10 Facts About Android P, The New Android OS That Can Limit Social Media Usage Daily


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Smartphone addiction is the latest hype word that’s used all the time.

Everyone is using it.

Your mom, your dad, your husband (yes, wifey, I’m looking at you).

Even your dog who you forgot to bring out for a walk because you’re busy playing Mobile Legends.

Image: pinterest.ca

See, that’s what smartphone addiction does. It causes everyone around you to keel up like this poor, pitiful doggy.

And we don’t want that, do we? Because you know that if you ever do that to your wife, your life’s going to be hell.

Google knows that getting people addicted to them isn’t good, so they’re doing something about it.

Introducing their latest superhero, Android P.

Image: wccftech.com

More powerful than Captain America, this little guy can limit your social media activities, make you feel like you’re using an iPhone and teaches you self-control better than Mr Miyagi.

Image: imgflip.com

Here are 10 facts about Google’s latest Android version P that’ll save the world, one addict at a time.

1. Android P’s Dashboard Tells You The Situation As It Is

Image: theverge.com

The dashboard might seem like it’s not a very big deal, but it is. Or at least, the things it reveals about you will be super enlightening.

According to Sameer Samat, VP of product management for Android, the dashboard is the first step in getting people to acknowledge that they’re addicted.

Which is kind of true, because we don’t typically remember how long we’ve used our smartphones for throughout the day.

The dashboard will show you how many hours you used your smartphone a day and what you’ve used it for.

This will help put things into perspective and, hopefully, get you motivated into doing something about it.

Kind of like a mother, just without the beatings and naggings.


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2. The dashboard can also control your life if you let it do so

Sounds like a bad thing, right?

It’s like iRobot, just even more subtle.

But in this case, it’s a good thing. Because the only thing you’re letting this nifty dashboard do is to control your smartphone usage.

Image: geekhack.org

If you’re feeling this way, then you really need to get the latest Android version.

The dashboard allows you to set the timer on apps that you use every day. When the time limit for using a particular app is approaching, the phone will warn you about it.


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Then, it’ll pause the app from working until the next day.

You can unpause the app if it’s something important, but it’ll be troublesome. You’ll have to go through the dashboard to un-pause the app before you can continue using it.

Google wants to try and play hardball and see if this nifty function will help users. They might make it easier to un-pause apps in the future.

But that defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

3. It’s not just the app, it’s the whole phone

If you’ve been avidly following up on the harms of using smartphones or just trying to find out why you can’t sleep well, this factor always pop up.

Using the smartphone at your bed, which leads to lesser sleep because you’re being entertained by the device.


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Image: imgflip.com

Well, Android P, our very own smartphone R2D2, will wind down your entire phone as well.

When your phone is placed on the Do Not Disturb (DND) mode, the entire phone will turn greyscale.

Image: theverge.com

Not only is your phone on silence, no notifications will be shown on the lock screen, notification bar or the app.

The only time the phone will buzz or light up is when the contact you’ve pre-starred tries to reach you via phone call.

So the next time you and your special friend decides to get up to something naughty, you won’t be disturbed by your boss. #JustSaying #DontGetBlueBalled


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They’re working on getting the DND mode to be engaged when you flip a phone that’s faced up on a table onto its back.

4. One Tap to Remove Work Notifications When You’re Enjoying Yourself in S.Korea

You’re on a holiday and you told your wife you won’t do work. Not until you’re back at your office desk.

Then, your boss messages.

Like this guy.

(Since you’re here, subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more videos lah)

Poor thing. But that’s the reality for most working Singaporeans here.

Now, Android P is going to give you a legitimate reason to ignore your boss. By not showing his notifications to you.

Firstly, your phone will monitor your notification swipeaways and ignores. At one point in time, they’ll prompt you, asking if you wish to disable notifications from that app.


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Also, when you long press on a notification, you’ll be brought into the app’s notification settings.

Image: theverge.com

And, if you’ve separated your apps into “work apps” and regular apps, they’ll be separated in the tab drawer.

Going on a holiday? There’s a switch at the bottom of the tab that will disable all work apps’ notifications.

5. Android Phones Made Simpler: It’s All About Swiping

Image: giphy.com

The Android phones are made simpler to navigate. No longer do you have to press the home button to go home, press the square button to switch to another task and all.

Now, it’s just about swiping.

A half-swipe up brings you to an overview screen and a full swipe up will bring you to the app drawer.

A slide to the right will bring you through your recent apps, and there won’t be a back button anymore except in apps.

Sounds like an iPhone, doesn’t it? But who cares, it just sounds awesome.

6. It’ll make your phone battery last longer

Another hype word that’s been thrown about in the tech industry is AI, or Artificial Intelligence.

And being one of the biggest tech companies in the world, you know that Google will definitely be introducing something related to that.

For Android P users, you’ll love that they’re applying a sort of “AI” to your phone battery.

The software will learn your phone usage habits and direct power to the apps you’ll typically use at that time of the day.

Softwares that you’ve downloaded but not used, or those that are rarely used, will be stopped from running in the background.

But you don’t have to know the specifics. Just know that it’ll make your phone less likely to die on you.

Image: usatoday.com

7. And it’s the same for the brightness of your screen

If Google is only implementing one AI function to your phone only, then it’s disappointing.

Because it’s only “tech companies” like Goody Feed who introduces one function into apps. And for us, it’s informative, entertaining content 😉

Click Here to Download the App! 

Back to the topic. Google is also implementing their AI function in your screen brightness levels. It will learn your screen viewing habits and adjust the brightness levels automatically for you.

So even without doing anything, your phone’s screen brightness will adjust to suit your eyes.

8. Background apps cannot spy on you anymore

Remember the big hooha about Facebook’s data leaked to 3rd parties?

You should. Our very own Committee on Online Falsehoods grilled Facebook Simon Milner about this, in a public hearing that made us Singaporeans want to hide our heads.

Image: todayonline.com

Well, if you’re feeling uncomfortable and paranoid at giving 3rd party apps information about you, rejoice!

P will stop 3rd party applications from collecting information in the background. This means if you’ve given access to an app for your Maps information, the app won’t be able to spy on you when you’re not using it.

This is the same for the microphone, network status and camera permissions.

9. This will be the fastest Android version to come out

After tempting you with the many good functions of Android P, now comes the very important question.

When will this whole shizzam be available?

It’s predicted that Android version P will be the fastest version to be available to the public.

Unlike previous version, public beta versions of this latest Android version isn’t just made to Google Nexus and Pixels smartphones (Google’s own hardware), but third party phones like Sony Xperia XZ2, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, Nokia 7 Plus, Oppo R15 Pro, Vivo X21 and Essential PH-1.

Plus, they’ve made this available to Qualcomm as well, the maker of processors in most smartphones today.

In other words, we might be able to find a cure for our own addiction soon.

10. Google Android Team has been thinking of this for a couple of years

If you were to look at the new functions, it would seem like Google is making this as a response to what consumers want.

Which is nothing wrong.

Image: CNET

However, Sameer Samat, VP of product management for Android, says that this isn’t the case.

At least not for the smartphone addiction part.

He claims that they’ve been working on these tools for a long, long time.

With 2 billion Android users, the team felt like they have the responsibility to do more for the world.

Huh, interesting.

So, here are the 10 juiciest, most exciting details about Android P. What do you think about it?

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