Here’s everything new in the Android P Beta so far… [Video]

Ben Schoon | May 10 2018 - 3:14 pm PT

After a developer preview earlier this year gave us a peek, Google officially gave us the first look at what it has planned for Android’s next release at I/O 2018. We’ve spent the past day digging through the release to find out what’s new, and we’ve discovered quite a few new things. So, let’s take a closer look.

Gesture Navigation

First off, let’s talk about the three biggest changes in Android P, and that starts with gesture navigation. While feelings on this are clearly mixed, it’s interesting to see what Google has come up with for the first big change in Android’s navigation since Ice Cream Sandwich. As we noted earlier this week:

In the center, there’s a single “pill” button. This button serves a few functions. First of all, it’s the home button when you tap, and the Assistant shortcut when you long-press, just like the old home button. However, when you swipe it up slightly, it reveals the multi-tasking menu, which has also been redesigned. A full swipe up when on the home screen will also bring up the app drawer.

Sliding that pill to the right will quickly bring you back to your previously opened app, while pressing and sliding that button will let you scroll through the last two or three apps to quickly select them.

You can read more about Android P’s gesture navigation here:

The New App Switcher

The second massive change in Android P is the new app switcher. Google has completely redesigned this part of Android, and it arrives with a ton of new features in tow. Apps are now listed side-by-side in large rectangles that show you the app’s full content. You can swipe through the list or use gestures to swipe between apps, and do some crazy things like copying or sharing content from an app directly from its preview. Personally, this might be my favorite change.

You can read more about Android P’s new app switcher here:

Android P DP2: Redesigned recent apps menu ditches ‘Clear All,’ adds new app icon animation and text selection

Markup

Another very notable change within Android P’s second developer preview is Markup. This native screenshot editor saw its debut in the first preview, but it was a bit of a mess at the time. Now, Google has cleaned up this handy tool, fixed its bugs, and added a handy new sharing option. It’s easily one of the most underrated changes we’ve found in Android P so far. You can read more about it here:

Android P DP2: ‘Markup’ screenshot editor updated w/ improved cropping, share option

The Rest…

We’re still finding more tidbits in Android P, and we’ll be sure to update this article accordingly when we find new features. For now, though, we’ve listed everything we’ve found in Android P DP2 and DP1 below. Be sure to drop a comment below and let us know what your favorite features are so far!

Android P DP2