battery usage for those apps. Its Adaptive Brightness learns how people like to set the brightness in different settings, and does it for them automatically.
Android 9 features a new system navigation featuring a single home button. Users can swipe up to see a newly designed overview, the place where you have at-a-glance full-screen previews of recently used apps. Switching between apps is easy with Smart Text Selection—it now works on the overview of your recent apps, making it easier to perform the action you want.
Android P also brings a redesigned Quick Settings, a better way to take and edit screenshots, simplified volume controls and an easier way to manage notifications.
At Google I/O in May, Sundar Pichai had spoken about digital detox and Google was working towards it. The company had previewed digital wellbeing features for Android including a new Dashboard that shows time spent on the device; an App Timer that lets users set time limits on apps and grays out the icon on the home screen when the time is up; the new Do Not Disturb, which silences all the visual interruptions that pop up on screen; and Wind Down, which switches on Night Light and Do Not Disturb and fades the screen to grayscale before bedtime.
Digital Wellbeing is now available in beta for Pixel phones running Android 9, and will be officially available in the next few months. It will be available on Android One and other devices later this year.