With every new iteration of Android come various bug improvements and fixes over the last. With Android 8.0 eclipsing its predecessor, only the first few chosen Pixel and Nexus phones will be receiving the update before everyone else, while OEMs will have to make theirs available separately, when they have the resources to prepare. With 8.0, changes are subtler but still noticeable on all fronts, compared to Android Nougat.
Picture-in-Picture
Bringing a new dimension to multi-tasking and adding a feature that was available natively in the Samsung Note line, Google has now baked it into the new software. Users will now be able to watch YouTube videos without needing to make a new multi-tasking window to view it at the same time as performing other tasks in the phone.
Better Productivity
Android Oreo offers functionality for users that will save time in performing basic tasks, thanks to the new Autofill Framework. This will make filling out forms and passwords easier for users with multiple accounts, wherein all of their saved information will be linked to their Google account. Apart from knowing the users’ passwords and auto-fill details, Oreo also brings in preferential sharing that will analyse what the user highlights and then shows a pop-up for different contextual apps to suit the selection, such as phone numbers, email addresses and map addresses. Oreo also brings with it, better background application limitations, to save processing power and battery life.
Faster updates universally
Thanks to Project Treble that will be introduced to Oreo, Android will now be easily update-able across even manufacture-skinned software. This means that certain parts of the Android framework can still be updated from Google directly without the need of the manufacturers taking the trouble to re-skin and package the firmware for their use. If things go as well as promised, this will make nearly all Android handsets running Android up to date with the Pixel devices.
Rescue from bootloops
Whenever an app misbehaves or the phone has to go through a boot loop, most Android users will have to force their smartphones to hard reset their phones that may damage the system. This used to be the case up until Android Nougat. With Android Oreo, Google has launched a special rescue feature called Rescue Party that automatically escalates the smartphone’s recovery system, that will initiate a series of aggressive reset settings until they work, and if nothing works yet, users will be prompted to factory reset the phone. This will happen, the device reboots more than five times within five minutes or if an app crashes more than five times within 30 seconds.
General improvements
While Nougat mastered the art of smoothening the transition between apps and seamlessly integrating multi-tasking into the OS, Oreo takes it a step further by using tool tips that occur over an app icon with various contextual text that to allow for different functions such as adding the app’s widget or changing its settings and so on.
