The 15 Best New Android Oreo Features! (Android 8.0 Oreo)

Its that time of the year again where we get the next major update to Android.This new version 8.0 is called "Oreo" and has a lot of new features that I am actually really excited about and a couple things In not so sure about.In any case were going to look at 15 of the best changes with this new update including some major changes and small changes as well. OK starting off one of the first big changes people will notice in Android 8.0 is that they completely redesigned all the emojis.The blobs are no more and now we have circular emojis just like all the other platforms.

 I've talked about this in a video before and how I think the new emojis are pretty darn ugly actually.And Im all for making them consistent with other platforms like iOS that makes sense.But to me they just look poorly designed with weird gradients and thick outlines.And of course we will never forget the most upsetting casualty the turtle who has nowbeen replaced with this ugly beast.But anyway for some reason a lot of people actually seem to like these new emojis soit looks like were not going to get rid of them any time soon.Moving on the next few are some significant new features having to do with notifications.

So for number 2 we have the new "notification dots".Now on the home screen or app drawer whenever an app has an active notification it will show a dot in the corner of the icon to signify just that you have a new notification.If you've ever used an iPhone before this feature will probably seem very familiar because iOS has had the same feature for years except it would show a number.Also another cool thing is you can long press on the app icon and it will show you a shortened preview of the notifications so you dont have to click into them every time.

The one thing In not sure about though is that the notification dots apparently only show when you also have a notification in the notification bar as well.So to me it seems pretty redundant that it would show in both like why do you need the dot if its already showing up there.I dont know.still they might make changes to how they work at some point well have to wait andsee.Onto number 3 you now have the ability to snooze notifications.This is something Ive been waiting for a long time.So when you get a new notification you can partially swipe it to the side which willreveal two symbols a gear which takes you to notification settings and now a clocksymbol.If you press the clock it will remove the notification for a certain amount of timewhich you can adjust by clicking the dropdown either 15 minutes 30 minutes an hour or2 hours.

Then once that time is up the notification will come back.This is great for stuff that you cant deal with at the moment or just dont want to.Ok next up is the new so-called "notification channels".And this basically just means you can now customize how certain notifications can behavefor certain apps.For example whether an app can create notifications that vibrate the phone or play a sound orshow on the lock screen that sort of thing.This is ideal for apps that you might like getting notifications from but maybe theyrenot urgent so you dont need them to vibrate and play a noise you just want to see thatits there the next time you use your phone.

To adjust these channels you can navigate to an app through the settings window orif you get a notification partially swipe it and click the gear this time then "moresettings" and it will bring you there.Alright number 5 heres a cool one picture in picture.This one is a pretty big deal I think you probably think so too.For certain apps like YouTube or VLC media player if youre watching a video and press the home button the video keep playing and minimise to a small window and stay on top.And it will stay like this even if you open up and use other apps.If you want you can drag around the window and if you tap it youll see options to pausego to the next video close it or go back to viewing it in the original app.Pretty awesome.Number 6 "instant apps".

This feature will allow you to run certain apps without having to download them fromthe play store.So how it works is someone might make an instant app hosted on their website so when you goto a certain URL it appears and brings up the app then.This way you can get more functionality than a regular mobile page and dont have to actuallygo make people go download it.So its almost like a super mobile web page in that it can do a lot more than a regularweb page but maybe not as much as a real app.Obviously Im pretty sure these will have less abilities than one you would be ableto download and install for obvious reasons but it is perfect for giving users a betterexperience from your website without them doing anything.Also these instant apps will be backwards compatible with Android versions 6.0 and later.About half way through now number 7 is smart text selection.

Android will now use AI to try and predict what parts of text you are trying to selectwhen you double tap on something.So if you double tap on an address its smart enough to realize you probably want to selectthe whole address.Same for a phone number.But it apparently will also work for less obvious things like the names of restaurantsso if your friend texts "were going to Bobs Pizza Joint" if you double tap that nameit should theoretically highlight "Bobs Pizza Joint".Also now when you highlight certain types of text it will give you a shortcut rightthere to open a related app.So if you highlight an addrss it will give you the option to search it in google mapssame goes for a phone number with the phone app.

