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Android P DP1: Google moved the clock to the left side to accommodate notched displays

There are a lot of things that were changed in Android P’s first developer preview, but if you’ve followed any coverage or installed it for yourself, the first one you probably noticed was the clock’s new location…

Android has traditionally always had its clock persistently located on the top right of the display. To its left, the status icons for battery, mobile data, WiFi, Bluetooth, and others appeared. On the left side of the display, notifications piled in to fill the rest of the status bar. In Android P, though, that’s all been flipped on its head, just to accommodate the dreaded notch…

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know I’m not the biggest fan of the notch. To me, it feels like a design crutch, not something we should be making major changes to software to make up for. Yet, here we are, with the debut of Android P bringing extensive support for all things notch.

What does the new clock location have to do with this? It’s pretty simple actually. Having the clock on the left side gives the display more symmetry when there’s a notch present, and also gives the status icons more breathing room. The same can’t be said about the notification icons, unfortunately, as they get a good portion of their space blocked by the clock (go ahead, we’re all thinking it).

To me, this feels like a change that just gives into the designs we saw running rampant at MWC this year, and only points toward a Pixel 3 with a big ol’ notch dead center. Oh well, you can’t win every battle…

We’re still digging through Android P to show you everything that’s new. If you want to give it a try yourself, we’ve got a handy tutorial detailing how to install it.


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Avatar for Ben Schoon Ben Schoon

Ben is a Senior Editor for 9to5Google.

Find him on Twitter @NexusBen. Send tips to schoon@9to5g.com or encrypted to benschoon@protonmail.com.