New Android OS Plays On Key Mobile Trends

“Android 9 highlights another major tech trend, too: The growing prominence of biometric security.”

Google has launched the latest version of its Android mobile operating system, and is placing a strong focus on artificial intelligence this time around.

In announcing Android 9 Pie on its blog, Google explained that its AI technology is designed to learn about the user’s habits and adapt to them to make using their device easier and more intuitive. For example, it will assess which apps are used most often, and take measures to adapt battery usage to prioritize them; and it will adjust brightness levels app-by-app, based on what it learns about the user’s preferences over time.

It’s another example of the growing prominence of AI in everyday life, and of Google intensifying emphasis on this technology. Until just a couple of years ago, Google wasn’t much involved in the hardware business, but as it started to put out its own smartphones and smart speaker devices, the company looked to its expertise in AI to get a competitive advantage. Its focus on AI has only intensified since then, while rivals have also been pouring more money into their own AI R&D as well.

Android 9 highlights another major tech trend, too: The growing prominence of biometric security. As Google noted in its announcement, the operating system has “an improved security model for biometrics” – a reference to Android 9’s use of a new standard for biometric authentication based on metrics called the Spoof Acceptance Rate and the Impostor Accept Rate. Essentially, the system will now classify any biometric authentication mechanism that meets a predefined accuracy threshold as “strong”, while anything less will need to be aided with additional authentication mechanisms such as PINs or patterns for full functionality.

There’s plenty more to Android 9, including a new system navigation system tailored for large-screen phones, time tracking tools to help users limit their screen time, and a forthcoming feature that will preview key bits of information from a user’s favorite apps. But perhaps the most obvious update is in branding, with Google no longer referring to its mobile operating system primarily by cute, snack-related nicknames – Marshmallow, Oreo, Pie – but rather by number. This is “Android 9”, and presumably the next one will be “Android 10”, making the platform’s iterative progress a bit more clear to end users.

Source: The Keyword