After six months of betas, the day has come: Android 10 is now official. Google has just presented to the world the tenth major update of the most used operating system on the planet, which today begins to reach Pixel devices, and over the months it will carry out its expansion along the rest of the terminals of manufacturers.
Android 10 brings with it several improvements and novelties, ranging from the expected dark theme for the system interface to a new gesture navigation system, including the inclusion of an integrated screen recording tool and endless new focused functions in privacy
Special mention deserves the name of Android 10. Although Google itself had said that naming the new version was being more difficult than expected, the company finally decided to say goodbye forever to the names of sweets, and in turn, give a twist to the design of the “brand” Android for Making it more universal.
All the news of Android 10
Dark theme
When a good number of Android smartphone manufacturers had already implemented this function in their software, Google finally decided to go to the dark side and introduce Android 10 to activate a dark theme that affects the entire system interface, so as to the large G applications that offer this feature, as well as third-party apps that support it. To do this, Google offers a guide for developers to implement the dark theme in their apps.
In recent years we have seen how gesture navigation has become the standard among the different smartphones on the market, replacing classic navigation through buttons. Google even introduced a preliminary solution based on gestures in Android Pie, whose operation left much to be desired compared to other alternatives. This led Android smartphone manufacturers to create their own gestures, creating unnecessary fragmentation and forcing users to familiarize themselves with each company’s systems.
Android 10 arrives to solve this problem, through a completely renewed gesture system, much more intuitive than in the last version, and which, as the company itself has explained, will be the default mode in the terminals that reach the market with Android 10 higher versions.
Support for “Foldables”
Although it may not seem like it, the future of smartphones is foldable. And Google wants to be prepared for it. Therefore, the new edition of the operating system introduces changes aimed at improving the experience when using applications on this type of devices with a flexible screen, such as the onResume and onPause functions that allow us to continue using an application exactly where we leave it when deploying or fold the terminal screen.
More control over location permission and other privacy improvements
Like the previous versions, Android 10 comes with important changes in terms of privacy and security for the user. First, a warning will now appear allowing us to choose when and how apps can access the location permit. It will now be possible to decide if apps can get this privilege at any time, only when they are being used, or never.
In that sense, other measures are introduced such as Scoped Storage, which protects the files stored in the internal memory of the phone, giving users the possibility to choose which apps have access to the photo, video and audio libraries through new permissions. Runtime type, instead of giving apps full access to storage as was the case until now.
On the other hand, background applications will no longer be able to execute new activities, and access to sensitive information about the device such as the IMEI or the serial number has been limited.
The vice president of Android engineering, Dave Burke, had admitted in his day that the menu intended to share native Android content was a disaster, and that it was working on a complete redesign. Android 10 is the version that brings this expected renewal, which makes the menu much faster – according to Google, almost instantaneously.
In addition, the so-called Sharing Shorcuts are introduced, shortcuts that will allow us to quickly access another application from the menu to share content quickly.
Project Mainline
Project Treble was just the beginning. This structural change introduced in the operating system from Android 8 was a great advance against the fragmentation of the platform, whose first fruits we saw after the arrival of Android 9. Now, with Android 10 Project Mainline is introduced, a system of what we talked in depth at the time, and whose main objective is to make it easier for manufacturers to bring new versions of the system to their devices.
For this, among other measures, the possibility of updating essential system components through the Google Play Store is enabled, instead of having to send complete updates.
Android 10 also focuses on accessibility and introduces improvements as important in this regard as Live Caption. It is a function based on artificial intelligence capable of generating subtitles for any type of video that is played on the device, regardless of the app through which it is made, and even without an Internet connection.
Quick tips on notifications
The notifications continue to improve with the arrival of each new version of the system, and Android 10 introduces suggestions with quick responses in the notifications of all messaging apps. In this way, it will not be necessary to wait for developers to implement this function in their apps.
Support for facial authentication
Now that we know that Google Pixel 4 will have an advanced facial recognition system, it was expected that Android 10 introduced native support for this type of biometric methods. And so it has been. As of the new version, the facial authentication system will be integrated into the system and developers can offer users the possibility of using their face to authenticate in apps and services.
Compatible phones and how to install Android 10
Android 10 begins its deployment today through OTA between Pixel devices. Each and every one of the terminals of the family made by Google is compatible with this update, from the original Pixel of 2016 to the Pixel 3a launched in May of this year. Therefore, the list of compatible terminals with Android 10 from day one is as follows:
- Google Pixel
- Google Pixel XL
- Google Pixel 2
- Google Pixel 2 XL
- Google Pixel 3
- Google Pixel 3 XL
- Google Pixel 3a
- Google Pixel 3rd XL
However, other manufacturers have collaborated with Google throughout the Android 10 beta program in order to bring the update as soon as possible to some of their phones. Therefore, it is confirmed that these devices will receive the update sooner or later:
- Asus Zenfone 5z
- Essential PH-1
- Nokia 8.1
- Huawei Mate 20 Pro
- LG G8
- OnePlus 7 Pro
- OnePlus 6T
- OnePlus 6
- Oppo Reno
- Realme 3 Pro
- Sony Xperia XZ3
- Tecno Spark 3 Pro
- I live X27
- I live NEX S
- I live NEX A
- Xiaomi Mi 9
- Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 5G
So far, only Essential has a history of having updated one of its phones on the same day as the Pixels, although it is unknown for now if it will follow the same strategy this time. We will update this article as soon as we know what’s new, but in the meantime, we recommend you take a look at our complete and updated list of mobiles that will officially receive Android 10.