So that will definitely be useful and if the smart text selection works as well asthey claim that should be cool too.Alright the next change is that Apps will now be limited in how much storage they canuse for their data cache.This is more of a background-feature so I cant really show you it but its still importantI think you guys are going to like it.As you know any app you use will store certain data a "cache" so its quickly accessiblelater as opposed to having to be downloaded every time.But sometimes app caches get really bloated and take up a ton of storage.

So now Android O will be able to manage this data.I dont think there will be a specific hard limit for everything like this amount and thats it forever but it will rather change depending on the situation.Like if you have 128 GB of storage it will let apps have a bigger cache.Or if you start to run out of space it will start clearing out some of that cache.Not something that will be obvious but still helpful in the background.Number 9 is very simple apps will now be able to use gestures using the finger print sensor.Assuming you have one that can detect gestures developers will be able to let users swipe either vertically or horizontally on the fingerprint sensor which would then do something.Before this basically only worked with system apps and I think it was only on Pixel and Nexus phones as well but now you should start to see it on others too.Moving on number 10 youll now have the option to have Android automatically turnyour WiFi on and off depending on whether youre near a saved WiFi network.And this feature should help you save both cellular data and battery life

.For example when youre away from home the WiFi radio will be off using less batteryand when youre at home it will turn on WiFi so not to use cell data.Im not totally sure how it detects when youre within range but Im guessing its eitherlocation based with GPS or it could do periodic background scans or even a combination ofboth.Next up we have some updates to the battery usage menu.Like before you can see which apps used how much power and a graph of battery over timeif you tap on the battery.But it doesnt show system battery usage like from the screen or cellular data.To change that you now have to tap on the three dots in the corner and youll see anew option to "Show full device usage".

So now instead of just showing apps usage it will show you system usage as well suchas the screen the OS itself and phone idle.This obviously isnt a new feature but I figured I should point it out because a lotof people will be wondering why they cant see all the battery stats.But one thing I think is new is when you click on an app it now shows you how long the apphas been running in the background.So you can spot apps that may be using up data or battery when youre not even usingit.Ok the 12th new feature is called "Rescue Party" kind of a funny name but could besuper helpful.This is another "behind the scenes" feature built into android and its meant to protectyour phone against bootloops and repeated crashes.How it works is if you phone reboots 5 times in 5 minutes from repeated crashes obviouslyit the operating system will automatically start applying fixes to solve it.

It begins with simple things like clearing the data cache but if it keeps crashingwill start applying more drastic fixes each time.Eventually if it tries everything and its still doing it it will ask you if you wantto actually factory reset the phone.Though me personally I would probably still want to try to search for more ways to potentiallyfix it before deciding to wipe the whole thing.And hopefully it doesnt get to that point.Number 13 something SO simple that Ive been asking for forever.Stock android now shows the battery percentage next to the battery in the status bar.I mean yes before you could have the percentage show on the battery icon but it was so smallyou could barely see it!So THANK YOU Google seriously what took you so long.Ok so coming near the end 14 is actually a pretty big feature which is a whole newAutofill API.What that means is there is now native support for certain apps to be able to autofill forms no matter what app youre using it in.And you can choose what app is the one that can do this by changing the default "AutoFillservice" its a new setting.And If you are still confused one example is if you have a password manager like 

Last passor Googles own autofill service with smartlock.With these when you get to a log in page for any app that app can now automaticallyfill it in.With your login data or data for your credit card or whatever.And before you had to jump through all sorts of hoops and give these apps special accessibility permissions and what-not but now its all built in.This should also improve battery life because those apps no longer have to constantly runin the background and scan for fillable forms.So this should be very useful.And finally number 15 is also very simple and that is the Night Light feature now hasa slider so you can actually choose the intensity of the effect.This is something Ive been asking for forever.Id honestly wish they would let you shift it even more like you can on iOS but Illtake what I can get.And so were done those are some of the best new features Ive come across in Android 8 but of course there are others I didn’t mention.