What’s New In Android 10
Android 10 is rolling out to Google's Pixel phones right now, with more devices to gain the latest version of Android in the near future. Google recently announced Android 10 as the official name, replacing Android Q and the dessert naming scheme Google has always used. Operating system updates like Android 10 add new features and capabilities and can be refreshing if you're growing tired of your phone. Google released the first beta of Android Q in March, and we've been testing it all along.
More Dark Mode
With the rollout of Android 9 Pie, we got a system-wide “dark mode,” but it applied only to certain elements of the user interface, like a Settings panel and some other menus. With Android 10, dark mode will apply to both the system UI and specific apps (provided you opt in). And if you activate the battery-saving setting on a Pixel running Android 10, dark mode will be enabled by default.
Accessibility Features
Both Apple and Google have been building more accessibility features directly into their mobile operating systems, an extremely positive thing. With Android 10, Google is rolling out something called Live Captioning. This is different from Live Transcribe, another accessibility feature that Google rolled out on Pixel phones earlier this year, which transcribes the audio as it’s being shared in your immediate environment. Live Captioning, the new feature, applies the text to prerecorded videos, such as one your friend just messaged you.
Privacy and Security
As my WIRED colleague Lily Hay Newman writes, Android 10 is packed with new privacy and security features—no small feat considering that the OS has something like 2.5 billion users around the world. Two of the most user-friendly updates include changes to the way location data is handled in apps and a new approach to making security fixes available.
Digital Well-Being Expand
Google claims that Android users who have started setting usage timers on apps, a feature that was ushered in with Android 9 Pie, stick to their goals 90 percent of the time. Those people seem to have more digital fortitude than I do. That said, Google’s Digital Wellbeing initiative will expand in Android 10. Now, thanks to Family Link, parents can monitor their kids’ activities from within the Digital Wellbeing app rather than having to install or open a separate app.
New Gesture Navigation
Last year’s release of Android 9 included the most significant changes to the Android navigation bar since Android 4.0. This year Google is going all-in on gesture navigation, as more and more smartphones ship with “edge-to-edge” displays and lose their chins at the bottom. Basically, Google wants to standardize gesture navigation across Android phones. And this is somewhat controversial.More Dark Mode
With the rollout of Android 9 Pie, we got a system-wide “dark mode,” but it applied only to certain elements of the user interface, like a Settings panel and some other menus. With Android 10, dark mode will apply to both the system UI and specific apps (provided you opt in). And if you activate the battery-saving setting on a Pixel running Android 10, dark mode will be enabled by default.
Accessibility Features
Both Apple and Google have been building more accessibility features directly into their mobile operating systems, an extremely positive thing. With Android 10, Google is rolling out something called Live Captioning. This is different from Live Transcribe, another accessibility feature that Google rolled out on Pixel phones earlier this year, which transcribes the audio as it’s being shared in your immediate environment. Live Captioning, the new feature, applies the text to prerecorded videos, such as one your friend just messaged you.
Privacy and Security
As my WIRED colleague Lily Hay Newman writes, Android 10 is packed with new privacy and security features—no small feat considering that the OS has something like 2.5 billion users around the world. Two of the most user-friendly updates include changes to the way location data is handled in apps and a new approach to making security fixes available.
Digital Well-Being Expand
Google claims that Android users who have started setting usage timers on apps, a feature that was ushered in with Android 9 Pie, stick to their goals 90 percent of the time. Those people seem to have more digital fortitude than I do. That said, Google’s Digital Wellbeing initiative will expand in Android 10. Now, thanks to Family Link, parents can monitor their kids’ activities from within the Digital Wellbeing app rather than having to install or open a separate app.
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