Android P’s Smart Selection & App Actions are limited to the Google Pixel 2

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In the latest developer previews of Android P, we’ve seen a number of cool new features introduced. Two of these features are Smart Selection in the multitasking window and another is called App Actions. While Android P still has plenty of other great features, these two have been reserved for Google Pixel devices released in 2017 or later (meaning the Google Pixel 2/Pixel 2 XL and upcoming Google Pixel 3/Pixel 3 XL). This comes after a user reported on the Google Issue tracker that Smart Selection had disappeared on their original Google Pixel. They were told that this is the intended behavior.

For those who don’t know, Smart Selection and App Actions were two new features added in Android P that users were excited to see. Smart Selection allows you to copy text and images from applications in the multitasking window without having to actually open them. As for App Actions, this feature provides users with predicted actions to choose from, most notably in the Google Pixel Launcher. These actions can include things like “Watch videos in YouTube” or “Play Music on Spotify.” The App Actions API uses the same set of intents as Actions on Google Assistant and you can find them in multiple apps such as the Google App, Play Store, Google Assistant, and the Pixel Launcher.

While it may be understandable why Google intends to keep these features as Google Pixel exclusives, it’s not so clear why the original Google Pixel will not be supporting them. Users on Developer Preview 2 were able to use the feature without issues, so we know that it certainly did work on the device. We hope that Google changes their stance on this, but for now, only 2017 Google Pixel and later devices will be able to support both of these features.