Google’s second Android Q Beta brings us “Bubbles” multitasking

[Karlston]

Minimize apps to a floating, always-on-top bubble.

Google is releasing the second Android Q Beta today. As we learned with the first release, Android Q is bringing support for foldable smartphones, better privacy and permissions controls, and a grab bag of other features. We've yet to install the second beta on one of our own devices, but Google's release blog post promises "bug fixes, optimizations, and API updates," as well as a crazy new multitasking feature and an emulator for foldables.

 

Android loves multitasking. So far we've had split screens and floating windows, and Android Q Beta 1 even had a hidden desktop mode. Beta 2 brings us a new multitasking feature called "Bubbles." Bubbles let you minimize an app into a little circle, which floats around on the screen above all your other apps. Tapping on a bubble will open a small UI. The only demo Google shows is one for a messaging app. Each bubble is a contact, and tapping on the bubble shows a small chat UI. If you remember Facebook's "Chat Head" UI for Messenger, Bubbles is that, but built into the OS.

 

Google offers a few suggested use cases for Bubbles, saying, "Bubbles are great for messaging because they let users keep important conversations within easy reach. They also provide a convenient view over ongoing tasks and updates, like phone calls or arrival times. They can provide quick access to portable UI, like notes or translations, and can be visual reminders of tasks too."

 

Bubbles is "built on top of Android's notification system," and developers can "send a bubble through a notification." Does that mean apps can just spawn a new bubble when you get a message? Apps need to specifically support Bubbles in order for the feature to work, which will certainly make consistently using it or even testing it out pretty difficult. Start petitioning your favorite developers.

 

In other Android Q news, Google is preparing for the coming flood of foldable devices like the Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X. When foldables fold and unfold, there are big display state changes that Google needs to support. Multi-screen devices like the Galaxy Fold need to be able to switch screens when the devices open and close. For single-screen devices like the Mate X, Android needs to be able to grow and shrink the active area of the screen when a user unfolds or folds the device. Foundational Android changes to make all this work are going into Android Q, and with the second beta, Google is also releasing Android Studio 3.5, which comes with foldable support in the emulator. Nobody has a foldable smartphone yet, but developers can at least do some testing on the new emulator, which supports dual-screen devices and can grow and shrink in size.

 

Google is also rolling out more of its "scoped storage" changes, which stop apps from having free-for-all access to your internal storage. Google warns that this is going to break a lot of stuff, saying, "You might experience problems with apps that access photos, videos, media, or other files stored on your device." Android Betas normally come with a list of known issues, but Google is laying on the warnings very strongly for this version.

 

We're still going to flash it, though. We'll test it out and report back.

 

Source: Google’s second Android Q Beta brings us “Bubbles” multitasking (Ars Technica)

 

Poster's note: The original article contains a slideshow. To see it, please visit the above link.

[The AchieVer]

Google Outs Android Q Beta 2 with a New Way to Multitask, More Privacy Features 

Google announced today the availability of the second beta version of the upcoming Android Q (most probably versioned 10) mobile operating system with more improvements and new features.

Coming more than two weeks after the first beta release, Android Q beta 2 is here today to with an updated SDK (Software Development Kit) for application developers, the usual bug fixes and optimizations, as well as a bunch of new features for early adopters and bleeding-edge users to test drive on their devices. It also includes the security patches for April 2019.

"Today we're releasing Android Q Beta 2 and an updated SDK for developers. It includes the latest bug fixes, optimizations, and API updates for Android Q, along with the April 2019 security patches. You'll also notice isolated storage becoming more prominent as we look for your wider testing and feedback to help us refine that feature," said Dave Burke, VP of Engineering.

Android Q Beta 2 adds a new way to multitask called Bubbles, which lets users prioritize information and keep an eye over ongoing tasks, enables Scoped Storage for new app installs by default to allow them to run in a private sandbox without permission, a new emulator with support for foldable devices, sharesheet improvements, as well as directional and zoomable microphones.Android Q expected to arrive in early August 2019 The Android Q mobile operating system is expected to arrive in early August 2019 with a plethora of new privacy features for users, as well as numerous other enhancements like support for Vulkan 1.1 graphics for better gaming, improvements for foldables, new media codecs, new camera options, NNAPI extensions, new capabilities for developers, new APIs for connectivity, and more.

Until then, you can get an early taste of Android Q by installing the beta 2 version on your devices. To do that, you’ll first need to enroll your device in the Android Q Beta program, and then you can download and install the latest beta updates over-the-air. However, we have to warn you that beta software contains many bugsand may not always work as expected.
 

 

 Bubbles will let users multitask as they move between activities.

 

 

 

 

 Android Studio - AVD Manager: Foldable Device Setup

 

 

 

 

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