Is Your App ready for Android P?

Transcription

1 Is Your App ready for Android P?

2 Android P: The biggest OS update of 2018 Google has introduced a new mobile OS update Android P focusing mainly on 3 important aspects - Intelligence, Simplicity and Digital Wellbeing. Android P gives the user every comfort it can possibly feed starting with New Gestures like Pill shaped navigation home icon giving us primary access to the secondary home screens. Visual Changes brings us eye catching quick setting screen, colorful notification section, volume bar displacement and easy enable screen rotation. Adaptive Battery and Brightness proves the improved level of intelligence which no other OS has provided yet. Digital Wellbeing is another milestone which helps the users to have features like App Timer, App usage Dashboard and Wind Down that take care of the user s mental health.

3 Statistical Study of Global Market Post its release on 21 st August,2017, Android Oreo had seen a steady climb in the number ofinstalled devices. The latest batch ofandroid Oreo (v8.1) is now installed on 5.7% of all Android devices. This represents an increase of more than a whole percentage point in just under 30 days (from 4.6% in mid-april to 5.7% in early May,2018). Judging by this huge adaption rate, it is expected to see a giant leap in near future as companies are propagating Android Oreo to more and more of their devices. Following last year s Oreo release, Android P has taken charge of 2018! Google released the Beta 3 version of Android P on July 3 rd and it looks more promising than ever. The final release of Android 9.0 is expected tobe in August, Android ios Windows Blackberry Others

4 AI Powered OS Android P will make use of Artificial Intelligence at its very core. With Android P, Google has introduced some adaptive features that aim to learn from and adapt to the user s preferences. Taking the biggest concern of Android phones - the battery life into consideration, the AI of Android P will focus on analyzing the app usage patterns and control CPU behavior in a way that only the essential apps use precious resources. In short, Google will use AI to study usage patterns and adjust CPU use accordingly. This will result in conserving battery life about 30%. In-shorts: Adaptive Battery Prioritizes battery power only for the most used apps and services Adaptive Brightness Learns brightness preferences in various surroundings App Actions Helps to get to the next task more quickly by predicting what the users want to do next Slices Gives the ability to surf part of the app itself, giving an even deeper look into favorite apps

5 Simplicity In Android P, extra focus has been given to simplify the way the operating system interacts with the user. New gesture-based UI navigation system can be seen in this update (and it's optional). There is a unique rotation confirmation setting which allows the user to set rotation preferences per app and even more intuitive volume controls. Now when the user hits the volume buttons, Android P will adjust the media volume by default instead of the ringer volume. The quick settings menu has also received a completely new look, as has notifications. Even the prompt user receives when there s a call coming in has changed, resembling the white box look of the quick settings panel. In-shorts: Home Button- The New Home button isnow a small pill at the bottom of the screen which shows your open apps, gives quick access to search as well as your most frequently used apps. Sliding up once again will open the Apps drawer. Also, holding the home button and sliding it to the right or left will take you directly to the multi-tasking menu. Volume Controls- Volume controls will now default to adjusting multimedia volume without disturbing the ringer Orientation- Orientation/ Rotation controls are now app-specific and user controlled

6 Digital Well-being Considering the negative impact their services and devices have on younger users, Google acknowledges that there must be some way of monitoring just how much time people are spending on their phones. Its also important for people to know just what they re doing on the apps that reside on their phones, how many times they unlock their device and for what. Keeping these in mind, Android P provides the Dashboard, a tool that gives its users a detailed analytics on the way they use their device. Users can even set timers on various apps, limiting the amount of time users spend on them. Once the pre-defined time limit is up, the icon will simply turn to greyscale, indicating that the limited allowance is exhausted. Distractions can also come in the form of notifications, or the need to be on the phone while in bed. Wind Down mode is also introduced in Android P which will switch on Night Light when it gets dark, along with turning on Do Not Disturb. The screen will also fade to grayscale at the time you have chosen as your bedtime In-shorts: Dashboard Shows you how you re spending time on your device, including time spent in apps, how many times you ve unlocked your phone, and how many notifications you ve received App Timer Lets you set time limits on apps Shush A mode that silences not just the phone calls and notifications, but also all the visual interruptions that pop up on your screen Wind Down switches on Night Light when it gets dark, and it will turn on Do Not Disturb and fade the screen to grayscale at your chosen bedtime to help you remember toget tosleep atthe time you want

