Android
Pie (
codenamed Android P during development), also known as Android 9 (API 28) is the
ninth major release and the 16th version of the
Android mobile operating system
A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on ...
. It was first released as a developer preview on March 7, 2018, and was released publicly on August 6, 2018.
On August 6, 2018, Google officially announced the final release of Android 9 under the title "
Pie", with the update initially available for current
Google Pixel devices, and releases for
Android One
Android One is a family of third-party Android smartphones promoted by Google. In comparison to many third-party Android devices, which ship with a manufacturer's customized user interface and bundled apps, these devices run near- stock ve ...
devices and others to follow "later this year". The
Essential Phone was the first third-party Android device to receive an update to Pie, notably coming day-and-date with its final release. The
Sony Xperia XZ3
The Sony Xperia XZ3 is an Android (operating system), Android smartphone manufactured and marketed by Sony Mobile Communications, Sony. Part of the Xperia X series, the device was announced to the public at a press conference held at the annual 2 ...
was the first device with Android Pie pre-installed.
As of December 2022, 9.17% of all Android devices ran Android 9 Pie (not receiving security updates), with 17.2% of tablets alone still running Pie, making it the 3rd most popular version to date.
History
Android Pie, then referred to as "Android P", was first announced by Google on March 7, 2018, and the first developer preview was released on the same day. The second preview, the first beta release, was released on May 8, 2018.
The third preview, called Beta 2, was released on June 6, 2018. The fourth preview, called Beta 3, was released on July 2, 2018. The final beta of Android P was released on July 25, 2018.
Custom distributions
There are, as of August 2019, a handful of notable custom Android distributions (ROMs) of 9 Pie.
Features
User experience
Android Pie utilizes a refresh of Google's "
material design" language, unofficially referred to as "Material Design 2.0". The revamp provides more variance in aesthetics, encouraging the creation of custom "themes" for the base guidelines and
components rather than a standardized appearance. Bottom-aligned navigation bars are also more prominent. As applied to Android Pie's interface, rounded corners (influenced by the proprietary Google theme used by in-house software implementing Material Design 2.0) are more prominent.
In addition, Pie contains official support for screen cutouts ("notches"), including APIs and system behaviors depending on their size and position. Android certification requirements restrict devices to two cutouts, which may only be along the top or bottom of the screen.
The most significant user interface change on Pie is a redesigned on-screen navigation bar. Unlike previous versions of Android, it only consists of a slim home button, and a back button rendered only when available. The bar utilizes gesture navigation: swiping up opens the "Overview" screen, a redesign of the existing recent apps menu. Swiping the handle to the right activates application switching. The gesture bar is used primarily on new devices such as the
Pixel 3; existing devices may either use the previous navigation key setup or offer the ability to opt into gesture navigation.
As opposed to the previous recent apps menu, Overview utilizes a horizontal layout rather than vertical, and text may also be selected and copied from apps appearing there (although this uses
OCR rather than the native text as to conserve resources). The Pixel Launcher exclusively supports the ability to access the app drawer and most recently used apps from the overview as well. However, this integration is proprietary, as there are no current plans to offer the necessary integration to third-party software due to security concerns.
In addition, when rotation lock is enabled, rotating the device causes a screen rotation button to appear on the navigation bar.
The
notification area
A taskbar is an element of a graphical user interface which has various purposes. It typically shows which programs are currently running.
The specific design and layout of the taskbar varies between individual operating systems, but generally as ...
was redesigned, with the clock moved to the left, and the number of icons that may be displayed at once limited to four, in order to accommodate displays that may have "notch" cutouts in the center.
The drop-down panels attached to quick settings items have been removed; long-pressing a toggle directs users to the relevant settings screen. Notifications for chats can now be threaded, displaying previous messages within (complementing the existing inline reply functionality). If a particular type of notification is frequently dismissed, the user will now be offered to disable it.
The Do Not Disturb mode has been overhauled with a larger array of settings.
The power menu now contains a screenshot button (which itself now supports cropping an image after taking one), and an optional "lockdown" mode that disables biometric unlock methods.
The volume pop-up now only controls media volume, as well as the choice of sound, vibrate, or silent modes for notifications. Users are directed to the settings menu to change the volume of notifications.
A magnifier display has been added to text selection, and "smart linkify" offers access to relevant apps if particular types of text (such as phone numbers or addresses) are highlighted.
Platform
Android Pie introduces a major change to power management, using algorithms to prioritize background activity by apps based on long-term usage patterns and predictions, dividing apps into "Active", "Working Set" (run often), "Frequent", "Rare", and "Never". Similar "adaptive brightness" settings are adjusted automatically based on detected lighting conditions. Both of these features were developed in collaboration with
DeepMind.
The "PrecomputedText" API (also available as a compatibility library compatible with
Android 4.0
Android Ice Cream Sandwich (or Android 4.0) is the 9th major version of the Android mobile operating system developed by Google. Unveiled on October 19, 2011, Android 4.0 builds upon the significant changes made by the tablet-only release Androi ...
and newer) can be used to perform text display processing in a background thread as opposed to a UI thread to improve performance.
The fingerprint authentication API has also been revamped to account for different types of biometric authentication experiences (including face scanning and in-screen fingerprint readers).
Android Runtime
Android Runtime (ART) is an application runtime environment used by the Android operating system. Replacing Dalvik, the process virtual machine originally used by Android, ART performs the translation of the application's bytecode into native ...
can now create compressed bytecode files, and profiler data can be uploaded to Google Play servers to be bundled with apps when downloaded by users with a similar device.
Apps targeting older Android API levels (beginning with
Android 4.2) display a warning when launched.
Google Play Store
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating syst ...
is now requiring all apps to target an API level released within the past year, and will also mandate 64-bit support in 2019.
Android Pie supports
IEEE 802.11mc, including
Wi-Fi Round Trip Time for location positioning.
The camera API now supports accessing multiple cameras at once.
Apps may no longer perform background audio or video recording unless they run a foreground service.
There is support for the
High Efficiency Image File Format
High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is a container format for storing individual digital images and image sequences. The standard covers multimedia files that can also include other media streams, such as timed text, audio and video.
HEI ...
(subject to patent licensing and hardware support) and
VP9 Profile 2.
DNS over TLS
DNS over TLS (DoT) is a network security protocol for encrypting and wrapping Domain Name System (DNS) queries and answers via the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. The goal of the method is to increase user privacy and security by prevent ...
is supported under the name "Private DNS".
Android Go for Android Pie uses less storage than the previous release, and has enhancements to security and storage tracking.
Reception
Shortly after its launch, several users on
Pixel devices and the
Essential Phone noted a decrease in battery life. As Android Pie became available to more phones, some users on various devices reported similar comparisons.
See also
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Android version history
The version history of the Android mobile operating system began with the public release of the Android beta on November 5, 2007. The first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released on September 23, 2008. Android is developed by Google in w ...
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iOS 12
iOS 12 is the twelfth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. Aesthetically similar to its predecessor, iOS 11, it focuses more on performance than on new features, quality improvements and security updates. Anno ...
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macOS Mojave
macOS Mojave ( ; version 10.14) is the fifteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. Mojave was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 4, 2018, and was released to the ...
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Windows 10
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...
References
External links
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{{Portal bar, Internet
2018 software
Android (operating system)