What You Need to Know About the Oreo Update

Every year, Google updates its Android operating system. This year, to go along with its dessert-themed names, the company is releasing Android Oreo, also known as Android 8.0. While you won’t find a lot of new visual updates with this new system, you will enjoy plenty of new experiences. Discover more of what you can expect with the Android Oreo update.

Autofill Convenience

You likely use autofill every day on the Chrome browser on your laptop or computer, and now that same convenience is coming to your smartphone. With your permission, your Android can take the information you save in Chrome to automatically fill in fields on your phone. For instance, if you told Google Chrome to remember your username and password for your favorite online retail store, you can now use it to log in from your phone. This means you can access your favorite apps and websites even faster.

Smart Text Selection

Another way that Android Oreo is making it even easier to use your smartphone is with smart text selection. This new feature recognizes text and words that belong together when you select them, and it can logically choose the app you want to use after you tap the words.

For example, if an email you’re reading has the name of a business that has more than one word, you can double tap any of the words, and your phone will automatically select the entire name for you. It can also detect a complete address and offer you the option of opening your maps app when you select it.

Picture-in-Picture

The picture-in-picture feature lets you do two things at once on your phone. Therefore, while you’re video chatting in one app, you can also watch a video, check your email, open your calendar, or look up something online in another. Plus, launching this new feature is very simple. While one app is open, press the home button to make it become a small window that you can move around on the screen so it doesn’t interfere with what else you’re doing. When you’re done, you simply swipe it away.

Google Play Protect

Android Oreo also keeps your smartphone more secure, and you can even see it working on your phone. When you have the apps and games screen open, you’ll see a small card that lets you know the system is scanning all of your apps to make sure they don’t have anything harmful. Google says it scans over 50 billion apps every day, which means it’s scanning many apps before you even install them. This can give you peace of mind that these apps are safe from viruses.

Background Limits

Behind the scenes, Android Oreo is now minimizing the background activity of the apps you use the least. Not only will this help improve the battery life of your phone, but it can also enhance its performance. Therefore, if you’re using the new system on your Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus on T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network, you’ll enjoy a more fluid and interactive experience on a network that beat out Verizon and AT&T to become the fastest. You can also get started on whatever task you’re doing more quickly, since Android Oreo offers two times the boot speed when you power up your phone.

Notification Dots

Notification dots are an easy way for app developers to let you know there’s new activity in the app. They show up as a little dot on the app icon anytime it has a notification. There are several ways you can interact with the notification dots.

You can press and hold it to get a pop-up that tells you what’s new with the app or swipe it to clear the notification. For less urgent notifications, you can even snooze or reschedule them. Simply open the notification, select the clock icon, and then decide whether you want it to show up again in 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour.

With this helpful information, you now know what to expect from the Oreo update as Google starts rolling it out for all of its Android phones.