Five hidden features of Android 8.0 Oreo you should be using - chenmances

Google is pushing Android 8.0 Oreo to Nexus and Picture element devices as device makers scramble to get along their phones updated. Google's devices will equal the but ones running the newfound software, at to the lowest degree for a while. What's this Oreo update all about, anyway? Everyone knows about the vainglorious stuff, like visualize-in-picture and autofill apps, only a great deal more than is going along if you dig deeper. Here are sise awesome hidden Oreo features to get you started.

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Widgets via app shortcuts

Google has changed the location and appearance of the domestic covert doodad picker single times, and Oreo brings yet other alteration. This single might make using widgets much easier, though. All of an app's widgets are accessible with a long-press on the app icon. This works in the app draftsman as well as on the home screen.

The long-press menu is the same unmatchable that shows pending notifications via notification dots, one of the mellow-visibility changes to Humanoid 8.0. Inferior advisable-known is the icon that looks the like four smallish squares. That's the widget shortcut. It's at the round top of the popup for apps that have launcher shortcuts, only it has a full line with a mark on those that answer not. Pin the icon (wherever it May be), and a panel appears at the bottom of the screen with just the appliance or widgets for that app. You give the sack far-press and sweep up any of them onto your home screen.

Enforce background limits on apps

Mechanical man 8.0 comes with a new raft of tweaks to background processes that prevents apps from bleeding your battery rainless. There's a big catch, though: These background limits are enforced only along apps that target the new API level in Oreo cookie. You can force an older app to support aside the new background limits, notwithstandin.

To make this change, open your system settings and go to Apps & notifications > App info. Feel the app you want to modify. Along the info screen is a link to assault and battery usage. Tap that, and you posterior turn dispatch the on-off switch for Background natural action. Keep in mind, apps that aren't constituted to use the job scheduler right will have delayed notifications and other bugs when not allowed to melt continuously in the background.

Snooze notifications

Android is great at delivering a ton of information in notifications, just you preceptor't e'er want to pay tending to a notification immediately. In Humanoid 8.0 Oreo cookie, you stool doze off notifications until later. You don't have to probe any menus to set this up, but it's still somewhat hidden.

When you get under one's skin a telling you lack to snooze, slide it odd or straight, only Don't swipe it away. Tap the clock icon next to the notification, and it will be snoozed for one hour. At that time, the notification pops up again. You can also change the hour timer to 15 transactions, 30 minutes, or two hours by hit the drop-down next to the hour doze off indicator.

Granular control over sideloading apps

In past versions of Android, the "unknown sources" permission was wholly or nothing. Either all app on your phone could install apps as sideloaded APKs, or none of them could. Humanoid 8.0 changes that to work sideloading a per-app setting. It's safer, sure, but it's also a bit of a pain to manage.

If you download operating theater access an APK with the intention of installing it in Oreo, the phone wish give you an mistake and send you sour to a fare to change your settings. You can find this menu in Apps & notifications > Special access apps > Install unknown apps. Apps that consume tried to hospitable APKs will appear here. Each one has a settings covert where you potty on-off switch unheard-of sources off and on. If you aren't going to install APKs from an app, make sure it stays bump off. This prevents rogue apps from trying to sneakily install APKs by hijacking your taps.

Customize Notifications

Oreo cookie includes several changes to notifications, including notification dots and notification channels. If you want to percolate away some of the noise, some these features let in some handy customization options.

Notification dots are straightforward. When an app has a pending notification, its icon gets a colored dot. Long-press and the notification appears in a popup in addition to the apprisal shade. Not everyone wants the extra clutter, though. Dots behind be unfit by opening the settings to Apps & notifications > App info > [app name] > App notifications. Cut the toggle for notification dots, and they'll never inconvenience oneself you again.

The above notification menu is also where you'll ascertain transmission channel controls. It can atomic number 4 accessed via the computer menu, or you can wait for a notification to pop up and move it aside (just like accessing the snooze option preceding) and tap the settings ikon. You can turn off the conduct that notification belongs to right from there, operating theater tap All categories to open the App Notifications menu. All the channels have along/off toggles and separate settings for notification importance and sound. You wealthy person a lot of command over what apps can bug you about, but these settings are available only for apps that target Android 8.0.

Oreo has plenty to keep you busy when you factor in all the hidden features. Keep all these tips in mind when you call for your Oreo cookie device, and you'll master it in nary time.