Chinese player Xiaomi introduced the Mi A1 smartphone as it’s first smartphone to come with stock Android. It was indeed the first smartphone from Xiaomi to come in Android One platform where hardware is managed by OEMs and Google takes care of the software.
Now the Xiaomi Mi A1 is getting the much awaited update. The new update about which we are talking, being Android Oreo to the Mi A1. It comes with many features and changes. We’ll cover the official changes in below paragraph.
Changelog:
App Drawer Improvements:-
Now you can swipe up to open up the app drawer from anywhere on the screen, you are no longer required to initiate the swipe from the dock at the bottom of the screen.
Light UI: Notification Shade & Quick Toggles :-
The dark notification shade and quick toggles are now gone, Android Oreo introduces a Light UI for notification shade and quick toggles.
Notification Dots:-
If an app has anything new to show you, a long tap on the app icon on the home screen will bring up a menu, with last recent notification, important shortcuts along with app’s widgets and ‘app info’ on top. Enable it from settings – apps & notifications – notifications – allow notifications dots and then, enable for each apps’ notification settings in app info.
Notification Channels:-
Using Notification Channels feature apps can now create different categories for notifications. Do note that apps need to enable this first. A long tap on the actual notification on notification drawer will bring up a special menu, by using which you’ll be able to control the priority and visibility of each type of notification posted by that app.
Picture-in-Picture Mode:-
Taking a step further from Android N’s split screen feature, Oreo introduces Picture-in-Picture mode. Where once apps enable this, they can display the content over a floating window while performing other tasks, a useful addition to watching videos or for video calls. Currently, VLC and YouTube (needs YouTube Red) have this feature live.
Autofill Framework:-
Remember how Chrome pushes the stored information like credit card no, addresses, credentials etc. and fill up the relative information fields? Oreo introduces one such feature extending the same capability with Autofill Framework, allowing apps to create and maintain their own list of auto-fill data and then populate it when required.
Snooze Individual Notifications:-
Sooner or later, an inappropriate notification will ding when you don’t have time to deal with it. Oreo has a special feature to deal with it, Swipe right (not too much though) on the notification and then tap the icon (clock one) to snooze it. By default it will be snoozed for 1 hour, click on ‘time’ to change it.
Night Light:-
Android Oreo introduces ‘Night Light’ mode which you can now activate it automatically based on customizable time and also change the intensity of it.
Adaptive Music App Notifications:-
Let your music choices be eclectic, as Oreo will find a perfect way to reflect it best on notification and making it breathtakingly beautiful on the lock screen. For all the media controls on notification, rather than selecting a single color for the notification based on app color, media playback notifications can now instead draw colors using the album artwork. Android then uses those colors to make a notification that blends across the artwork.
Smart Text Selection:-
The text selection menu now comes with intelligence inbuilt, based on the content of the selected text it now offers to open the chrome, dial a phone number or find directions using maps, indeed an intelligent inclusion, right?
Overlay Sticky Notifications:-
In the direction of increased security, if an app runs on overlay now Android will issue a sticky notification to alert you. For an app that uses overlay, a permission is required and notification won’t go away until the overlay is there.
More Granular Storage Control:-
Sooner or later everyone faces a situation where phone’s storage starts to fill up. Android Oreo introduces a storage breakdown from a bare basic to pretty advanced. It now features specific categories like “Games” and “Movie & TV Apps.” Each category will show you all the related apps making it easy to clear away cache and junk files.
Redefined Settings Structure:-
The good old settings categorization has been changed, a lot. While some of it you may find getting a higher ticket up in a row, while some you may have to dig a bit deep, until then you get used to at least.
New Emojis:-
Android’s emoji represented by minimalist blob since the KitKat era is now gone. Android O now comes with cute circular emoji set with a gradient which makes more sense and is somewhat distinctive, while surely more recognizable with a wider range of colors.
Instant Apps:-
Instant apps, chopped up pieces which can run instantly without needing an actual installation, has been there for quite a time now, but it will now be enabled by default
Faster Boot Speed & Improved battery life:-
Under the hood, Android O comes with many changes, cutting the boot time very short and at the same time improving the battery life by stopping the apps using more battery while they are in the background
Google Play Protect:-
You might not notice, but Google Play Protect in Oreo scans the apps automatically and rest of the files as an improved security measure.
Individual Unknown App Source Installation Permissions :-
In android before sideloading you need to enable the ‘unknown sources’ in settings, well this has been gone entirely, replaced with a different pop-up everytime that you trust the source (the app requesting to sideload apps) making it easy.
Progressive Package Installer Bar:-
Finally android has changed the indefinite app install bar all for so good when you sideload apps, getting replaced by an actual progress bar, with a cancel button to stop at any time.
New Battery Menu:-
More than just a visual refresh, Oreo introduces a whole new Battery Menu with frequently used battery-related options like battery saver and adaptive brightness on top. The battery usage graph is a bit easier to read with a menu at the bottom of the main menu, telling you specifically how much of your battery was used by which.
All New ‘Files’ App:-
While it might not be feature-rich, File manager did get a makeover in Android Oreo, letting you do everything without needing an external app installation at least for the important stuff.
Adaptive Icons:–
With the whole lot of fragmentation of different shape of app icons on home screen, it was a tough job to include every shape of icons for different shape needs for app developers. Now app developer can ship their apps with adaptive icons, which will change the shape accordingly to circle, square, squircle or freeform accordingly when enabled. You need to enable developer options first (keep tapping your build number in about phone section) and then check home screen settings.
Wi-Fi Aware:-
Android Oreo comes with inbuilt API where two devices running on Android O will be able to discover them on same Wi-Fi network and can create a private network between them, although not visible for the user this is inclusion which app devs can use it to further develop the features based on it.
Rescue Party:-
A new feature called Rescue Party comes included with Android O applies a series of quick fixes when your phone repeatedly reboots, or when a persistent app continuously crashes, in the direction to lessen out the chances of boot loops.
