Officially Android 8.0 is here, Android Oreo released on Monday, August 21st during the solar eclipse. OTA (over-the-air) updates are start rolling out on Nexus and Pixel devices and factory images were posted on the Android Developers' site the same day.
This new version has plenty of changes in store, ranging from revamped looks to under-the-hood improvements, so there's tons of cool new stuff to explore. Let's go ahead and take a look at all of the new features and functionality in Android O.
Picture-in-Picture mode - Android 8.0 allows activities to launch in picture-in-picture (PIP) mode. A familiar phrase and tool in many televisions, within the YouTube app. Now you can play video andnavigate other apps on your device by just tap the Home button and the video will pop into a small window that can remain on screen. You can slide the video around for best placement, then simply slide it off the screen to terminate.
Notification Channels - Android N brought a new framework for notifications to get more information in a space. With Android O, Google introduced new Notification channels for grouping notifications together by their type. Notifications are still managed by the app that delivers them, but users can control how things are displayed on a per-channel basis.
Adaptive icons - The Google Pixel Launcher brought adaptive icons, and now Android supports them systemwide and natively. There have options for different shaped masks that define the outside border and icons can be animated. Adaptive icons will be supported in the launcher, shortcuts, device Settings, sharing dialogs, and the app overview screen.
