If you own a recent Google Nexus or Pixel device, you can now update it to the latest Android 8.1 version of Oreo. As of now, the update is rolling out to Google’s Pixel smartphones, Pixel C tablet, Nexus 5X, and the Nexus 6P. In the coming months, Google is expected to bring the update…
If you own a recent Google Nexus or Pixel device, you can now update it to the latest Android 8.1 version of Oreo. As of now, the update is rolling out to Google’s Pixel smartphones, Pixel C tablet, Nexus 5X, and the Nexus 6P. In the coming months, Google is expected to bring the update to some other devices, including those running Android Oreo (Go edition).
The new Android 8.1 Oreo update includes the Neural Networks API that will enable the Pixel Visual Core on the new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones, allowing third party apps to take HDR+ images. Currently, only the Google camera app on the Pixel smartphones is capable of shooting HDR+ images. The Pixel Visual Core will also boost the performance of the Google photo apps.
The other big change has to do with Autofill, one of the headline features of Android Oreo. Google says it has made some improvements to the feature, making it easier for password managers and other Autofill services to utilize the Autofill framework. The latest Android release also introduces the new Shared memory API, allowing large amounts of data to be shared between apps or between multiple processes within a single app. A new change has been introduced for notifications as well. Apps will now be able to make an alert sound only once per second. Alert sounds exceeding this rate will not be queued and will be lost. Notification messages, however, will continue to be posted as usual. Other changes included with the new release include emoji fixes, screen burn-in mitigation for AMOLED displays, and the usual bug fixes.
As for the other Android OEMs, we expect a few manufacturers to roll out the Android 8.1 update for their devices starting early next year. Since a number of OEMs are yet to roll out the Android 8.0 update, there is a possibility that some devices may be updated directly to Android 8.1 Oreo next year.
