7 ms·

Personally, I don't care for any [0] of the new features. This is the greatest feature, because it means Android is mature now. [0] Sure, better performance is

by qznc 10y ago

Personally, I don't care for any [0] of the new features. This is the greatest feature, because it means Android is mature now. [0] Sure, better performance is always nice, but I don't care for Vulkan, VR Mode, or Multi-Window.

russjr08 10y ago
The Doze improvements look nice to me.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- ianlevesque 10y ago
  This is the most significant update, way way overdue.
  - twblalock 10y ago
    Seriously. I switched back to an iPhone from Lollipop earlier this year, and the difference in battery life is staggering, even though the iPhone has a smaller battery than the Android phone I used to have. I'm glad that Google has signaled that they are going to further tighten the restrictions on background app activities in future releases. I hope they follow through with it.
    - kuschku 10y ago
      And with this, they just killed all actual apps for Android. Anything you can do with an app you can do as well with a website. Any actual app, not just a website in form of an app, which did computational task, data recording, or kept services available, is impossible to create now. Run tracking app that doesn’t require you uploading your GPS data to Google Fit? Impossible. Messaging app that doesn’t route all your private messages through Google Cloud Messaging? Impossible. EDIT: before downvoting, read the comment below from morsch, he and I explained there pretty well the issues.
      - twblalock 10y ago
        What on earth are you talking about? All of those things you listed as impossible will still be possible. All Google did is restrict what apps can do in the background, and announced that there will be further restrictions in the future: all background tasks will have to be done through the JobScheduler API. This does not prevent apps from doing stuff in the background, it just prevents them from doing whatever they want, whenever they want -- they will have to follow the proper procedure.
        kuschku 10y ago
        That was true with Marshmallow. With Nougat, no background tasks will be run at all while the screen is off – except for Google services, or if they keep the CPU on 100% of the time with a wake lock. JobScheduler also doesn’t allow continuous tasks, but only short tasks – so you can’t actually keep a low-cost socket open.
        dragonwriter 10y ago
        > With Nougat, no background tasks will be run at all while the screen is off – except for Google services. Untrue. First, mobile Doze doesn't kick in immediately when the screen is off. Second, mobile Doze apparently doesn't stop all background tasks except "Google services" from running, since "wake locks" from apps for background tasks are still supported.
        kuschku 10y ago
        > Second, mobile Doze apparently doesn't stop all background tasks except "Google services" from running, since "wake locks" from apps for background tasks are still supported. Except a Wake Lock has a significant battery impact, causing the CPU to stay on at all times. There’s no way to keep your app running while also saving battery – which is the general ideal you want. So, tell me, how do I keep a socket open without wasting battery? ________________________ A guarantee that, if the device has connection, the notification is transmitted within of 15 seconds, and that the device (in the case of the moto G 2014) gets still the 2 days battery runtime it’d get without the app. That’s what I set as minimum goals for my app, and what I was able to get with older Android versions.
    - stillworks 10y ago
