Android 10 : What Features Are Packed In The Latest Android Q

So Android 10 is finally here.
And it seems with the features and functionality that google is offering via Android 10 to mobile devices, it is vary analogous to what Microsoft offered via Windows 10.

Android 10 from google is a fine tuned addition that takes into account what it had good.

Makes it better, introduces something new and also leaves sufficient room for Android 10 to expand into something even more better with the help of future updates.

The functioning full fledged update of Android 10 for now has only rolled out for pixel devices and select other phones.

But that’s enough for us to actually go ahead and see what android q is bringing to the table.

I observed that there are some aspects within Android Q which are still “work in progress” like the live captions feature.

That I guess is the precise reason why Google doesn’t roll out its newest version to all Android devices at once.

Let’s look into what Android 10 is offering in terms of features and functionalities.

Android 10 Features

So as someone who uses an Android device as his primary mobile device.

It becomes important to actually be aware of what are the new features that Android 10 will be putting forth.

So I looked into every new aspect that Android has already implemented or is in the process of implementing.

Which in some way or the other is going to enrich your life and productivity.

First Things First, The Dark Mode

android 10 dark theme
Source : android.com

Well, dark mode isn’t totally new to Android, truth be told.

Although, what is also a fact is that the dark mode that was implemented on previous Android versions were not what a dark mode was supposed to be.

 

android 10 old dark mode
Android 10 is now looking at what it had previously and is refining it.

The dark theme that is now offered by Google in its Android 10 is filling up all the holes that were left in the previous attempts at darkening your phone.

With the new dark theme activated, the background of your notification tray and the settings app are going to go completely dark.

When I say completely dark I mean if you are using an OLED screen, those pixels will go completely off to provide a clean look and save battery.

Although the built in apps such as Google Calendar, Google Chrome, messages, Google Feed and clock will have a greyish background.

It seems they are blending in quite beautifully to the overall dark theme of the Android device, which you can toggle with the quick settings menu.

And as with everything else and with everything that is new there’s always room for improvement.

But I think this time google via Android 10 is doing a great job at introducing the dark features just the way it is supposed to be.

Gesture Navigation In Android 10

The biggest and the most noticeable change as far as UI is concerned is the new gesture based navigation.

I have a slight reluctance in calling this new because this is more or less how you navigate in your apple devices.

The new navigation strategy completely replaces the home and the back button with a single white line which is only visible when you are using an app.

android 10 gesture based navigation

Navigating To Home Screen

To head back to the home screen all you need to do is just swipe up from the bottom.

Swipe in from either the left or the right border of your Android phone to move back.

I suspect that this two-sided back navigation is designed so that it is conveniently accessible for left handed and right handed users.

The sensitivity of these gestures can of course be varied from the settings in the settings app.

 

Switching Between Apps

Accessing recent apps is as easy as one might expect in a gesture based navigation system like this.

All you need is swipe up and hold till you see a slight peak from the left border of your phone indicating what was the most recent app used.

From there on you can just slide various different apps that are running on the background and switch between whatever app it is that you want to use.

It may take a little time for you to get used to this new feature.

But it with some practice you will be able to switch between your recent apps.

It works the same way in home screen or in any any apps that you might be in the middle of using.

Switching between various apps is also quite easy in this gesture based navigation.

You can switch between different applications by swiping horizontally across the bottom.

And it seems the switching is quite smooth and very fast as compared to double tapping the recent apps button in previous versions of Android.

Google Assistant Love Handles

Google has also implemented Google Assistant handles on bottom left and bottom right corner of the screen that you can use to pull up Google assistant.


This replaces the hold and swipe up feature that previous versions of Android used to pull up Google assistant up.

You can swipe up from any corner of the screen to pull up Google Assistant.

And it seems there is no way to disable this feature unless you specifically uninstall or disable Google assistant.

This whole gesture navigation mechanism in Android 10 becomes quite intuitive with little practice and time.

But if for some reason you don’t welcome this change.

You can easily switch from this new gesture based navigation to two button navigation or three button navigation that we have seen in previous versions of Android from the settings option.

Android Live Captions

Another feature that I think is really cool in Android 10 is the feature of live captioning.

Subtitles will be automatically generated for any audio or video that is playing on your phone locally with no cloud connection required whatsoever.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Whether you are listening to a podcast or tuning into your favorite movie your device will be able to produce captions in real time locally.

Without the need for any online server.

Unfortunately, the feature is not available at launch although the feature is one of the most prominent features that are being displayed over on to Android 10 official website.


What is even more interesting is right now the Android caption menu is appearing in the recommended searches of the settings section but it is disabled and clicking it does nothing.

