The nickname for Android 9 is \u201cPie.\u201d It\u2019s not the most inspired of Android names, but it\u2019ll do. What really matters at the end of the day are the new features in Pie \u2014 and there are plenty of those. If you are a Pixel owner, you\u2019ll be happy to hear that Pie will\u2026<\/b>
\nThe nickname for Android 9 is \u201cPie.\u201d It\u2019s not the most inspired of Android names, but it\u2019ll do. What really matters at the end of the day are the new features in Pie \u2014 and there are plenty of those.
If you are a Pixel owner, you\u2019ll be happy to hear that Pie will start rolling out as an over-the-air update today. The same goes for every other device that was enrolled in the Android Beta (that includes any Sony Mobile, Xiaomi, HMD Global, Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus and Essential devices that got the betas) and qualifying Android One devices. Everybody else, well, you know the drill. Wait until your manufacturer launches it for you\u2026 which should be the end of the year for some \u2014 and never for quite a few others.
Overall, Pie is a solid upgrade. The only real disappointment here is that Pie won\u2019t launch with Android\u2019s new digital wellness features by default. Instead, you\u2019ll have to sign up for a beta and own a Pixel device. That\u2019s because these new features won\u2019t officially launch until the fall (Google\u2019s hardware event, which traditionally happens in early October, seems like a good bet for the date).
Let\u2019s talk about the features you\u2019ll get when you update to Android 9 Pie, though. The most obvious sign that you have updated to the new version is the new system navigation bar, which replaces the standard three-icon navigation bar that has served Android users well for the last couple of iterations. The new navigation bar replaces the three icons (back, home, overview) that are virtually always on screen with a more adaptive system and a home button that now lets you swipe to switch between apps (instead of tapping on the overview button). You can also now swipe up on the home button and see full-screen previews of the apps you used recently, as well as the names of a few apps that Google thinks you\u2019ll want to use. A second up-swipe and you get to the usual list of all of your installed apps.
In day-to-day use, I\u2019m not yet 100 percent convinced that this new system is any better than the old one. Maybe I just don\u2019t like change, but the whole swiping thing does not strike me as very efficient, and if you leave your finger on the home button for a split-second longer than Google expects, it\u2019ll launch the Assistant instead of letting you swipe between apps. You get used to it, though, and you can get back to the old system if you want to.
Google\u2019s suggestions for apps you\u2019ll like and want to use when you swipe up feel like a nice tech demo but aren\u2019t all that useful in day-to-day use. I\u2019m sure Google uses some kind of machine learning to power these suggestions, but I\u2019d rather use that area as an extended favorites bar where I can pin a few additional apps. It\u2019s not that Android\u2019s suggestions were necessarily wrong and that these weren\u2019t apps I wanted to use, it\u2019s mostly that the apps it suggested were already on my home screen anyway. I don\u2019t think I ever started an app from there while using the last two betas.
But that\u2019s enough grumbling, because it\u2019s actually all of the little things that make Android 9 Pie better. There\u2019s stuff like the adaptive battery management, which makes your battery last longer by learning which apps you use the most. And that\u2019s great (though I\u2019m not sure how much influence it has had on my daily battery life), but the new feature that actually made me smile was a new popup that tells you that you have maybe 20 percent of battery left and that this charge should last until 9:20pm. That\u2019s actually useful.
Google also loves to talk about its Adaptive Brightness feature that also learns about how you like your screen brightness based on your surroundings, but what actually made a difference for me was that Google now blends out the whole settings drawer when you change the setting so that you can actually see what difference those changes make. It\u2019s also nice to have the volume slider pop up right next to the volume buttons now.
Talking about sound: Your phone now plays a pleasant little sound when you plug in the charger. It\u2019s the little things that matter, after all.
The other new machine learning-powered feature is the smart text selection tool that recognizes the meaning of the text you selected and then allows you to suggest relevant actions like opening Google Maps or bringing up the share dialog for an address. It\u2019s nifty when it works, but here, too, what actually makes the real difference in daily usage is that the text selection magnifier shows you a larger, clearer picture of what you\u2019re selecting (and it sits right on top of what you are selecting), which makes it far easier to pick the right text (and yes, iOS pretty much does the same thing).
And now we get to the part where I wish I could tell you all about the flagship Digital Wellness features in Pie (because pie and wellness go together like Gwyneth Paltrow and jade eggs), but we\u2019ll have to wait a few days for that. Here\u2019s what we know will be available: a dashboard for seeing where you spend time on your device; an app timer that lets you set limits on how long you can use Instagram, for example, and then grays out the icon of that app; and a Wind Down feature that switches on the night-light mode, turns on Do Not Disturb and fades the screen to grayscale before it\u2019s bedtime.
The one wellness feature you can try now if you are on Pie already is the new Do Not Disturb tool that lets you turn off all visual interruptions. To try out everything else, you\u2019ll have to sign up for the beta here.
Another feature that\u2019s only launching in the fall is \u201cslices\u201d (like slices of pie\u2026). I was looking forward to this one as it\u2019ll allow developers to highlight parts of their apps (maybe to start playing a song or hail a car) in the Android Pie search bar when warranted. Maybe Google wasn\u2019t ready yet \u2014 or maybe its partners just hadn\u2019t built enough slices yet, but either way, we won\u2019t see these pop up in Android Pie until later this year.
And that\u2019s Android 9 Pie. It\u2019s a nice update for sure, and while Google loves to talk about all of the machine learning and intelligence it\u2019s baking into Android, at the end of the day, it\u2019s the small quality of life changes that actually make the biggest difference.<\/p>\n

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