7 Make your Applications Android P ready: Android P has heavily focused on using artificial intelligence to augment the user interface and user experience. The main target here is to give users more transparency and control over how they use their phones. It is therefore important that apps need to be tested for compatibility for various versions to ensure a seamless user experience for the end users. Contextualization: Define the context in which your application will fit and the intended use of the application such as those intended for information only, as opposed to enterprise view only and end-user centric. This is critical in evaluating the extensiveness of testing required. Checklist mapping: Identify the Android P features that impacts application s functionality. The different validations to be performed corresponding to each feature are described in the subsequent section. Compatibility validation: User profiling will establish the right combination of devices and browser combinations to execute the tests. The documented test scenarios can be validated using simulated data conditions and crowd-sourced end user testing for real-life conditions. Real time customer Insight: Although apps are developed with intuitive UI and working-as-expected functionality, real-time user feedback of apps should also be taken into consideration to improve overall user experience. Beyond the functionality of an application, to ensure unparalleled End-user experience, apps will have to be validated across a wide variety of tests in a diverse combination of devices and operating systems.

8 Vitals of QA Analysis: Clinching that a mobile app is ready for Android P, demands the app to endure through the key parameters. Reported below are fundamental features to be considered for QA validation: Notifications Type: Usability Validation: App actions below the notification in order to interact directly without opening the notification No notifications should be received once Shush or DND is enabled If App-timer is on, nudges for time-limit should be received along with app turning grey once limit is crossed Dashboard Type: Usability Validation: Know exactly how much time is being spent on any particular app Keep track of number of notifications received Set time limit Screen Rotation Type: Usability Validation: Check if App supports view mode changes if device is rotated manually without changing the settings Zoomed in text selection Type: OS Compatibility Validation: Magnify your selected text with a small pop-up on top with a zoomed in view that shows exactly where your selection begins and ends

9 Android P Full features list Focus Areas Features Description Adaptive Battery Adaptive Brightness App Actions Designed to provide more consistent battery experience. Uses machine learning to determine usage pattern of apps and 30% reduction in CPU app wakeups Learns from brightness preferences in ambient lightning and then does the same in a power efficient way. Reduces the need to change brightness manually under different lightings. Apps are predicted based on usage patterns. Google Search- apart from regular suggestions, get action suggestions (what you want to do with this thing next) Intelligence Slices API for developers to define interactive snippets to the App UI ML Kit New sets of APIs available through Firebase Includes: Image labelling, Text recognition, Face detection, Barcode scanning, Landmark detection, Smart Reply

10 Focus Areas Features Description New Navigation System Google search bar is moved from the top of the screen to the bottom. The home button is slimmed down. Navigational gestures added. Zoom lens for text selection Like ios, Android has also brought in the text magnifier and also a small pop-up on top with a zoomed in view that shows exactly where your selection begins and ends Simplicity Volume Controls The volume buttons will now default to adjusting the media volume settings without changing notification sounds. Screen Rotation confirmation New rotation toggle is available on the device only on rotation, to manually enable the landscape mode and vice versa Notifications New Manage Notification button available below the notification share. Multiple Replies right from the notification share is also possible now. The heads of the notifications are more colorful than before and has rounded corners

11 Focus Areas Features Description Quick settings The icons in Quick settings are round and highlighted with blue on enabling Better screenshots Users can edit on screenshots immediately when captured Simplicity Crash dialogues The apps when not responding no longer displays the dialogue box, instead the app will crash without any kind of notification The events saved in calendar are Calendar events on lock screen now visible in the lock screen Status bar optimization New update shows only 4 notification icons in the status bar beyond which only dots are displayed optimizing the space

12 Focus Areas Features Description Mobile Usage Dashboard Presents status of how much time is being spent on device, detailed breakdown of time spent within any app Digital Wellbeing App Timer Sets time limits on apps and nudges you when you are close to limit. App remains greyed out rest of the day to remind goal Shush Automatically enters 'Do Not Disturb' when phone is placed facedown. Only notifications from Starred contacts are received Wind down Tell Google at what time you want to go to bed and it fades the screen at that time and activates Do not Disturb

13 Devices to receive Android P update Sl No Device Manufacturer Display Size 1 Essential Phone Essential Products 5.71" 2 Google Pixel 2 5" 3 Google Pixel 2 XL 6" Google 4 Google Pixel 5" 5 Google Pixel XL 5.5" 6 Nokia 7+ Nokia 6" 7 OnePlus 6 OnePlus 6.28" 8 Oppo R15 Pro Oppo 6.28" 9 Sony Xperia XZ2 Sony 5.7" 10 Vivo X21 UD 6.28" Vivo 11 Vivo X " 12 Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S Xiaomi 5.99"

14 To ensure that your apps are compatible with Android P, Cognizant fastest has launched an exclusive service line in its platform with a 72-hour turnaround time for app validation. Visit to know more.

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