 There's a new version of Android out. Well, sort of. Google released the developer preview for Android P today, an early look at the next version of Android. Now, it's very early on in the process still. We don't know what P stands for. There's a lot of new features that presumably Google hasn't shown off yet. But if you want an early look at Google's OS, this is it. Just to be clear, this is a very early developer preview. If you're not a developer, and even if you are, if you don't have a spare test device around, you probably shouldn't go installing this on your main device. But if you've got a test device lying around, like say this Pixel, then you can give it a go. And we have. And here's some of the new stuff we've noticed. So one of the biggest features coming to Android P is support for a notch. Just like on the iPhone X and the whole bunch of other clones that we saw, the Essential Phone, Android is adding native support for notches. So P is going to have better support for notches overall. You can see it actually truncates the notifications after a few with a little dot over here so you can see you have more. And if you're running a developer preview, you can actually simulate the notch on your device, like this Pixel, which doesn't usually have that cutout, so that you can start developing your apps appropriately for it. You'll also be able to simulate different shapes and sizes of notches using the P beta. So you'll be able to design for a whole host of things, whether it's a wide and flat one like the iPhone X, or a taller, thinner one like you saw in the Essential Phone. I'm gonna make sure that no matter what shape and size your notch looks like, P should be able to handle it. Google's also updating how messaging works in Android P. You'll be able to see the last few messages in a conversation directly from the notification so you can remember what you were talking about, and you'll be able to respond directly in line in the notification. Google's also adding support for smart replies, like the ones that it's featured on Allo or Gmail, directly from the notification shade. So a couple responses will pop up, you'll be able to tap one and go directly from the notification, as well as stickers and images directly in line. Android P will also be able to identify if your phone is trying to play widescreen video content and automatically play it in widescreen, even if rotation lock is on, which is something that I've at least been waiting for for years. Lastly, we're starting to see hints of what could be a new overall design for Android P. There were rumors a couple weeks back that Google was planning on overhauling the design, and while there's not too much here to see yet, there are some bits and pieces. The settings menu's been updated, it's now more colorful, different colored icons for each setting thing, and there's an overall theme of more rounded design going around. The notification bubbles have rounded edges, the dock has rounded edges, and there seems to be some new font stuff, too. It's a very early preview, so there's no way to know if this is final, if this will be indicative of larger changes to the OS, or just a couple tweaks, but if you've been holding out for a new version of Android that looks completely different, there's at least some hope for you. There's some smaller stuff here, too. Google's blocking access to the microphone, camera, and other sensors to apps that aren't active, which should finally put to rest, once and for all, all of the conspiracies out there that Facebook is secretly listening to your conversations in order to serve you ads. It probably won't, but it really should. There's support for some new video and image codecs, too, like the HEIF format that Apple started using in iOS 11 and Mac OS High Sierra. There's some indoor positioning stuff, which uses multiple Wi-Fi hotspots to better locate your phone indoors, and some autofill stuff that works better with password managers. These are all great features, but there's also the unfortunate reality that the Android phone you have in your pocket right now probably won't ever get Android P. As of February 2018, only 1.1% of all Android devices had been updated to Android Oreo. And unless your phone has the word Pixel in the name, the odds of it getting P when it comes out, presumably sometime next fall, feels kinda slim. Maybe things will be different this year, but I would not get your hopes up just yet. Don't expect a whole lot. We don't even know what it's called, although my money's on Pi for what it's worth.