Android 10 Q beta 3 is available today on more devices than any previous Android beta has been available on before.
Google is announced new major features for the tenth version of Android yesterday at Google I/O.
Beta 3 features
Android Q betas have already brought over 50 features and improvements around user privacy and security, Google said today. For Beta 3, Google emphasized that Android Q is focused on innovation, security and privacy, and digital well-being.
Oh, and the company mentioned that Android Q is “the first operating system to support 5G.” Qualcomm and Google worked on 5G support together for Android Q. Speaking of future technologies, Android Q Beta 3 continues to improve support for foldables:
Android Q gives users greater control over when apps can get location. Apps still ask the user for permission, but now, you’ve got greater choice over when to allow access to your location.
On a somewhat related note, Android Q restricts app launches from the background, preventing them from unexpectedly jumping into the foreground and taking over focus.
To prevent tracking, Android Q limits access to non-resettable device identifiers, including device IMEI, serial number, and similar identifiers. And it randomizes MAC address when devices are connected to different Wi-Fi networks and gates connectivity APIs behind the location permission.
Google has extended its BiometricPrompt authentication framework to support system-level biometrics, and it’s extended support for passive authentication methods such as face. Also new in Android Q is support for TLS 1.3, which enables TLS 1.3 by default for all TLS connections made through Android’s TLS stack Conscrypt regardless of target API level.
Alongside Q, Google is rolling out Project Mainline, which it describes as “a new approach” to keeping Android devices up-to-date with code changes delivered via Google Play. Google says it’ll enable it to update specific OS components without requiring a full system update.
Project Mainline modules download from Google Play in the background and load the next time the phone starts up. The source code lives in the Android Open Source Project, Google says, and updates will be fully open-sourced as they are released.
All devices running Android Q or later will be able to get Project Mainline.
Starting in Beta 3, Google’s enabling system-provided smart replies and actions — both system-generated and developer-supplied — that are inserted directly into notifications by default.
Android Q suggestions are powered by an on-device AI service — the same that backs Google’s text classifier entity recognition service. Processing happens on-device, and because suggested actions are based on the TextClassifier service, they can take advantage of new capabilities we’ve added in Android Q, such as language detection, and can be used to generate system-provided notifications.
Starting in Android Q Beta 3, there’s a system-wide dark theme that can be activated by going to Settings > Display, using the new Quick Settings tile, or turning on Battery Saver. It changes the system UI to dark and enables the dark theme of apps that support it. Apps can build their own dark themes, or they can opt-in to a new Force Dark feature that lets the OS create a dark version of their existing theme.
Android Q introduces a new gestural navigation mode that hides the navigation bar area and allows apps and games to use the full screen to deliver their content. It retains the familiar Back, Home, and recents navigation through edge swipes rather than visible buttons.
Users can switch to gestures in Settings > System > Gestures. There are currently two gestures: Swiping up from the bottom of the screen takes the user to the Home screen, holding brings up Recents. Swiping from the screen’s left or right edge triggers the Back action.
Live Caption, which automatically captions media that’s playing audio on your phone. And Smart Reply is now built into Android Q’s notification system, and predicts your next action (such as when someone sends you an address, you can open it in Google Maps).
