If you were paying attention during the keynote, this might sound like an example of what Google calls an app action — an ability to perform an app-specific task baked more directly into Android's interface. A Google spokesperson on site said this wasn't strictly speaking an example of an App Action — they just sort of share a core philosophy of putting the right capabilities in front of you at the right time. Semantics aside, having a more capable, nuanced set of app shortcuts available where you might not expect them feels remarkably powerful.

Also available in this not-quite-beta software was Google's new Dashboard, which offered a bird's eye view of which apps the phone's owner tended to spend most of his time in. Beyond that, it provided statistics like how many times the phone was unlocked and how many notifications were received within the past day. Beneath that handy ring chart is a list of frequently used apps that you can set timers for, if you're really committed to change your usual smartphone behaviors. The test phone we played with was a fairly fresh one so there was little in the way of incriminating usage data, but I shudder to think about what my own Dashboard would look like after only a few days.