

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Google

Google

Google

Google is dropping a major surprise on us today and releasing the final consumer-ready version of Android P. It has a final name: the version number is "9" (not "9.0"), and we know what the "P" stands for: "Pie."

"Android 9 Pie" is now finished and will start rolling out to Google's Pixel phones.

Android Pie is a major update for Android. Large chunks of the OS get a UI makeover in line with Google's updated Material Design guidelines. There is an all-new notification panel, a reworked recent-apps screen, new settings, and tons of system UI changes. There's support for devices with notched displays (like the iPhone X) and a gesture navigation system (also like the iPhone X). So far, battery life on the preview builds has been great, with improvements like the AI-powered adaptive battery system, a new auto-brightness algorithm, and changes to CPU background processing

This release was unexpected given that the last developer preview of Android P only came out 12 days ago, and some rumors were even pegging August 20 for a release date. The developer previews also didn't seem that close to finished, since several features like Google's "Digital Wellbeing" initiative and the "slices" feature never saw a preview release. In the past, Google has also done a separate announcement of a name reveal and a new statue at Google headquarters before the release, but this year everything is coming out at once.

Google is starting up another beta for the Digital Wellbeing features today; once you have Android 9 Pie installed, you can head down to this link and sign up for the new beta. Digital Wellbeing is an initiative that is supposed to curb smartphone addiction, adding features like a dashboard that tracks app usage, app lockout timers, and a "Wind down" feature that desaturates the display at night, discouraging you from using the phone. "Slices" is an another unfinished Android Pie feature, which will allow apps to package up chunks of UI for display inside other apps. We've seen this demoed in Google's autocomplete results, but this will most likely be a way for apps to provide an embedded UI in the Google Assistant. Slices still isn't ready and will be out "later this fall." Google's blog post seems quite happy that it can make "Pie" and "Slices" puns now, though.

As for Android Pie on non-Pixel phones, Google says that several OEMs should have updates out before the end of the year. We'll have to keep a close eye on how quickly this happens, given that several non-Google devices shipped Android P beta builds thanks to Project Treble. Treble shipped in Android 8.0 Oreo, and its modularization makes it a lot easier to update Android on existing hardware. Essential once said it took only three days to update the Essential Phone to an Android P Preview. Now that a final build is out, we'll see how quickly OEMs can really ship a new version of Android in the Treble era.