The Android 8.0 is officially out after a plethora of rumors and speculations. It is called OREO! Google could not cheat its fans this time round as there were wide expectations that the 8^th version of Android will be named after the famous sweet snack, Oreo, rather than the notorious Oatmeal Cookie, Octopus or much anticipated Orellete.

Most of the modifications and changes that you will witness in new Android OS will be based on evolutionary aspects of spectrum and would not be concerned with the revolutionary aspects by any means, which is remarkable. However, we can still feel why some people would call it the most boring update so far by Google in terms of Android OS.

You would of course not see any ostentatious new features which will take you aback or overhaul the way you interact with your device. This is because the major mobile software release of this year, i.e. Android 8.0, is mainly focused upon making under-the-hood refinements and improvements, which are better aimed at software’s performance.

Here goes the feature-wise review of MPC Team.

System Modifications and Battery Twists

Android Oreo is going to bring you swinging new features in almost all aspects that you could image. However, the most important modifications relate to the system changes made under the hood. These modifications will actually help you have a better experience, at least performance-wise as well as enhanced battery-saving mechanism that Google has now programmed inside.

It would also not be wrong to state that Android 8.0 Oreo, as compared to all previous Android OS, resembles the most with Apple iOS, and that is because most attractive features already present in Apple iOS have now been finally added in Android OS, e.g. remarkable battery life on standby mode.

Moreover, Android 8.0 has introduced limits on the background execution, as this will quickly release the wake-locks that a certain is holding after it enters the cached state. In other words, this would mean that useless and insignificant apps will not be affecting the battery in background anymore. Similarly, the apps running in background will now be limited in terms of services that they can access when they are running on the background. This is a very user-friendly option which will simply bypass the earlier hurdles.

Apart from that, in this new Android 8.0 Oreo, the apps will not be getting the frequent locations updates as they were getting in the past. In this regard, Google has further claimed that this will be applicable to all the apps regardless of they being good or bad, and this would certainly apply to the Google Play Services as well, which is regarded as the main offender as abuser of the location services. These important modifications and refinements may appear to be minor to some critics, but they will certainly assure to become, with the passage of time, the most significant features of Android 8.0 Oreo.

Enhanced Iconography

I was personally very excited to try a feature in new Android 8.0 Oreo, which is known as Adaptive icons, but unfortunately, it is not present in the new OS. This feature has been removed by Android, as it simply relates to the old-school icons that we used to have earlier, and in place of that, Google has introduced a new breed of icons, which are dynamic, energetic and vibrant, and which will be able to use the clean visual effects as pulsing ad parallax.

Moreover, different devices will be able to display different icons in this new feature. For instance, the icon of an app might appear as a circle on one phone, as a squircle on the second device and a square with barely rounded angles on a third phone. This is a great thing that the developers have been able to offer the large variety of masks to these icons and the days-old monotony will no longer last. Ultimately, different android users having different smartphones will be able to end up with different and coherent icon sets, which is itself a very pleasing news.

Apart from the fancy new icons and wallpapers, the very first thing that you will notice quickly after getting the Android 8.0 Oreo on your respective smartphone will be the app shortcuts, which will be fancier than before. These app shortcuts were first time introduced in Android 7.0 Nougat, but 8.0 will add further interactive way of opening the apps through easy short-cuts, and one way would be to simply pressing an app icon for longer time, which is a feature already present in Apple iOS with the name of 3D Touch Shortcuts.

Quick Setting and Status Bar

Fans will also be able to notice some stark changes made in new Android 8.0 Oreo vis-à-vis quick settings and status bar. The main noticeable change is that when you will swipe down the quick settings or notifications shade, there will be an array of important status icons displaying on top, which will give you a quick info about your cellular, current battery level and Wi-Fi status.

Similarly, the tiles of quick settings which double up as the menus, such as Bluetooth and Wi-FI, will indicate that by showing the like just beneath the tile, which is displayed as follows.

Modified Notifications

Google has always tried its best to improve the experience with Android notifications and this is something Google must be credited for. One example of this sort is that users got bundled notifications last year, which was a great thing added in Android. In case of new Android Oreo, you will now be getting more control on different types of notifications that will appear in the notification shade. Another big thing added in the new Android 8.0 Oreo is the notification channels, which are basically the content filters and can also be enabled or disabled depending on your mood. The below image will show you how it works, in case you will be receiving a notification while your storage is just running out.

As you can see, upon pressing and holding the notification, you will be immediately informed that the app, which is sending it, is system UI and which can show the notifications in 5 different groups, i.e. General Messages, Alerts, Screenshots, Miscellaneous, and Storage. There are also other groups and categories in which it will be shown.

Moreover, if you are not interested in receiving the notifications informing you about running low on the storage, then you just need to flick the relevant switch and there you go. It will also be applicable to the screenshot notifications and clearing these will be nothing short of an irritation. Another cool aspect is that you will be able to define how you can be informed about different notification channels for any app. One example is that if you are tinkering with the app of system UI, then you may simply stop the notifications related to screenshots from appearing on the device. Additionally, you will also be able to make these alerts always ring the sound as well as vibrate.

This is a fine option for notification control, which is a great addition in this new Android 8.0 Oreo, which has not become quite overwhelming with time. As a matter of fact, apart from a few apps from Google, a few other apps have also been supporting the miscellaneous groups.

Lastly, you will also be to snooze the notifications, which is more like a handy thing in new Android. You will also be able to access the new clock icon through gradually swiping the notification to right or left, and this will allow you to snooze the app for about 10 to 60 minutes, and this snoozing can also be undone.

Menu for New Settings: It will Appear Again

Recall that strange supplementary hamburger menu popping up in settings option on Android 7.0 Nougat. You will notice in Android Oreo that previous auxiliary menu will not be there anymore. This is because the developer preview of Android Oreo did not come with any sort of hamburger menu within the settings. Well, that is pleasing to know, because that supportive settings menu was not adding any value to the user experience anyway, as it was only making the settings menu in Nougat only more overwhelming.

Although, the newer settings menu is also overwhelming, but in a different way!

Apart from altering this layout for something better, Google has also managed to streamline things through bundling the same items in the single menu, which has saved a lot of hassle. This also means that opening the settings menu will show you more than 24-25 menu items on an Android Nougat device. On the other hand, in Android Oreo, there will be only half of the menu items. Therefore, the new Android OS will make the Settings menu more streamlined and categorized. However, you will find it more difficult to seek the menu option that you are searching for. We would still be thankful to Google for this new function.

Additional Modifications and Improvements

One of the most intriguing but small features added in Oreo is the SystemUI Tuner menu, which will let the users change default locking screen shortcuts for any relevant application or even any other activity of your own choice. This is a cool feature as many people will not be concerned much about the Camera shortcuts and default Google Assistant.

Lastly, you would also be able to customize the software navigation bar of your device to some extent and for this we can only thank the other menu that was found on systemUI Tuner. Apart from making it more compact on to the left or right leaning, the users will also be able to add two additional buttons. Currently, this feature will not work as you will need to input the particular keycode. However, thankfully we are still given an indication by the Google in terms of exploring such new feature of this sort.