Android updates aren’t as thrilling as earlier than, as they hardly ever convey main user-facing modifications.
However constructing on Android 16 QPR1’s Materials 3 Expressive refresh, Google plans to introduce a bunch of latest options in Android 17 that can handle some longstanding, annoying points with the platform.
Google and Samsung are lastly fixing Android’s most irritating characteristic
I am excited to share recordsdata once more
Digicam apps will lastly get the standard they deserve
Third-party apps can faucet into superior digicam options
For all of the cutting-edge digicam {hardware} that Android telephones pack, you possibly can solely get the very best quality photos by way of the inventory digicam app.
Greater than third-party digicam apps, this creates an issue when utilizing social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat. Hundreds of thousands of individuals use the built-in digicam in these apps to take photos for posting on their profiles.
Sadly, these photos hardly ever match the standard of pictures captured by way of the primary digicam app. In addition to restricted API entry, that is additionally attributable to OEM-specific digicam optimizations not being obtainable to third-party apps.
Android 17 will handle this downside by including help for vendor-defined digicam extensions.
This may permit the likes of Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, and others to supply extensions — consider them like plugins — that third-party digicam apps faucet into.
For instance, Samsung can provide a 200MP or Tremendous Night time mode as extensions, enabling different apps to entry the identical superior options.
So much will rely upon the machine makers and whether or not they need to expose a key characteristic of their inventory digicam app to different apps.
But when they do, Android 17 might lastly repair one of many largest digicam limitations on Android, which makes the iPhone’s digicam look superior regardless of dated {hardware}.
Moreover, Android 17 will add help for the RAW14 picture format — a 14-bit-per-pixel uncooked picture format. It is supported by most high-end skilled cameras, as the extra information reduces colour banding and supplies further flexibility in post-processing.
Bubbles will make multitasking really feel easy
Floating bubbles will hold apps inside simple attain
One of many largest user-facing modifications in Android 17 for energy customers is the addition of Bubbles.
When you’ve used Paranoid Android customized ROM again within the day, this may really feel acquainted. Google is introducing an analogous multitasking idea to the Google Pixel with Android 17.
You may run any app in a window mode and reduce it right into a floating bubble. This makes managing a number of apps simpler and can scale back fixed back-and-forth switching.
On my Pixel 8 Professional, I’ve already began utilizing Bubbles with Chrome, WhatsApp, and X, and it has modified how I multitask.
I hold a chat or internet web page inside attain whereas scrolling by way of X. This fashion, I can rapidly bounce in to answer an ongoing dialog or reference one thing after which share it within the chat.
If you’re operating Android 17 beta in your Pixel, you possibly can put an app in floating bubble mode by long-pressing on its icon and tapping the third icon on the prime of the pop-up menu.
The Bubbles multitasking characteristic is already obtainable in a number of third-party Android skins, together with Samsung, Vivo, OnePlus, and Oppo. So, solely Pixel customers stand to profit probably the most from this addition.
With the discharge of Android 17 Beta 3, the OS has reached platform stability. Meaning the above options are largely locked in for the ultimate public launch, with Google now specializing in squashing main bugs and including the ultimate touches.
Assistant quantity lastly will get its personal management
No extra clashes between voice responses and media
AI assistants are extra conversational in nature than their predecessors.
By default, their output quantity is linked to your cellphone’s media quantity. This will get annoying, as the amount degree that works for music or movies can really feel too loud or comfortable for the assistant’s reply.
In Android 17, Google is constructing on Android’s already glorious quantity management choices and including a separate quantity slider for assistants. This implies you possibly can modify how loud (or softly) Gemini will converse with out affecting media playback.
For instance, after I’m listening to music on my headphones at full quantity and set off Gemini, I do not need its responses to blast on the similar degree.
With a separate quantity management, I can be sure that the assistant speaks at a cushty degree.
Since this can be a system-level characteristic, it’s going to work with any default assistant in your Android cellphone.
Choose precisely what apps can entry
Google launched a extra privacy-friendly picture picker in Android 13. It even backported the picker to older Android 4.4+ units by way of a Google Play system replace.
In Android 17, the corporate will introduce an analogous privacy-focused contact picker. It can present apps with a short lived “session-based learn entry to solely the precise information fields requested by the consumer.”
Basically, just like the picture picker, you possibly can select particular contacts to share with an app as a substitute of granting entry to your complete cellphone ebook.
Even higher, the OS routinely revokes that entry after the motion is full.
Equally, apps can request solely the precise particulars they want, akin to a cellphone quantity or e mail handle, as a substitute of accessing all the contact information.
The form of replace you may really discover
Not like Android 16, Android 17 won’t be a flashy improve. However the enhancements it packs will enhance how you utilize your Android cellphone and make you extra productive on the go.
That is due to a better multitasking system and underlying system modifications. It can additionally handle some longstanding privateness and performance points, bringing the platform on par with iOS.
These enhancements are approaching prime of different notable new options in Android 17 that I can not wait to make use of.