Google releases Android 8.0 Oreo with new developer tweaks

Google has released Android 8.0 Oreo as the next iteration of its open source mobile platform. The latest update brings a list of tweaks for developers to let them build an enhanced user experience.

“In Android 8.0 Oreo, we focused on creating fluid experiences that make Android even more powerful and easy to use,” said Android’s VP of Engineering Dave Burke in a blog post.

Android 8.0 is a result of months-long testing by developers and early adopters who installed and tested its preview build on their devices. Also, it is designed to make Android ecosystem more competitive against Apple’s iOS.

New features

Android 8.0 Oreo comes with a Picture-in-Picture mode that enables developers to provide an advanced multitasking experience on their apps. The feature was originally available on Android TV but is now on mobile devices to simultaneously run two apps on the screen.

Google has added a new object to enable the Picture-in-Picture mode. The object, called PictureInPictureParams specifies properties such as the active app’s preferred aspect ratio.

After Picture-in-Picture, Android Oreo features more consistent notifications. There are changes such as notification channels, dots and timeout. You just need to use a specific method to make notifications through your apps better on Android 8.0.

Google has also added features such as downloadable fonts, and adaptive icons to upgrade the interface of existing apps. Likewise, the platform has WebView APIs and support for Java 8 language features. There is also ICU4J Android Framework APIs that reduce the APK footprint of third-party apps by not compiling the ICU4J libraries in the app package.

Update for your device

Android 8.0 Oreo has debuted on Android Open Source Project (AOSP). If you own a Pixel, Nexus 5X/6P, Pixel C or Nexus Player, you can manually update your device to the latest version by downloading and flashing the fresh Android images.