      I have been on Android Beta on Nexus 6p and if I turn off the Now Cards, the phone takes 2 days to go from ~95% to ~45%. I do have to pay attention to how I keep the phone charged though... I always try to not charge beyond 95% and never let it drop below 40%.
      - twblalock 10y ago
        I wonder if you could get the same effect by turning off only some of the Now cards. Perhaps a few of them are responsible for the majority of the battery usage. It would be a shame to have to turn off all of them. I found most of them to be useful.
        stillworks 10y ago
        Didn't actually try to go into the details tbh. But that sounds like giving it a try though.
      - lvs 10y ago
        I assume you can cite no evidence that your battery charging regimen makes any difference whatsoever.
        stillworks 10y ago
        Yea there's a bit of a disconnect between the two "things" stated in my comment. I guess what I was trying to say was that if I was not anal about hi and lo watermarks of the charge and didn't mind it dropping below 40%, and with Now Cards disabled... the phone could keep going between 3 to 4 days without charging.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - JustSomeNobody 10y ago
      It's a trade-off. I hate that on iOS I have to have location services ON in order for, say, owncloud to back up my photos in the background. On Android, it just works in the background like it should. Sure, iOS saves on battery because of this, but I strongly feel I should have a say in this as a user. Some apps really should be allowed to run in the background.
      - azinman2 10y ago
        Except everyone misuses such a thing, privacy gets violated, often don't test well for battery in many different conditions, and then users end up with a shit experience yet don't have the technical expertise to understand why (or which app is causing the problem). Android is particularly difficult since you can have a service running without an app present, so disabling it isn't very intuitive. I think Apple has done a better job at this balance by not letting people shoot themselves in the foot at the cost the odd useful service not being possible.
        jordanthoms 10y ago
        Android's starting to head down this road in a better way - add more restrictions to prevent poorly written apps from draining your battery, but allow a override in settings to 'disable battery optimizations' for that app so the user still has control.
int_19h 10y ago
There is one awesome new feature that is not mentioned on most "best new features" list: built-in night mode (blue light filter). Works much better than similar apps from the store - those work by placing a translucent overlay window on top of everything else, which gives everything (including black!) a reddish hue. The new built-in filter, on the other hand, just removes blue, and blacks remain black.
- mrrsm 10y ago
  I didn't know about this and now I am really interested in the update. I've been using one of the overlay ones for a while and it is kind of annoying.
  - qubitcoder 10y ago
    I just upgraded to Android 7.0. Night Mode is still there! You can access it by enabling the system UI tuner. Just swipe down from the top of the screen to reveal the quick settings, and then press and hold the Settings icon (gear) for a few seconds and release. This will enable the UI tuner. Swipe down from the top again, then tap "EDIT" in the bottom right corner. There should be a tile for "Night mode", which you can drag and drop into the quick settings panel for easy toggling.
    - brianjking 10y ago
      Did you upgrade from DP5?
      - ac29 10y ago
        I didn't and I can confirm the feature isn't there in a 6->7 update.
- alexbaker 10y ago
  I don't think the blue light filter made it into the final release
- 10y ago
baq 10y ago
better (== less irritating) notifications are the killer for me.
emehrkay 10y ago
As an iPhone 6s+ user, multi-window makes me drool

