 Android quick bits. No, no, that's stupid. And apparently Google agrees because as of the latest release, alphabetized dessert names are out and everyone's favorite number is in. Android 10 seems to be a significant step for Google's mobile OS in the same way that Windows 10 was for Microsoft. A way to flesh out, refine, and unite some of the disparate ideas that have characterized the platform so far while giving themselves more flexibility in the way that they provide future updates. So with the full fat version having finally rolled out to pixel devices, this is great. The top news when I swipe over this way, Android 10 is a terrible bug that can't be fixed. And select other phones, I guess that's why they don't just send it out to everybody all at once. There are loads of new features and UI changes to check out. However, as you and I are about to discover, calling this the full fat version might be slightly inaccurate. Get a brand new virtual credit card number each time you use it when you shop with privacy. Click the link below and get $5 off your first purchase. It's basically free money, it is free money. Let's kick off with the big stuff, dark mode. As we noted in our video back in January, Android has had a pansy half-ass dark theme for a while, which darkened the notification shade and some apps to a dark gray. In Android 10, that gets cranked up to 11, or well, 10 at least. The background of the notification shade and the settings app are now completely black, which means that if you're using an OLED screen, those pixels will be off for a clean look and some battery savings. And while other built-in apps like Messages, Calendar, Clock, Chrome, and the Google feed are still dark gray, they actually respond properly to the system level theme now, which you can toggle directly from the quick settings menu. We're all huge fans of dark mode around here, and while there is always room for improvement, we actually think they've done a pretty good job of it. Next up is the new gesture controls. And they're from iOS. Google says that they developed these gestures based on research and innovative Android partners. And I suppose that is possible, but at the end of the day, Android 10's gestures do away with the pill software home button and work just like the ones on Apple's latest iPhones. So you swipe up to go home, swipe up and hold to access the app switcher, and slide along the bottom to cycle through your recent apps. In Android Pie, a quick swipe on the bottom would switch between your two most recent apps, while swiping and holding would cycle through the rest, kind of like alt tab on the desktop. But that is gone in Android 10 in favor of swiping individually. Now, as for that staple of Android, the back button, back functionality is now handled by a swipe from either edge of your device. So self-pause, rejoice. Google says that in their tests, users rated the new gestures higher than the other navigation methods and were able to perform tasks, particularly one-handed tasks more quickly, with most people reporting that after a break-in period of one to three days, they didn't want to switch back to the three-button setup. As for our Pixel users here in the office, great shirts, guys. LTTstore.com? Nice. Of course, the beauty of Android is its customizability. So if the notion of having anything in common with icky iOS makes you uneasy, or if you just plain don't like change, Android 10 thankfully allows you to choose between the new gestures, the previous Android Pie gestures, and even the OG three-button navigation bar. Another really cool looking new feature is live caption, which can automatically generate subtitles for any audio or video playing on your device locally with no cloud connection required. Unfortunately, it's not available at launch, even though it's listed as a major feature in the launch video and the Android website, and even shows up in the recommended search results in the settings menu, but then just clicking it does nothing for now. Next up, Android 10 has upgraded digital wellbeing. So if you set an app timer, the app switcher will tell you how much time you have left on a given app, family links controls that allow you to set screen time limits, view app activity, manage content restrictions, and see where your family members are, has gotten some upgrades, and the new focus mode allows you to select apps to turn off, which hides their notifications, graze them out on the home screen, and prevents you from opening them at all. All of this by tapping the button in quick settings. Android 10 also introduces some cool new accessibility options. Sound amplifier amplifies the sounds of the real world through your headphones, but the special thing here is that it's no longer an app, but rather an integrated part of Android, and Live Transcribe is basically a text-to-speech app that provides subtitles for real life, and certain Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids can now also be used to play audio, allowing them to double as wireless earbuds. That's pretty cool. Now, our last big feature that we have to mention is Android 10's greatly expanded privacy controls. It's obviously a huge issue in 2019, particularly when it comes to Google services, so it makes sense then that Android now has a dedicated privacy section in the settings menu. One of the big things here is the expanded app permissions options, particularly for location access. So now you can choose whether an app tracks your location all the time, none of the time, or