Android 9.0 Pie features include gesture navigation, Adaptive Battery, App Actions, and Digital Wellbeing, making it a significant update that uses machine learning to improve how you interact with your phone and manage its resources. This update focuses on helping you get more done with less effort, while also giving you tools to understand and control your digital habits.
What are the key Android 9.0 pie features?
Android 9.0 Pie introduced a suite of user-facing features designed to make your phone smarter and more intuitive. The headline additions include a new gesture-based navigation system, Adaptive Battery and Adaptive Brightness that learn from your usage, App Actions that predict your next move, and Digital Wellbeing tools to help you manage screen time. It also enhanced security and privacy with restricted access to microphone, camera, and sensors requiring explicit user permission, enhanced data encryption with support for the latest Android Keystore system for better cryptographic key management, and enhanced biometric authentication via BiometricPrompt API standardizing fingerprint and facial recognition for apps. These features, combined with a visual refresh and support for display cutouts, define the Android 9 experience for supported devices.
New navigation and intelligence features
Android 9.0 Pie replaced the traditional three-button navigation with a gesture-based system on supported devices. This system lets you swipe and tap to move between apps and the home screen, offering a more immersive experience by reclaiming screen space. The gesture navigation is a system-level option, though the exact consumer menu path to enable it varies by device manufacturer.
App Actions are another intelligence feature that predicts your next action based on context. For example, when you connect headphones, your phone might suggest playing a music app directly from the launcher. This proactive feature saves time by surfacing relevant actions before you search for them.
App Slices surface interactive content from your apps within system surfaces like Google Search. You can see a snippet of an app's functionality, such as a ride-sharing service's estimated arrival time, without fully opening the app. Smart Text Selection uses machine learning to recognize types of text like addresses, phone numbers, or URLs. When you select such text, your phone suggests relevant actions, such as opening a map or making a call, streamlining tasks like adding a location from a message to your maps and navigation app settings.
Battery and display improvements
Adaptive Battery uses machine learning to understand which apps you use most often and prioritizes battery power for them. Apps you rarely use get less power, which helps extend overall battery life throughout the day. This optimization happens automatically in the background based on your usage patterns.
Adaptive Brightness similarly learns from your manual brightness adjustments in different environments. Over time, your phone automatically sets the screen brightness to your preference in various lighting conditions, reducing the need for manual tweaks. Both features work together to optimize power consumption and screen visibility based on your habits.
Digital Wellbeing and notification changes
Digital Wellbeing provides tools to help you create a healthier relationship with your device. It includes a dashboard showing app usage statistics, an App Timer to set limits on specific apps, and a Wind Down mode that shifts the screen to grayscale at bedtime. Note that Digital Wellbeing was not available at the initial Android 9 launch; it arrived later for Pixel phones.
Notifications received a visual refresh with rounded corners and a more consistent color scheme. The Quick Settings panel was redesigned for a sleeker, more organized layout, making it easier to toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other settings. Smart Reply was also added, suggesting quick responses to messages directly within notifications.
UI design and camera updates
Android 9.0 Pie introduced a Material Design refresh, refining the visual language for a cleaner and more modern look across the interface. The update also added official platform support for display cutouts, commonly known as notches. This ensures that app content displays correctly on devices with bezel-less screens.
For photography, Android 9 added multi-camera support through platform APIs. This allows developers to access and utilize multiple cameras simultaneously, enabling features like seamless switching between lenses or capturing data from multiple sensors at once for improved depth effects and zoom capabilities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which devices can get Android 9.0 Pie?
Android 9.0 Pie is a platform release for supported devices, but a complete consumer device list is not consolidated in a single official source. Device manufacturers control the rollout schedule for their specific models. Google's Pixel phones were among the first to receive the update, with Digital Wellbeing arriving later for those devices.
How do I update my phone to Android 9.0 Pie?
You must wait for your device manufacturer to push the update to your specific model. When available, you will typically receive a notification to download and install it. You can also manually check by going to your device's Settings, then System, and selecting System Update. Availability depends on your device and carrier.
Can I turn off gesture navigation in Android 9?
Yes, on most devices that support the gesture navigation system, you can switch back to the traditional three-button navigation. You will typically find the option in the System or Gestures section of Settings.
Can I downgrade from Android 9.0 Pie to an earlier version?
Not officially supported and may cause compatibility issues or damage.
For the wider topic, see maps and navigation app settings.
