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Android Oreo: Everything you need to know about Google’s new mobile OS

The software introduces brand new functionality to smartphones and tablets

Aatif Sulleyman

Tuesday 22 August 2017 11:58 BST

Oreo follows Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop, Marshmallow and Nougat

Google has unveiled Android 8.0 Oreo, the latest version of its mobile operating system.

It succeeds Nougat, which was released late last year, and introduces brand new functionality to Android smartphones and tablets.

Here’s everything you need to know about Android Oreo.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

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1/1111 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Labs

Labs is a testing ground for a number of experimental Gmail features that aren’t quite ready to be rolled out properly. Most of them are really useful, and it’s worth checking them out and enabling the ones you like by going to Settings and hitting the Labs tab. At the time of writing, one of them shows you how many unread messages you have in the Gmail tab on your browser, and another lets you add handy shortcut buttons. The catch is that they can disappear at any moment.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Unsend messages

You can unsend sent messages with Gmail, and you don’t even need an add-on. Just go to Settings and check the Enable Undo Send option. You can choose between five, 10, 20 and 30 seconds as your cancellation period. After it’s over, there’s no getting that message back.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Colourful stars

The Starred messages feature is already really handy, but you can make it even better. In Settings, scroll down to the Stars section and choose which colour you want to use - you can switch the default golden one for orange, red, purple, blue or green. In fact, you don’t need to use a star at all. Boxes with icons are also available, and you can have lots of them in use at once. It may seem like little more than visual fun, but you can actually make your life easier by using different colours or icons for different types of message, as you can search for each of them individually.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Shortcuts

You can see the entire list of Gmail’s shortcuts by going to Settings and scrolling down to the Keyboard Shortcuts section. Learn More will take you to a page with all of the shortcuts on Android, iOS and the desktop. Or, if you’re already on a computer, just open Gmail and hit Shift and /.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Hide categories

Gmail automatically sorts your messages into distinct categories, including Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums. However, you can hide the ones you don’t need by going to Settings, hitting the Labels tab and scrolling down to Categories.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Search properly

Don’t be fooled by Gmail’s simple-looking search bar. Click the down arrow just left of the search button to access a load of additional options that make it much easier to sort through your messages.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Add other accounts

If you use Gmail and other email providers, like Yahoo, Exchange and Outlook, you can make your life easier by managing all of your messages from one place. In the app, tap the menu button, add an account by hitting the down arrow and pick the type of account you want to add.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Smart Replies

You can reply to messages quickly by selecting one of three “smart reply” options Gmail offers. It uses machine learning technology to formulate them, to ensure they’re applicable to the message you’re responding to and sound like something you’d write.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Mute threads

Like group conversations on WhatsApp, email threads can get annoying. Fortunately, you can mute them. Open the message, click the More button above it and select Mute.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Block annoying people

You can block users you don’t want to hear from anymore by opening an email you’ve received from them, hitting the down arrow next to the reply button (in the top right-hand corner of the message) and selecting Block.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Inbox

If you’re feeling inquisitive, it’s worth trying out Google’s Inbox (by Gmail) app. It takes a slightly different approach to Gmail, focusing on de-cluttering your inbox.

Why Oreo?

As is always the case, Google has teased Android 8.0’s official name for months, only referring to it as Android O.

Each different version of Android is named after a sweet treat, and Oreo was always the most likely choice here. Other suggestions included Oatmeal Cookie and even Orangina, which just don’t roll off the tongue quite as well.

Oreo follows Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop, Marshmallow and Nougat.

New features

One of the key improvements Google has made with Android Oreo concerns battery life. The software limits the activity of apps running in the background, focusing on location updates, broadcasts and background services, which should help your phone last longer.

Google has also redesigned Android’s unusual emoji, and introduced over 60 new ones.

Oreo will help your phone power up faster too, and should make it easier for you to handle lots of notifications from lots of apps.

It introduces a snooze function, which could come in handy for meetings and general peace of mind, and allows you to prioritise certain alerts over others, and app icons now come with notification dots, to show you if there's anything in there, like a new message or email, that you haven't yet checked.

You can also group notifications by channel, which lets you neatly bundle certain alerts together depending on subject matter.

Picture-in-picture mode is likely to prove hugely popular, particularly amongst YouTube and Netflix fans. It allows you to continue watching clips while using another app without having to hit pause, with a shrunken video window appearing on top of something else, like Gmail or Maps.

'Copyless' pasting, where your phone guesses what text you want to copy in one app and makes it available to paste in another, is another handy addition. For instance, if you’re looking at a restaurant in Chrome and then open Maps, your keyboard will suggest the restaurant’s address.

Google is also bringing better audio to Android, by adding new audio codecs to improve the sound quality of music played through wireless speakers and headphones.

What it doesn't bring with it are any really significant design changes, but Google’s allowed developers to experiment with different shapes for app icons, which opens the door for more variety.

Release date

The developer preview of Android O has been available to download for some time, but that software was a work in progress and had the potential to damage your device and wipe your data. The beta version has also been out for several months but, once again, it was unfinished and prone to malfunctioning.

Now, the finished version is available via Google’s Android Open Source Project.

In a blog post, the company's VP of product management for Android and Google Play, Sameer Samat, said, "We’ve also been working closely with our partners, and by the end of this year, hardware makers including Essential, General Mobile, HMD Global Home of Nokia Phones, Huawei, HTC, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp and Sony are scheduled to launch or upgrade devices to Android 8.0 Oreo. Any devices enrolled in the Android Beta Program will also receive this final version."

It will likely come to Pixel and Nexus devices first, as an over the air update.

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