How to Enable All the New Features of Android Q Beta 3
Android Q Beta 3 is now available for public use since yesterday’s big launch of Google I / O 2019. And I could be that press guy furiously trying to download any updates for my Pixel 3 XL device. (Sorry, everyone else.)
While everything Google announced yesterday for Android Q is not available to current Android P or Android Q beta users, there are some fun features you can play with right now if you’re using Android Q Beta 3. Before I get to my favorites However, here are a few words on how to get started with Android Q Beta if you’ve never done it before. (If you regularly live on the wild side of smartphone OS, feel free to skip this part.)
Android Q beta subscription
If you’re ready to go a little crazy and install an unfinished operating system on your Android smartphone, jumping aboard the Android Q beta should be easy. All you have to do is visit this website and confirm that your Android device is indeed eligible for beta testing – it will inform you. If you can, click the blue Enable button and read the dire warning:
When you’re ready to proceed, agree to the terms (and enable software updates if you wish), and then click the Join Beta button, which is not currently displayed.
If you ever want to remove a device from the Android Q beta, go to the same page and click Unsubscribe. However, this will erase data from your device:
Once you have selected the beta, be sure to update your device – via Settings> System> Advanced> System Update – so that you are indeed using the beta version of the OS.
Android Q Beta 3: Features to Try
Let’s start. The very first thing I wanted to know was if Android Q Beta 3 supports the recently announced Dark Mode for Android. The good news: it does, so now your device will look nice and consume less power (at least for your OLED smartphone). And it’s easy to turn it on.
Dark mode
To register your device in the dark side, just open the app “Settings” and click on the subsection “Display”. Find the Theme option you need to click and change from light to dark:
More specific permissions for sharing location
Here’s a fun feature that you don’t even need to do anything to enable. In Android Q Beta 3 (in fact, it will be Android Q in the future), the permission for an app to access your location is slightly different. When an app asks for this permission, a tooltip appears to let you specify whether the app should always see where you are, never, or only when you actually use the app – a new Android Q option.
If you want to view these location permissions at any time, simply go to Settings> Location> App Permissions , where on a new screen you can see and change the location settings for any apps on your device.
Gesture navigation
Hey, you have an iPhone on my Android. I’m kidding, but Google’s new Gesture Navigation controls do feel a little more Cupertino than Mountain View. If you don’t want to take my word for it; try all two of them for yourself. Go to Settings> System> Gestures and then tap System Navigation. You should be able to stick with your default “2-Button Navigation”, go back to the classic Android “3-Button Navigation” or heck with buttons and switch to “Fully Gesture Navigation”.
If you choose the latter, you will now go to the home screen on your device by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, rather than pressing a button. Hold the end of this gesture instead of releasing your finger to switch between open applications. And to return to the window, swipe left or right from the edge of the screen.
Move annoying notifications to “Gentle” status
If you get a lot of the same type of notification and want the responsible application to get a little bit of the number of alerts, you can fix that. Press and hold a notification, and if you’re allowed, you can set the app to Intermittent or Gentle notifications:
You will also notice that there is now no option to snooze notifications. It’s unclear if this is a stopgap from Google, or if this little trick, previously available by slowly swiping left or right on notification and tapping on the clock icon, has been removed permanently in favor of a new interrupt / sparing mode.
It’s easier to check which apps can access the functionality of your device.
New in Android Q is an updated Privacy section that has been moved to the main body of Google’s Settings app. There you will find “Permissions Manager”, formerly “App Permissions”, under “Apps & notifications” in versions prior to Android Q.
If you are not familiar, this section lists the main functions of your device like call logs, contacts, phone, SMS, etc., and you will be able to see which apps are allowed / denied access to this function. … You can click on any of these apps to change their status from allowed to denied or vice versa.
What’s not ready yet?
Even though the latest beta of Android Q just came out, that doesn’t mean Google has included everything it talked about at I / O 2019. Features coming later in Android Q include:
- Incognito mode for Google Maps
- Faster next-generation Google Assistant
- New “Driving Mode” from the Google Assistant
- Android Q’s eye-opening Live Subtitle feature
- Improvements to digital wellbeing, including a new Focus mode and Family Link that allows parents to restrict certain apps and even reward their kids with “bonus time.”
- Smart answer ? In the latest version of Android Q, you should be able to send smart replies in response to anything you receive in any messaging app. I tried this with Facebook Messenger on Pixel 3 XL running Android Q Beta 3 … but no smart replies were showing up in my notifications. Could it be me?
Of all of this, I’m most looking forward to Live Caption and can’t wait to check it out – hopefully in a future Android Q beta.