The Android OS appears to be getting a dedicated, system-level screenshot editing tool alongside Android P – tentatively, Android Pie – if reports about the initial developer preview are anything to go by. That's following the discovery of just such a piece of software in the Android P Developer Preview firmware. It goes without saying that any of the features found in those previews won't necessarily make it to the final release of Android P and that the features found in the initial release tend to be rudimentary. However, the new tool appears to be in full working order, so this may be good news for those users who like to share screenshots.

As to the tool itself, that's been dubbed Markup in the developer preview and it appears after selecting the Edit option in a screenshot's notification card menu. It also reportedly appears in the Google Photos app, tucked away in the collapsible overflow menu when that menu is accessed while viewing an image in full screen. As mentioned above, the feature is somewhat stark. Users are able to crop an image or use one of two markup tools to draw or write on the image, with menus automatically moving neatly out of the way while drawing. Various color options are available to draw with and users can choose between a pen or a highlighter but there's currently no way to adjust the scale of the tools. Thankfully, buttons are available to either undo or redo their actions, so that may not be too much of a problem. The tools will almost certainly gain new functionality and options as the company continues to refine them, however. So it may be best not to judge Markup prematurely.

Once editing is finished, clicking the check button finalizes things into a final version stored in a separate folder called Pictures. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any way to immediately share edited screenshots directly, for now, but that's something else that could easily be included at a later date or with the final release. Meanwhile, this is likely to be among the smaller adjustments to be seen in the upcoming OS update. Big changes are expected to be revealed at Google's I/O developers conference in May.

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