As I said, google left sufficient space to expand and test before it rolling the feature out completely.

Android 10 Cares

 

Another feature that latched my interest was the updated Digital Well being in Android 10.

You fix a certain amount of time that you want to spend on any particular app.

After which you will be able to see how much time you have remaining on the app in the app switcher mode.

Family Link

There is also a family link control that allows you to set screen time limits.

Manage what content your family members will be able to see.

And also map the location of your family members.

Focus Mode

The new focus mode allows you to pause apps that you think are distracting with the help of a single click.

After you have paused the distracting apps, what is going to happen is you won’t be seeing any notifications from those apps.

In addition to that the app will be greyed out over on to the home screen plus you will be given a message to restrict you from entering for opening that app.

Accessibility Options In Android 10

Android 10 also brings some cool accessibility options.

The new sound amplifier amplifies the sound of the real world that you can listen to on your headphones.

With Sound Amplifier, you have virtually more control over how you control audio reception from your device.

You can can boost sound, filter background noise, and refine your audio to how you hear best.

But the thing that you need to note here is that this accessibility feature doesn’t happen with a separate app but with an inbuilt feature in the Android 10.

There is also a live transcribe app to transform your speech to text in real life.

To put it even more precisely for what it is, it’s a real life subtitles feature that you can use for yourself.

And what is also really cool is that is certain Bluetooth enabled hearing AIDS can also be coupled with Android 10 to listen to audio.

This allows them to be used as two in one device that can be used as a Hearing Aid and also to listen to any audio.

Last But Not The Least Privacy Update

That’s a big one in 2019.

Especially when it comes to having Google services in perspective.

Android 10 will now feature a dedicated section in the settings menu for privacy controls.

The big thing in here is the expanded App permission options in the location menu.

So what happens in here is you can now choose whether you can allow a certain app to have an access to your location some of the time, all the time or not at all if you wish.

There is also certain amount of control that you will be able to you have over your app web activity and ad personalization.

So it seems Google has paid extra attention to privacy in Android 10.

Honorable mentions

  • You will be able to share your password not just with the help of an QR code but also by displaying them to others. That’s one thing that I’ll be using a lot.
  • Smart notification access will now feature contextual actions. What this means is if someone sends an address in a text, android will now have an action that may include the map location that the recipient can then access reach that address. Pretty smart.
  • Long pressing any notification will help you choose whether you want notifications from that particular app or to be completely silent.
  • Video and media applications will now have a timeline that you can scrub through to faster or hasten your media consumption process.

Bluetooth & Battery Updates

If you use multiple Bluetooth devices, this is going to be big one for you.

You will now able to switch between different Bluetooth audio devices with the help of single click on volume pop up screen.

So let’s say you are driving in a car with your ear buds on.

With a single click you will be able to switch from your car’s Bluetooth speakers to your ear buds.

The battery will now indicate the time left till your battery gets completely empty when you pull down at the notification tray.

You will be able to modify the system accent color in the developer options which is very cool if you use it with in conjunction with the dark theme.

Removed Features From Android 10

So all of these new features and functionalities are cool and everything.

But what is also important here to note is that, every new edition of Android that we get has some of its features completely removed from the new version.

So has been the case with the voice recorder application that was initially present in the beta version of Android q.

But it seems it is removed from the updated version of Android 10 that is rolling out for pixel devices.

It was also pointed out in the leaks that there is going to be a desktop mode.

And you can actually access it in the developer options.

But it is very clear that right now the desktop mode is not in its fully functional version and calling it a brand new feature in Android Q would be unjustified.

Android 10 Future Updates & Project Mainline

Just the mere presence of fragments of these applications and functionalities indicate that Google is at work in making these features come to its full fledged form.

Like I said, Google has left enough room in Android 10 to enable its expansion via further updates.

And it is very possible that we will see all of these features that we just talked about in future updates.

And talking about future updates what is also worth mentioning here is project mainline.

Project Mainline is basically a framework to roll out smaller, shorter, modular and security related updates quickly to Android devices.

This is very beneficial as users now won’t have to wait for OEMs to “modify and tweak” them for better performance and roll them out as they deem fit.

So that was my outlook on the new features that Google is offering via Android 10 that I felt is going to enhance your life and productivity in some way.

Feel free to comment in the comments section below as to what feature you are looking forward to having in your Android 10 device.

I will see you in the next one.

Namaskaram 🙂

Electronics Engineer | Former Deputy Manager | Self-Taught Digital Marketer.Owner & Admin Of A Network Of Blogs and Global E-Commerce Stores

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