Google Android 10: The 5 Best New Features

Google has just released the final version of its new operating system for Android phones. Though it’s been available as a beta release under the name Android Q, the new version is named … well, it has nothing to do with the letter “Q.” It’s just Android 10, which makes it the first time in 10 years that the mobile operating system doesn’t have a dessert-themed name. Rest assured, though, some of its new features are still pretty sweet. (You knew that was coming.)

Here are five features to look forward to in Android 10—some of which have been available in the pre-release, plus a couple that were not. Also keep in mind that not all of these features are launching right away, and when they do, they might only be available on Google’s own Pixel devices first.

New Gesture Navigation

Last year’s release of Android 9 included the most significant changes to Android navigation bar since Android 4.0. This year Google is going all in on gesture navigation, as more and more smartphones ship with “edge-to-edge” displays and lose their chins at the bottom. Basically, Google wants to standardize gesture navigation across Android phones. And this is somewhat controversial.

For example: On Android 9 Pie, you’d swipe up from the “pill” at the bottom of the screen to view recently-opened apps (similar to how you access recent apps on the iPhones without home buttons). But there was still a “back” button to the left of that pill. Now, with Android 10, that back button has been replaced with a side-swipe gesture, which is sometimes confusing.

Google explained the move by saying that Android users rely on the back button 50 percent more than they do they home button, so it wanted to design this new back feature to be in the most reachable places on the phone’s screen. In a briefing with WIRED, Google vice president of Android engineering Dave Burke said that he believes these new gesture controls make it a lot easier to use a smartphone with just one hand. But he also acknowledged it might not be for everyone—especially people with limited dexterity. Fortunately, you can still enable a more traditional three-icon navigation system in Android 10 settings.

More Dark Mode

With the rollout of Android 9 Pie, we got a system-wide “dark mode,” but it only applied to certain elements of the user interface, like a settings panel and some other menus. With Android 10, dark mode will apply to both the system UI and specific apps (provided you opt in). And if you activate the battery saving setting on a Pixel running Android 10, dark mode will be enabled by default.

Starting today, YouTube, Google Fit, Google Keep, and Google Calendar will be available in dark mode. Later this month, Gmail and Chrome will support it too. All of these were spotted in beta versions of the Android 10 OS. Google isn’t the only mobile player getting behind the dark mode trend; Apple’s iOS 13 includes a dark mode as well. And, as CNET points out, non-Apple and non-Google apps like Feedly, Facebook Messenger, Reddit, Twitter, and Slack have already embraced it. Welcome to the dark side—it’s a trend that’s here to stay.

Accessibility Features

Both Apple and Google have been building more accessibility features directly into their mobile operating systems, an extremely positive thing. With Android 10, Google is rolling out something called Live Captioning. This is different from Live Transcribe, another accessibility feature that Google rolled out on Pixel phones earlier this year, which transcribes the audio as it’s being shared in your immediate environment. Live Captioning, the new feature, applies text to pre-recorded videos, such as a video your friend just messaged you.

Burke points out that this feature may not seem that radical, considering that movies, TV shows, and even YouTube videos already have captions. But this is the first time that it will be an OS-wide capability. The feature relies on an entirely new, local speech analyzer that recognizes speech on the device. Unfortunately, like Live Transcribe, Live Captioning is only available on Pixel devices first, and launches later this fall. Google says it’s working with phone manufacturers to bring this to other Android devices but hasn’t given a timeline on when that will happen.

Android 10 will also include a new kind of support for professional hearing aids, by allowing people who wear listening devices to connect to the phone over a specific Bluetooth channel rather than the standard Bluetooth low-energy. It’s supposed to be a more efficient and battery-friendly way of connecting to services on Android.

Privacy and Security

As my WIRED colleague Lily Hay Newman writes here, Android 10 is packed with new privacy and security features—no small feat considering that the OS has something like 2.5 billion users around the world. Two of the most user-friendly updates include changes to the way location data is handled in apps, and a new approach to making security fixes available.

Rather than just turning off app location-tracking entirely, Android 10 will allow you to select an option to have your location tracked only while you’re using the app (which means it’s actively open on your screen). Apple, similarly, is rolling out new location-tracking guardrails in iOS 13, giving users the option of an “allow once” permission. Since app permissions are some of the most pernicious offenders of sneaky data gathering, this is a welcome change.

Google Play, the company’s app store, will be updated in such a way that privacy security updates for Android will be sent directly through the Play store, rather than users having to wait for entire OS updates before they can access the new features. And within Google Account controls and Android Settings, you’ll now see more controls for seeing exactly how much of your data is being hoovered up by apps (Google apps and otherwise). Just keep in mind, updates like these often put more onus on the user to actively go and check these things.

Digital Well-Being Expands

Google claims that Android users who have started setting usage timers on apps, a feature that was ushered in with Android 9 Pie, stick to their goals 90 percent of the time. Those people seem to have more digital fortitude than I do. That said, Google’s “Digital Wellbeing” initiative will expand in Android 10. Now, thanks to Family Link, parents can monitor their kids’ activities from within the Digital Wellbeing app rather than having to install or open a separate app.

And a new feature called Focus Mode lets you go into your phone’s settings, select the apps you find most distracting, gray them out and pause all notifications coming from those apps (while still letting potentially important text messages come through). If you find yourself reaching for the app, you’ll see a reminder that you put your phone in Focus Mode. And, you won’t have to go through this process every time you start a new work session; after you’ve gone through the initial selection of apps, you can then active Focus Mode in Android’s quick settings.

It’s yet another way of using your phone to cure the ails caused by … your phone!

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