Android P feature thoughts
Well, Google has announced a bunch of what it has planned for Android P, and so it is time for me to blather into the void about those decisions.
Parental controls for all. Android is adding the ability to get detailed information usage about the phone, set limits for the specifics apps and activities and added in a "wind down" mode to grey scale the screen to encourage you to put the phone down. This is what I'd call a purely additive set of features. It doesn't take anything away. It just adds to your phone. Better yet, it can apply to any app. I'm not sure I'll use it personally. But, I can definitely see where it would be a good thing. Hopefully, it truly ends up being like parental controls. As devices become more ubiquitous it becomes increasingly more important to not set hard limits on device usage as it is to set limits on specific activities and groups of activities.
The new DND features are also nice. If, again, something I won't personally use.
Gesture navigation. Personally... I don't care. If phones are getting so big that we need new ways to interact with them, then they've become a new category of device. They should have a new UX entirely. Gestures are a stop gap measure. And while people are quick to call these iPhone X rip off features... others have noted that this is largely a wholesale rip-off of the gestures integrated into much hated Windows 8. Non-intuitive swipes from "hot" corners or areas of the screen.
Some people said Microsoft was ahead of its time on Windows 8, where I would say that they were past their time. People accept change from Apple not because the changes are good, but because they WANT to feel good about Apple does. Google for some reason follows suit. Personally, I think Android is popular enough to make some daring changes. In fact, I think Android P shows this, in addition to their aping of all things iPhone.
There are a host of other features, which in my opinion are a lot more minor. I'm excited to see how Assistant evolves, but it doesn't sound like that is necessarily an Android P feature, and it may not even be ready in time. But, the ability to have a more natural conversation with a digital assistant will be nice. And the ability for it to manage things on your behalf will be interesting to see.
Parental controls for all. Android is adding the ability to get detailed information usage about the phone, set limits for the specifics apps and activities and added in a "wind down" mode to grey scale the screen to encourage you to put the phone down. This is what I'd call a purely additive set of features. It doesn't take anything away. It just adds to your phone. Better yet, it can apply to any app. I'm not sure I'll use it personally. But, I can definitely see where it would be a good thing. Hopefully, it truly ends up being like parental controls. As devices become more ubiquitous it becomes increasingly more important to not set hard limits on device usage as it is to set limits on specific activities and groups of activities.
The new DND features are also nice. If, again, something I won't personally use.
Gesture navigation. Personally... I don't care. If phones are getting so big that we need new ways to interact with them, then they've become a new category of device. They should have a new UX entirely. Gestures are a stop gap measure. And while people are quick to call these iPhone X rip off features... others have noted that this is largely a wholesale rip-off of the gestures integrated into much hated Windows 8. Non-intuitive swipes from "hot" corners or areas of the screen.
Some people said Microsoft was ahead of its time on Windows 8, where I would say that they were past their time. People accept change from Apple not because the changes are good, but because they WANT to feel good about Apple does. Google for some reason follows suit. Personally, I think Android is popular enough to make some daring changes. In fact, I think Android P shows this, in addition to their aping of all things iPhone.
There are a host of other features, which in my opinion are a lot more minor. I'm excited to see how Assistant evolves, but it doesn't sound like that is necessarily an Android P feature, and it may not even be ready in time. But, the ability to have a more natural conversation with a digital assistant will be nice. And the ability for it to manage things on your behalf will be interesting to see.
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