only while you're using it. This is a great way to avoid worrying about whether that flashlight app you downloaded is logging your every move. There's also some consolidation that went on here. So you've got things like web plus app activity and ad personalization. These just link directly to your Google account, so it's nice to have all that stuff in one place. All right, so here's the part where we acknowledge all the other new features that we really have to mention, but there isn't a ton of time to go deep into, so here we go. In settings, Wi-Fi networks you're connected to will now have scannable QR codes and visible passwords so that you can show them to others so they can instantly connect. It's a freaking life changer for me, I love that. Smart replies and notifications will now include contextual actions, so there might be an option to open maps when someone messages you an address. Long pressing notifications will give you an option to set it to alerting or silent. Silent notifications will then be separated when you drag from the top. Music or video apps will have a timeline in their notification that you can scrub through. That's kind of nerdy and cool, but yeah. Highlighting text now has haptic feedback, giving you little vibrations, hopefully good ones. And when you're connected to Bluetooth audio devices, you can switch between different outputs via the pop-up volume menu. Freaking thank you. Like that, okay, this has driven me absolutely nuts at times because sometimes my car does this weird thing where it's like I turned it off, but like the door isn't open yet, and it still grabs my audio, but the car stereo is off, so it's just going nowhere. So having a manual switch that I can quickly access to flip over to my handset would be great, thanks. Let's carry on. Holding the power button will bring up an extra emergency button to make calls and edit your emergency medical information. The battery indicator will display the estimated time of depletion when you pull down the notification shade. The most recent notification gets a little bell on it so you can know which one came in last, which again, thank you. That is so annoying when like, okay, I'll get this thing from my garage door that goes, hey, I've been open for 10 minutes, sweet. And my phone buzzes, but that notification has no timestamp and always seems to get buried under a bunch of other stuff. And then I'm like, I'm just looking at this, I'm like, why did my phone go off? You can customize the system accent color in the developer options now. You can allow apps to use Facebook messenger style bubbles, Bluetooth devices will be more easily differentiated by colors and the built-in Android game is Picross, Picross? Picross. Picross this time, neat. So, so far the story has been pretty good, but you could argue that each new addition makes Android 10's omissions more apparent. Earlier versions of the Android Q beta had a built-in screen recorder, something that's been on iOS for years, but that has been removed from the public release. Now leaks also pointed to a desktop mode in Android Q and it is actually accessible in the developer options, but it is super bare bones and calling this a feature would be charitable at best. And to add insult to injury, Android Beam is gone. It's just gone. Now Google is most likely to continue to flesh out the screen recorder and the desktop mode, so we'll probably see those return in future updates, which should be coming thanks to one more really cool thing I wanna talk about that they're calling Project Mainline. Basically Project Mainline is a framework for rolling out smaller, more modular updates to Android devices through the Play Store rather than waiting around for device OEMs and carriers like your Samsungs and your AT&Ts of the world to handcraft their own special version of a security or feature patch and then give it to you whenever, as long as you happen to be in the correct country and have the correct SIM in your device, ha ha. So that sounds great, but it does have a small problem. In order for Project Mainline to get into full swing, Google's users need to get out there and update to Android 10. So with Android's track record on getting their users updated, I figure we're looking at... Shoot, where's my phone? Could I get my phone back? Don't have a watch. I don't know, let's say that 20, 20, 25 for widespread adoption. You know what? I'm gonna set a reminder and I'll update you guys on how that's going. Okay, Google, remind me in 2025 to check in on Project Mainline. Reminders are currently not available for G Suite users. Oh, right, I can't do that. So this is nothing to do with Android 10, but if there's anyone who works at Google still watching this video, fix your s***. As a paying G Suite customer, I actually pay quite a lot of money for all of our users. I can't have basic functionality, like the ability to set reminders randomly turning off. Maybe you can get someone from the Hangouts team to swoop in and get that sorted. They certainly don't have anything to do these days. So if you guys liked this video, go check out our live unboxing of the ROG Phone 2 and its accessories. And if you really liked it, check out our sponsor. Backblaze offers unlimited cloud backup for Macs and PCs for just $6 a month. Over the years, they've restored over 35 billion files, including documents, music, photos, videos, drawings, projects, and more. With Backblaze, you can restore your files from anywhere. 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