Giving priority to privacy and security
At Google’s annual I/O conference, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced the third beta of Android Q—best known as the 10th iteration of Android. While some of its new features were previewed in the previous beta builds, Google emphasized further on some of them.
These include a system-wide Dark Mode that Google calls “Dark Theme”. A much-awaited feature that is available on some skinned Android versions, Dark Theme changes the whole interface from white to deep black, helping in conserving battery life—at least in theory.
Aside from a system-wide Dark Theme, Google is working on updating its first-party apps like Photos and Calendar and with third-party app developers to natively support the new feature.
With foldable phones coming soon to consumers, Google touts Android Q as having native support for the new device format, introducing features such as screen continuity.
As seen on previous Android Q beta builds, Google is placing heavy emphasis on security and privacy. There’s a dedicated Privacy section under settings where have better control over which apps use your location data and how they use them.
Other new features include Live caption—which automatically captions any media playing audio, Smart Reply for quicker crafting of responses and better prediction of next actions—like opening Maps when you tap on an address, and a new Focus mode under Digital Balance to find apps that are distracting and silence them until you say otherwise.
Android Q will be officially available by third quarter of 2019.
