When the OnePlus 5T launched, many users (myself included) were pretty disappointed with the fact that it did not ship with Android 8.0 Oreo. OnePlus did launch a beta soon after its launch with an official release promise by Q1 2018 but it did not come running Oreo straight from the get go.
Well, here we are in February 2018 and Android Oreo has been officially pushed to the OnePlus 5T. So if you’re looking for a shiny, new operating system with a host of new features and security patches, you’re going to want to look into downloading and uploading to the latest and greatest version of Android. So before we take a look at some of these new features, I do want to say thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
Alright, so when you receive an incoming call, OnePlus has decided to expand on the stock Android feature of alerting you with a phone number or contact info or picture. OnePlus is adding the location of the caller, which can be really helpful in pinpointing who exactly is calling you. You can snooze notifications by swiping to the left and tapping on the clock icon. So if you get a notification and you don’t want to deal with it right now, you can always snooze it and have it bug you at a later time.
One of my absolute favorite features of Oreo is Google’s new autofill API, which allows apps to create and manage their own list of autofill data like usernames and passwords. Assuming you are signed into your Google account, you can use the autofill API to automatically sign in to Snapchat and other social media apps.
The Picture-in-Picture mode is here so if you’re navigating via Google Maps and you press home, it’ll minimize Maps so you can still see where you have to go while you may check a text message or search the web for some information. The feature also works with YouTube, VLC, and several other applications.
The battery menu has been revamped with a fresh, new look. The usage graph is easier to read and battery optimization and battery saver have been moved near the top of the menu for easier access.
Smart text selection is now available, depending on the text selected. Android Oreo will try to detect what it is to offer shortcuts for actions to take with such info. For example, if you select a URL, Oreo will suggest opening it in Chrome. If you select a phone number, the dialer app will appear; an address, Maps will pop up. The list goes on and on. It’s a really neat feature.
If you have a notification for an app but you haven’t acted upon it, a small dot will appear on the app icon to let you know. And if you long press the app icon (assuming it’s on the home screen), you might even see the most recent notification for that app, which will pop up for you to act on. Sometimes these blue dots can be a little bit annoying. So you definitely can turn off the notifications in the settings drawer.
The quick settings icons no longer display a menu when long pressed. They just act as toggles to turn the feature on or off. For example, the Bluetooth icon will just turn Bluetooth on and off while a long press will go to the Bluetooth settings.
And speaking of Bluetooth, Google has added some high quality Bluetooth Codecs including Sony’s LDAC and aptX HD, which should improve audio quality when using Bluetooth devices. The unknown sources setting in the settings drawer is gone. In the past, if you wanted to sideload an app, you had to make sure that you checked the box for the setting. Now when you download an APK through Firefox or Chrome for example, you’ll be prompted to review your external sources settings or not. You might just have to press okay to acknowledge that you might be downloading something potentially harmful. But the whole process is a lot more seamless by now.
If you go into the display settings, you can set the theme to default so that the menu colors will change. If you’re using a dark or black wallpaper, the menu will be dark gray. Otherwise, it will revert to the white theme.
Android Oreo brings fingerprint scanner gestures to the OnePlus 5T. Now OEMs and app developers can monitor the fingerprint scanner for swipes, both vertical and horizontal. So depending on the app, it could get fingerprint gesture functionality.
The most classic fingerprint gesture is to swipe down on the notification panel. Also included in Oreo are new emojis. Google has ditched the weird, blob shaped emojis in favor of more rounded emojis which look a lot better in my opinion. It was always a bit tough for me to find emojis when switching from a Samsung phone to a Pixel phone or from iOS to Android. Now, Android emojis will be similar to the emojis offered from Samsung, Apple, LG, and others.
I do also want to add that the change log provided by OnePlus also notes that the launcher, gallery, weather, and file manager apps were updated. A CPU security patch was pushed along with several bug fixes and performance improvements.
With that last one, those are our favorite features in Android 8.0 Oreo on the OnePlus 5T. Sometimes when a new update is first launched, it does come with some bugs and hiccups so do download and install at your own risk. I do want to mention that.
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