Android Q Beta First Developer Preview – 7 Most Exciting New Features

So it’s about that time of the year again when we get to see what Google has in store for us with their new and latest Android version.

And this time, we can confidently say that they’ve got quite a lot of tricks up their sleeves, and those exciting new tricks, are what we’re about to find out right now.

So join us today, and let’s take a first look, at the new Android Q Beta version, using our Google Pixel 3 XL device. #Enjoy.

So first of all, android Q is still available for just only the Pixel devices for now, starting from the very first Google Pixel phone down to last year’s Pixel 3 and 3 XL.

So to get it on your device (Pixel remember?), you’ll first have to join the Android Q Beta testing program from this link, after you’ve done that, go to your phone’s settings menu page and locate “System or Software Updates“, refresh the page and you should see the Android Q file waiting to be downloaded and installed.

So just do the needful and you should start enjoying the new flavor of Android right on your Pixel device immediately. Now let’s talk about some of the new most exciting features that it brings along with it.

BUT PLEASE NOTE – That as at the time of writing this article, the said android Q is still in Beta build, so a lot of things are bound to change along the line, which means some features which will be listed and discussed here, might or might not make it to the final version. So if you’re okay with that, then let’s jump right into it.. #Cheers.

7 Most Exciting New Features Of Android Q

1. Visual Changes – Theming

Now when it comes to visual or UI changes in this latest version of Android, then you’d probably agree with me that it is definitely no different from what we already have on Android Pie.

Although there are still some minor touches here and there, you’re definitely not even gonna notice that anything has changed at all.

But for those who’re still skeptical about it, here are some of the places where you’d see some tiny little changes in the settings page if you look very closely.

Did you notice that anything was retouched? well for those who didn’t, if you take a second look at the picture above, you’ll see that in the picture that represents Android Q, the WiFi icon has been changed to three curved bars from its original Pie-shaped icon on Android Pie.

Then there is this new option that has been added to the “Developer menu”, and it says “Theming“. And inside it, you get three more individual options.

And what do they do? Simple, the first option which says “Accent Color“, gives you the ability to change your phone’s accent color in places like the notification shades and all.

So you can choose between default, which is probably blue, and then there are the Green, Black, and Purple colors.

Pretty cool and nifty feature if you’d ask me, one that everybody’s gonna love and appreciate, and I also believe that with them, probably with the coming releases of future Android Q versions, Google will do well to add more colors to the list.

The second option is the font option, which lets you change your device font, but still pretty new and there’s really nothing much going on in there, and the last one is the “Icon Shape” option, which as we all know has the obviously been here for some time now, it lets you choose between a teardrop shape of icons, or square, or circles, so once again there’s still really nothing much going on in there, but still a good thing to know that it’s there, so a good one from Android Q if you’d ask me.

2. A New System-Wide Dark Mode

So even when it seems Google came late to the party, it’s still a good thing to know that finally, Dark Mode shouldn’t longer be something that is specific to some smart smartphones out there, if you know what i mean, smartphones like the Samsungs, OnePlus, Huawei and the rest.

So with Android Q, everyone is getting to enjoy the new system-wide dark mode, which helps in a lot of ways, like it makes your phone very comfortable to use at night and also helps to conserve a large amount of battery juice for those who are using smartphones with OLED displays.

But for one reason which I don’t know, there’s no option to enable this dark mode on your device, instead, it comes into play when you activate battery saving mode on your device.

So pull down your notifications icon drawer, tap on the battery saver mode icon, and there you’ll get dark mode activated on your device. But with time, we trust Google that this error will definitely be corrected.

3. WiFi Network Sharing

Yes with the new Android Q, you can now share a Wi-Fi network that you’re connected to, via a QR Code.

All you need to do is go to the Wi-Fi options in your settings menu, tap on the network that you’re connected to, there’s a new “Share” option on the right, tap on it too, and you’ll see a QR Code that others can scan to join the network.

Pretty cool trick right? Alright then let’s move on to the next one.

4. Native or Pre-installed Screen Recording Option

Though still not a new feature because we’ve all been using seeing the screen recording feature on other OEMs, especially Samsung and the likes, even those who don’t have it pre-installed on their phones can go to Play Store and download third-party ones.

But with Android Q, well what more can I say, it is no longer OEMs dependent or third-party app-dependent since it is now gonna be a native feature for all Android smartphones.

But as at the time right now, i’d say it is still a little bit gimmicky or something like that, because after activating it from the developers menu and you turn it on by long pressing the power button, and then long pressing once again on the screenshot menu, you can’t stop or pause the recorder, once it starts recording.

But once again, all these things can easily be fixed with a software update.. So #Cheers..

5. Freeform Mode

Now who remembers one out of those Samsung’s many features that lets you to drag and drop an app window anywhere on your device’s screen while making use of other apps too or doing some other things on your device. Well, that’s what the freeform mode is all about.

So just the way it is on a Samsung device when activated still from the developer’s option, go to your recent apps page and tap on any of the app’s icoicons the top of the app’s window, you should see that the new “Freeform mode” has been added to the regular “app info” and “split screen” options that used to be there before, so just tap on “Freeform” and an individual window will be created for the app that you chose, from there, you can drag it to any corner of your device’s screen.

But for the moment, you can only use a single app in Freeform mode, unlike Samsung’s implementation which lets you use more than one app at a time.

6. Better Security & Privacy

Now a lot of android apps are very famous for taking unnecessary permissions and running in the background too for no good reason, but with Android Q, well let’s just say Google is here to address this issue.

So one of the biggest changes here is how Android Q handles location access. There’s a dedicated locations option in the settings page now, and unlike before, you can now decide whether you want an app to access your location all the time, or only when the app is being used, or you can even set it to never have access to your location at all.

Apart from that, Android Q also prevents any app from launching any activity while in the background.

7. Minor Changes

So aside from all the cool interesting features we just talked about, Android Q still have a lot of minor changes and features here and there, so let me just show you some of the few interesting ones.

Now first of all on former versions of android, such as Android Pie, you can quickly close a notification from the notifications shade by either swiping left or right, but on Android Q, you can only close a notification by swiping right, and a left swipe will give some other options like blocking or snoozing the notification.

Secondly, well i don’t know and i can’t tell if this is a bug or something Google did deliberately, but while taking screenshots now, it shows the notch at the top of the display on the Pixel 3 XL device. I hope Google does away with this, because personally I don’t see anything cool about it.

Alright guys, so that is all for today concerning android Q, let us know what your best features are in the comments section below, don’t forget to keep sharing our good news and as well subscribe to our free newsletter if you haven’t done so already, so you can get our latest updates delivered right into your inbox, keep having a nice day, and as always, I’ll see you all tomorrow.. #Peace Out✌🏾

#Cheers…emmanuelGodwin

Image Sources – Beebom, Android Authority

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