GOOGLE MAPS AR
If you own a Pixel phone, you can now enjoy AR-powered
walking directions on Google Maps, which will allow you
to view an augmented reality version of the product via
your phone’s camera. It’ll be especially handy for those
times when you need to know which direction to walk.
Simply follow the direction icons on your phone. There’s
no word on when this will arrive on more devices.
DARK MODE ON ANDROID Q
This notable feature coming to Android Q will swap out
bright interface colors for blacks and grays, cutting down
on blue light streaming into your eyeballs and saving a
little battery life.
LIVE CAPTION ON ANDROID Q
In Android Q, Live Caption automatically captions media that’s playing audio
on your phone, in videos, podcasts, and audio messages in any app, even your
own recordings. “As soon as speech is detected, captions will appear, without
ever needing Wi-Fi or cell phone data, and without any audio or captions
leaving your phone,” Google says.
OS UPDATES IN THE BACKGROUND
Fragmentation has plagued Android since its inception. Although Google itself
may be quick to push out a patch, it can take weeks or months for handset
makers and carriers to follow suit. In some cases, older devices are never
updated. Android Q will address this by updating important OS components “in
the background, similar to the way we update apps,” Google says. “This means
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improvements as soon as they’re available, without having to reboot your
phone.”
Of course, you’ll need an Android
Q device; at this point, only 10.4
percent of all Android devices are
running 9.0 Pie.