by qznc 10y ago

russjr08 10y ago

The Doze improvements look nice to me.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ianlevesque 10y ago
This is the most significant update, way way overdue.
- twblalock 10y ago
  Seriously. I switched back to an iPhone from Lollipop earlier this year, and the difference in battery life is staggering, even though the iPhone has a smaller battery than the Android phone I used to have. I'm glad that Google has signaled that they are going to further tighten the restrictions on background app activities in future releases. I hope they follow through with it.
  - kuschku 10y ago
    And with this, they just killed all actual apps for Android. Anything you can do with an app you can do as well with a website. Any actual app, not just a website in form of an app, which did computational task, data recording, or kept services available, is impossible to create now. Run tracking app that doesn’t require you uploading your GPS data to Google Fit? Impossible. Messaging app that doesn’t route all your private messages through Google Cloud Messaging? Impossible. EDIT: before downvoting, read the comment below from morsch, he and I explained there pretty well the issues.
    - twblalock 10y ago
      What on earth are you talking about? All of those things you listed as impossible will still be possible. All Google did is restrict what apps can do in the background, and announced that there will be further restrictions in the future: all background tasks will have to be done through the JobScheduler API. This does not prevent apps from doing stuff in the background, it just prevents them from doing whatever they want, whenever they want -- they will have to follow the proper procedure.
      - kuschku 10y ago
        That was true with Marshmallow. With Nougat, no background tasks will be run at all while the screen is off – except for Google services, or if they keep the CPU on 100% of the time with a wake lock. JobScheduler also doesn’t allow continuous tasks, but only short tasks – so you can’t actually keep a low-cost socket open.
        dragonwriter 10y ago
        > With Nougat, no background tasks will be run at all while the screen is off – except for Google services. Untrue. First, mobile Doze doesn't kick in immediately when the screen is off. Second, mobile Doze apparently doesn't stop all background tasks except "Google services" from running, since "wake locks" from apps for background tasks are still supported.
        kuschku 10y ago
        > Second, mobile Doze apparently doesn't stop all background tasks except "Google services" from running, since "wake locks" from apps for background tasks are still supported. Except a Wake Lock has a significant battery impact, causing the CPU to stay on at all times. There’s no way to keep your app running while also saving battery – which is the general ideal you want. So, tell me, how do I keep a socket open without wasting battery? ________________________ A guarantee that, if the device has connection, the notification is transmitted within of 15 seconds, and that the device (in the case of the moto G 2014) gets still the 2 days battery runtime it’d get without the app. That’s what I set as minimum goals for my app, and what I was able to get with older Android versions.
  - stillworks 10y ago
    I have been on Android Beta on Nexus 6p and if I turn off the Now Cards, the phone takes 2 days to go from ~95% to ~45%. I do have to pay attention to how I keep the phone charged though... I always try to not charge beyond 95% and never let it drop below 40%.
    - twblalock 10y ago
      I wonder if you could get the same effect by turning off only some of the Now cards. Perhaps a few of them are responsible for the majority of the battery usage. It would be a shame to have to turn off all of them. I found most of them to be useful.
      - stillworks 10y ago
        Didn't actually try to go into the details tbh. But that sounds like giving it a try though.
    - lvs 10y ago
      I assume you can cite no evidence that your battery charging regimen makes any difference whatsoever.
      - stillworks 10y ago
        Yea there's a bit of a disconnect between the two "things" stated in my comment. I guess what I was trying to say was that if I was not anal about hi and lo watermarks of the charge and didn't mind it dropping below 40%, and with Now Cards disabled... the phone could keep going between 3 to 4 days without charging.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - JustSomeNobody 10y ago
    It's a trade-off. I hate that on iOS I have to have location services ON in order for, say, owncloud to back up my photos in the background. On Android, it just works in the background like it should. Sure, iOS saves on battery because of this, but I strongly feel I should have a say in this as a user. Some apps really should be allowed to run in the background.
    - azinman2 10y ago
      Except everyone misuses such a thing, privacy gets violated, often don't test well for battery in many different conditions, and then users end up with a shit experience yet don't have the technical expertise to understand why (or which app is causing the problem). Android is particularly difficult since you can have a service running without an app present, so disabling it isn't very intuitive. I think Apple has done a better job at this balance by not letting people shoot themselves in the foot at the cost the odd useful service not being possible.
      - jordanthoms 10y ago
        Android's starting to head down this road in a better way - add more restrictions to prevent poorly written apps from draining your battery, but allow a override in settings to 'disable battery optimizations' for that app so the user still has control.

int_19h 10y ago

There is one awesome new feature that is not mentioned on most "best new features" list: built-in night mode (blue light filter). Works much better than similar apps from the store - those work by placing a translucent overlay window on top of everything else, which gives everything (including black!) a reddish hue. The new built-in filter, on the other hand, just removes blue, and blacks remain black.

mrrsm 10y ago
I didn't know about this and now I am really interested in the update. I've been using one of the overlay ones for a while and it is kind of annoying.
- qubitcoder 10y ago
  I just upgraded to Android 7.0. Night Mode is still there! You can access it by enabling the system UI tuner. Just swipe down from the top of the screen to reveal the quick settings, and then press and hold the Settings icon (gear) for a few seconds and release. This will enable the UI tuner. Swipe down from the top again, then tap "EDIT" in the bottom right corner. There should be a tile for "Night mode", which you can drag and drop into the quick settings panel for easy toggling.
  - brianjking 10y ago
    Did you upgrade from DP5?
    - ac29 10y ago
      I didn't and I can confirm the feature isn't there in a 6->7 update.
alexbaker 10y ago
I don't think the blue light filter made it into the final release
10y ago

baq 10y ago

better (== less irritating) notifications are the killer for me.

emehrkay 10y ago

As an iPhone 6s+ user, multi-window makes me drool