Introducing Android Q- First Beta Released For All Pixel Phones

Introducing Android Q First Beta Released For All Pixel Phones

Android Q brings a number of additional privacy and security features for users, as well as support to foldables smartphones, new APIs for connectivity, new media codecs and camera capabilities, NNAPI extensions, Vulkan 1.1 support, faster app startup, and more.

 Android Q is available for Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, and Pixel 3 XL. The search giant has notably retained the original Pixel models, though they already passed the general support window of receiving Android version updates for the first two years from their debut.

Android 'Q' stands for still unknown for developers and users.

With Android Q, the OS helps users have more control over when apps can get location. As in prior versions of the OS, apps can only get location once the app has asked you for permission, and you have granted it.

Android Q enables users to give apps permission to see their location never, only when the app is in use (running), or all the time (when in the background).

In Android Q, the OS gives users even more control over apps, controlling access to shared files. Users will be able to control apps' access to the Photos and Videos or the Audio collections via new runtime permissions. For Downloads, apps must use the system file picker, which allows the user to decide which Download files the app can access.

Android Q features

Android Q introduces a number of security features, which the following sections summarize.

• Improved biometric authentication dialogs

Android Q introduces the following improvements to the unified biometric authentication dialogs added in Android 9.

You can now provide a hint that tells the system not to require user confirmation after the user has authenticated using an implicit biometric modality. For example, you could tell the system that no further confirmation should be required after a user has authenticated using Face authentication

• New audio and video codecs

Android Q introduces support for the open source video codec AV1. This allows media providers to stream high quality video content to Android devices using less bandwidth. In addition, Android Q supports audio encoding using Opus - a codec optimized for speech and music streaming, and HDR10+ for high dynamic range video on devices that support it.

• Wi-Fi Easy Connect

Android Q enables you to use Easy Connect to provision Wi-Fi credentials for a peer device using a URI. This URI can be retrieved through various methods, including from a QR code or through Bluetooth LE or NFC.

• Call quality improvements

Android Q adds the ability to collect information about the quality of ongoing IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) calls, including quality to and from the network, on devices that support the feature.

• New Settings panels

Android Q introduces Settings Panels, an API which allows apps to show settings to users in the context of their app. This prevents users from needing to go into Settings to change things like NFC or Mobile data in order to use the app.

How do I get Android Q Beta?

You can click here to get Android Q Beta updates over-the-air, on any Pixel device (and this year it's supporting all three generations of Pixel -- Pixel 3, Pixel 2, and even the original Pixel!).

Source- Android