Android Pie in Perspective (Premium)

This week, Google shipped the final version of Android P—now called Pie—-giving us our first non-beta peek at the next version of this platform. So this is a good time to take a step back and see how this release is evolving the most popular mobile computing platform on earth.

To that end, I’ve installed every pre-release version of Android P on my Google Pixel 2 XL, my daily-use smartphone, and I will upgrade to the final version as soon as it arrives. I’ve generally had pretty good luck with Google’s pre-release Android builds over the years, and that’s been the case this go-round too. That said, Android Pie has not solved the biggest issue I have with Android, which is the performance creep that sets in over time. This is something I’ve experienced with every Google phone, and the Pixel 2 XL is no different.

(Since I’m replacing my Pixel 2 XL this coming week anyway, I won’t bother to reset it now. But I would have otherwise, just to start fresh with the final version of Android P.)

Performance problems or no, Android is now a mature system. And it’s interesting to see how Google, like Apple and Microsoft, both of which are also managing their own mature computing platforms, is adjusting to this change.

I feel like Google and Apple both strike a good balance between release cadence—they both release major mobile OS updates once a year—and rate of change. As with the coming release of iOS 12, Android Pie contains no major, earth-shattering and potentially disruptive changes.

This is by design. And it contrasts somewhat with Microsoft, which updates Windows 10 far too often (biannually) but has just this year gotten the memo on not overloading each new release with too much pointless change. At this point in each platform’s life cycle, numerous small and useful changes add up to a much more satisfying release than a handful of unnecessary big changes.

And I do find Android—generally, and Android Pie specifically—very satisfying. When I switched to Android from the iPhone last year, a move that also included switching to Project Fi full-time, I knew it didn’t have to be a one-way street. If iOS 12 and the iPhone X2 (or whatever they call it) were exciting enough, I’d happily skip to the other side of the street in a heartbeat. Or so I thought.

But this past year has been interesting. In the course of using Android 8.x Oreo first and then the pre-release versions of Android P, I’ve found that I actually prefer Android over iOS. This is something that happened slowly, and over time. And it was frankly a bit unexpected. I use an iPad every day to read—the newspaper in the morning, Kindle e-books and Pocket otherwise, for the most part. And my iPads have been on the iOS 12 beta all along too. But I just don’t feel that tug with iOS. It’s fine. But I don’t feel drawn to it.

It’s hard to quantify why this is so. The open nature of Android is well-understood, but the reality of it is even more compelling than the theoretical, which is something rare with personal computing products and services. I’ve been experimenting with various launchers on the OnePlus 6 (a secondary phone for me now) in the wake of my Microsoft Launcher experiments, for example. And while I may ultimately prefer the stock Android (or Pixel launcher), knowing that I can change something this integral to the user experience, on the fly and at any time, is truly freeing. It’s an interesting psychological thing. And of course, it extends to just about everything in Android.

With Android Pie now shipping, however, I will be focusing on what Google is including in this new system, at least for the short term. So let’s get this rolling with the Android Pie features that have impacted me the most so far. There are only a few.

New gesture navigation. Over time, Google has evolved Android’s navigation controls from physical buttons to software-based buttons. And with Android Pie, this evolution continues with a new gesture-based navigation system. I previously wrote about this system in Hands-On with the Android P Beta: Gesture Navigation, and I very much prefer it to the old model. More to the point, it is seamless and even intuitive, and it’s better for single-handed usage.

Smart text selection. Over a decade ago, Microsoft first added a pop-up mini-toolbar to its core desktop Office apps that provides contextual commands when over a selection. Smart text selection in Android works a bit like that: When you select text, the system displays a pop-up menu containing contextual options beyond the usual Copy, Share, and Select all. And like that Office Mini toolbar—which used to appear on hover, but was later changed to an overt right-click—smart text selection has evolved over time. And in Android Pie, you can now access this menu in the Overview (recent apps) screen, meaning that you don’t have to switch fully into an app to access the available actions.

Do Not Disturb. With Android Pie, I’ve come to rely on Do Not Disturb to ensure that my phone is not annoying with unwanted notification sounds and vibrations on the schedule of my choosing (from 10 pm to 7 am the next day, seven days per week). You can configure the hell out of this feature and do things like ensuring that calls or texts from starred (e.g. favorite) contacts always make it through. It’s so good, I find it annoying when notifications kick in again in the morning.

Screenshots. You take a screen in stock Android by holding down the Power and Volume Down buttons, and you can tell you got it right because there is a notification sound and animation. But in Android Pie, Google also adds a pop-up notification bubble with Share, Edit, and Delete options so you can quickly move on to the thing that was the reason you took the shot in the first place. And it disappears quickly if you don’t need it.

App Actions. Thanks to Android’s AI underpinnings, there are now various App Actions, which suggest actions based on recent or frequent usage, throughout the system. In Android Pie, the Android launcher (Apps screen), Smart text selection, the Google Search app, Google Assistant, and the Play Store all provide some form of App Actions, which appear as tiles. For example, I can now see two suggested App Actions—My (Audible) Library and Track Exercise (Fitbit)—both of are in-app links, in the top of my Apps screen.

Beyond these, some of Android Pie’s most intriguing features aren’t even available yet. These are:

Digital Wellbeing dashboard. Available today in beta form for Pixel users only, the Digital Wellbeing dashboard helps you understand how you use your phone and identifies problem areas so that you can take breaks and potentially break a smartphone addiction problem. (It’s coming to all Pixel users generally later this year, Google says.)

Slices. This coming feature—it’s rolling out “this fall,” Google claims—will let your favorite apps surface relevant information in a pop-up—called a slice—when needed. The canonical example is that you type Lyft into Google Search and the Lyft app displays a slice over the current display so you can order a ride. It sounds interesting, and like smart text selection, it appears to be a way for you to interact with app functionality without having to actually launch the full app.

I’ll dive deeper into these and other new Android Pie features soon.