You might not have noticed that updated its one app last week, but just because you don’t see anything new doesn’t mean there aren’t big changes on the way. In its customary teardown of the latest A, Android lice has found some tantalizing features that are likely on the way as prepares for an Android O overhaul.
Among the myriad things ’s new mobile OS will bring when it launches later this year is a cahnge to the way alerts are hled. Called Notification Channels, they will let users decide which kind of notifications they will receive from a specific app, so you won’t be bombarded by alerts you don’t want. In the one app, will be dividing notifications into several categories, including incoming outgoing calls, missed calls, voicemails. So, if you want to know who called you but don’t care about the messages they leave, you’ll be able to specify that in the settings.
is also looking to add new messaging capabilities into the one app. In know what you’re thinking—the last thing we need is another way to send messages on our phones—but these seem pretty useful. For one, recipients will now be able to reply to texts sent when their call is rejected, with a series of pre-written response, like “This is urgent. Call me back,” “Not urgent, we can chat later.”
Additionally, seems to be adding MMS capabilities into the phone app so you won’t need to jump to another app to send a picture to the person on the other end of a conversation. Android lice has uncovered strings related to sending receiving photos, which presumably will allow you to select a photo from your phone through a new option on the call screen, as well as view a picture sent to you.
Finally, the teardown has uncovered a pair of strange pictures. As seen above, one depicts a cat paw other a dog paw, though it’s unclear what their purpose is. It’s likely related to some kind of secret Easter egg silliness, but we’ll have to wait see whether they ever make an appearance.
You can side-load the -signed A from A Mirror, but keep in mind that none of these features are live yet. so note that the one app is only meant for Nexus xel phones.
The right call: don’t generally pay much attention to the one app, but these features look to definitely make the experience more pleasurable. Now, if only someone other than our parents actually called us.