In an unexpected announcement, Google officially releases Android 9 to Pixel devices. In a blog post from Google, they stated that Android 9 is officially rolling out to all Pixel devices starting on August 6th. With that announcement, they also released the name for the new version of Android. The previous operating system versions have been named after desserts and Google maintains that trend by calling this iteration Android 9 Pie. The focus for Android Pie is AI-powered productivity tools, continued security enhancements, new digital wellbeing app with certain wellbeing features baked into the system, and a ton of backdoor improvements.
One big feature in Android 9 Pie is AI implementation. One example is App Actions, powered by AI, it will try to improve workflow by making suggestions based on what you were doing. You will see these features in the Launcher, Smart Text Selection, the Google Search App, the Play Store, and in Google Assistant. This will take some time as the phone learns how you use the device and the end goal is for your phone to better adapt to your needs. Another AI-based feature is called Slices. This will allow you to access certain information for apps on the Google Search Bar. Google gave us an example of being able to check prices and an ETA on the Lyft app. This will improve quality of life for folk who frequently use the search feature. The biggest addition to these smart features is Adaptive Brightness and Adaptive Battery. These two AI-powered features learn how you set your brightness and learns which apps you use the most, prioritizing battery for those apps.
A hugely overlooked feature is the gesture-based navigation. You are given one home button on the screen and you swipe left, right and up to navigate. This is an optional feature and you can switch to the original layout at any time. For Pixel users, Smart Text Selection will now work in the Overview of recent apps. With the redesigned navigation, also comes with UI changes, these changes include Quick Settings and simplified volume controls.
Plenty of security improvements were also implemented. This includes improvements to the biometrics model, enabling hardware security capabilities to keep sensitive information safe, turning on TLS by default, and DNS over TLS to keep your web browsing experience private. With its monthly security patches, these added features will make Android much safer and private for users. There is also a handful of security improvements and features for enterprise devices.
Coming in an over-the-air update, Pixel users will be the very first receive the update. Users in the Android Pie Beta program and on Android One will see the update later this fall.
UPDATE: Essential’s PH-1 received the update within hours of the Pixel update. Making Essential the first company to successfully update to a new OS with Project Treble. Although it is missing plenty of Pixel specific features, it is currently working well with no known bugs. This is a turning point for Android to try and seal the fragmentation gap that the operating system is currently facing.
