Android 10, also known as Android Q, is finally here. The last beta version was launched in May at Google IO, and on D-day – the 3rd of September, the final version was finally released on Pixel devices. Don’t worry, you’ll still get the newest version of Android on your Samsung Galaxy in a few months once the rollout is complete.
Although Android 10 does not have a sweet dessert name such as Pie, or Oreo, you should still expect to see some dramatic and interesting changes over the previous version. There are tonnes of new features on the update, but we’re only narrowing it down to three of the most interesting and eye-catching ones.
1) True dark mode
Dark mode in the previous versions of Android was not entirely dark. The theme only darkened the notification menu and shaded some apps to a dark grey. With Android 10, dark mode is now a system-wide theme. Although some of the apps appear slightly grey, it’s still a huge improvement, which actually looks great, especially on OLED screens.
2) Gestures replace the three buttons
Android 10 has completely done away with the three buttons – home, back and recent apps in favour of gestures. You can now swipe up to go home, up + hold to trigger the app switcher, and left and right along the bottom to cycle through recent apps. Swiping from either edge of the screen activates the back functionality.
The controls seem a bit derivative of iPhone and IOS gestures, but Google insists that they are indeed improvements on the previous version of gesture controls. If you don’t like the new gestures, there is an option to go back to the earlier Pie gestures or the conventional three-button navigation.
3) Live captions
The new Android version comes with a built-in live caption feature that generates real-time subtitles for any video and audio playing on native and third-party apps. The live captions are generated locally without cloud or internet connection. Although the feature was not available at launch, Google is making a great deal of it, and it will probably be released with new updates in the near future.
Android 10 adds many fun and exciting features to the Android platform; not to mention the numerous upgrades concerning privacy and security. Unfortunately, not all Android phones will be compatible with the update. Google has not yet described the minimum hardware requirements to run Android 10, but most phones released in the last one or two years seem good for the upgrade.