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Tag: Android One

  • Call Recording Coming To An Android Phone Near You

    Call Recording Coming To An Android Phone Near You

    According to XDA Developers, Android’s Google Phone app may be getting call recording in a future update.

    The Google Phone app is the default phone dialer on Google’s own line of Pixel smartphones, as well as Android One devices. Other manufacturers sometimes include their own dialer apps with more features than Google’s. Xiaomi is one such company, with their dialer offering built-in call recording. Recently, however, Xiaomi announced that its European smartphones would come with Google Phone instead. As XDA points out, however, the company promised that the feature would be “obtainable” in 2020.

    When Android version 43.0.289191107 was released for the Pixel 4, XDA editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman noticed three developer strings that specifically pertain to call recording, including the status of an in-call button to activate or deactivate recording.

    As XDA highlights, call recording was available before Android 9 Pie, and is a feature that has been sorely missed in the Android community. If the developer strings Rahman found indicate Google’s plans, this should be a welcome improvement for many users.

  • Google Calls On Developers To Get Behind Android One

    Google announced the launch of Android One, this week. It’s a series of more affordable Android devices aimed at getting smartphones in the hands of more people, starting in India.

    The company is now calling on developers to ensure support from their apps. Android developer advocate Rich Hyndman gives some examples of how to do so:

    If your app has search functionality, will user requests time out entirely? Do you think it is more important that a result is returned in a timely manner, or that the result is returned at all? If you’re trying to build a robust app to reach the next five billion, it might be less about returning a result immediately, and more about returning a result at all. To address this challenge, why not include an option to users to “notify me with the results” when a search query is running on a slow network? Your app can then take as long as it needs to successfully retrieve the data in the background and show a notification when complete. The difference in user experience between an app that times out on a slower network and one that caters to user-specific needs will be very impactful for driving mobile app adoption.

    There are also ways to test app performance without flying around the globe. The Android Emulator has network speed and network delay emulation settings, which can become an integral part of your testing strategy. If you’re testing on physical hardware, try turning off WiFi and switching the network to 2G only; how well does your app perform? Do search pages load? Does data refresh? These issues can often be fixed with relatively minor changes to your app logic or by leveraging a SyncAdapter. Check out our blog post on sync in the Google I/O app for more ideas.

    He notes that another area of concern is app memory utilization, and that Android has added new tools to the SDK as part of the KitKat launch, as well as new APIs that can help.

    More on all of this and more here.

    Image via Google

  • Google Launches Android One To Get Smartphones To More People

    Google announced that it’s launching a new line of “affordable” Android One smartphones in India in a bid to get smartphones in more people’s hands.

    “There are three big reasons why it’s hard for people in countries such as India, Indonesia or the Philippines to get their hands on a high-quality smartphone,” writes Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps, in a blog post. “First, is the hardware itself. Even entry-level smartphones still remain out of reach for many (bear in mind that in some of these countries the average monthly income is around $250). Second, many people in these markets do not have access to the latest Android software and popular applications. Finally, even where 3G and 4G networks are available, not enough people have phones that can support data and the plans can be expensive.”

    “Android One aims to help tackle these challenges,” Pichai. “By working closely with phone and silicon chip makers to share reference designs and select components, we’re making it easier for our partners to build phones that are not just great to use, but also affordable. They have lots of processing power, so you can get information quickly. They have high-quality front- and rear-facing cameras. And for all those pictures, along with your apps and videos, Android One phones will have expandable storage. We also added features that people in India will find particularly useful, like dual SIM cards, a replaceable battery and built-in FM radio.”

    The devices will always get the latest versions of Android directly from Google so they’re up to date on security patches, and have all the latest features. They’ll even be first to be updated to the Android L release later this year.

    All software updates will be free for the first six months if users have an Airtel SIM card. As part of that deal, users will also be able to download up to 200MB per month worth of apps from Google Play without it counting toward mobile data usage.

    The first phones come from hardware partners Micromax, Karbonn, Spice and chipmaker MediaTek. They’re available noew from retailers in India starting at Rs 6,399. Google is also working with Acer, Alcatel Onetouch, ASUS, HTC, Intex, Lava, Lenovo, Panasonic, Xolo, and Qualcomm on additional devices.

    The Android One initiative will be expanded into Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka by the end of the year, and to additional countries next year.

    Image via Google