Google has been actively changing the horizons of OS since the inception of Android and now with the latest release Android 10, which will be known as Android Q, Google has again changed the metrics of AndroidOS and made it a touch higher than before. Though Google is famous for using dessert names for Android versions and everyone was guessing a new dessert name after Google AndroidPIE 9.0, but then Google announced that they are resuming the number system again. Well, Google may resort to numbering OS, but they always have more on the table with their updated versions. So, let us see for ourselves, what Android 10 is ready to offer!
The Innovative Feature:
1. Foldable Android
Android 10 gives stable and robust multi-window support. With the scope of mobile screens constantly changing and foldable screens entering the mobile hardware market, Android 10 provides a robust state of the apps across windows and foldable screens. It has improved onResume and onPause support for developers on multi-window support. It also changes the way resizeableActivity manifest attributes, You can create a foldable emulator as a virtual device on Android Studio.
2. Connectivity:
With the emergence of 5G network connectivity, Android 10 provides support platforms for faster and pacing 5G networks on existing APIs and use connectivity APIs to detect if the device has a high bandwidth connection to check whether the connection is metered.
3. Themes & Notifications:
You can now have smart replies provided along with the notification by the system or input your replies by opting out of smart replies .Android 10 has come with dark mode and this is really exciting as we already saw iOS 13 tappings into dark mode. It provides enhanced UI with a dark theme for low light usage and battery saving options. You may design custom dark themes based on the dark mode of Android 10 for your users by using AppCombat’s DayandNight feature.
4. Navigation:
Android 10 has curtailed the navigation bar by introducing fully gestural navigation across all the screens, with full-screen mode offered by apps for richer experience. It has also ended the back and home buttons with edge swiping gestures and made a seamless and immersive UI experience come alive. Android developers can implement gestural navigation by using the set SystemUiVisibility() API to be laid out fullscreen and then handle WindowInsets(https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/WindowInsets) as appropriate to ensure that important pieces of UI are not obscured.
5. Push Notifications & Shortcuts:
Android 10 uses setting panels to show system push notifications for important information relating to connectivity, security, updates, etc. Now key system settings can be directly shown by using SettingPanel API in the context of important system information.
Shared Shortcuts can be provided by developers through the publishing of shared targets that launch a specific activity in their apps with content attached, and these are shown to users in the share UI. Share UI is launched instantly due to publishing the same in advance. Sharing shortcuts uses ShortcutInfo just like app shortcuts.
The Security Feature:
1. Encryption:
Google had standard encryption that required devices to have cryptographic acceleration hardware, which was not possible for all the devices and some devices were unable to resort to these requirements. To solve this problem Google introduced Adiantum in February 2019. Adiantum can run efficiently without specialized hardware even on connected medical devices and smartwatches.
Google has also enabled TLS 1.3 support by default in Android 10. TLS 1.3 removes support for weaker cryptographic algorithms, as well as some insecure or obsolete features. It uses a newly-designed handshake. It encrypts more of the handshake to better protect the identities of the participating parties.
2. Platform Security:
Google has provided a sandbox for each software codex. It has increased the production of sanitary units that are used to mitigate the entire class of components that process untrusted content. It also provides Shadow Call Stack, which provides backward-edge Control Flow Integrity (CFI) and complements the forward-edge protection provided by LLVM’s CFI. It protects Address Space Layout Randomization(ASLR) by using Execute only memory (XOM) to prevent leaks. It introduced Scudo hardened allocator which makes several heap related vulnerabilities more difficult to exploit.
3. Authentication:
Android 10 has introduced BiometricManager BiometricManager
class for better support to its BiometricPrompt feature of Android Pie that enabled security features of the face, iris or fingerprint scans. Developers can call canAuthenticate () to check whether the respective device supports the biometric authentication and whether the user has been enrolled or not.
Other Features:
1. Native MIDI API:
Android 10 introduces MIDI API to communicate with MIDI devices through NDK. It allows MIDI data to be retrieved inside an audio callback using a non-blocking read, enabling low latency processing of MIDI messages.
2. Vulkan Expansion:
Android 10 expands Vulkan support with the implementation of low-overhead, cross-platform API for enhanced 3D Graphics. Android 10 has enforced Vulkan 1.1 by default for all 64-bit devices and a recommendation for 32-bit devices.
3. ART optimization:
Android 10 has improved ART runtime for lower memory footprint, faster loading, and low latency. ART profiles delivered by Google Play let ART pre-compile parts of your app even before it’s run.
4. Machine Learning:
Android 10 has introduced neural networks API 1.2. Google added 60 new ops including ARGMAX, ARGMIN, quantized LSTM, alongside a range of performance optimizations. This lays the foundation for accelerating a much greater range of models — such as those for object detection and image segmentation.
Concluding Lines:
With Android 10 Google is set to achieve a higher user base as the smartphones are getting bolder and meaner and with features as such where Google will be seamless on any type of screen or device, one can expect Google to be popular. As the further versions will make these features more interesting and robust, we are all set for a future in OS that is evolving and exciting for all the next generation of devices and networks.
