It’s been almost a month since we announced the Essential Phone was ready to receive the Android 8.1 Beta version. This time around, the update is ready for everyone who owns the PH-1. The delicious cookie update is now available for the Essential Phone as the first ever major Android upgrade. The beta testing is over, thanks to the numerous users who took time to use the Oreo OS running on their smartphones, reporting if there are bugs, and sending their recommendations and suggestions.
As with most Android OS updates, Oreo delivers better security, longer battery life, more powerful performance, and improved multitasking. With multitasking, you can do two tasks at a time. Say, you’re watching a movie and an important email came in, you can answer while continuing on with the movie. This is made possible by the picture-in-picture feature that allows another app to show us a floating window. Some of the apps that will benefit from the feature include YouTube, video calling apps, Google Maps, WhatsApp, or Google Duo.
The new emoji set is also included. The notification shade has been updated. Settings have been reorganized to reduce scrolling. Notification dots are available for the icons. This way, you can see what alerts you may have missed.
Oreo delivers more control over a number of settings to avoid notification overload. You can also take advantage of adaptive icons and icon packs. Android 8.1 also brings the smart text selection feature so you can copy and paste with ease.
SOURCE: Essential
