Android "O" May Or May Not Have These 3 Smart Features
With Android Nougat well settled in, at least based on the latest Android Distribution chart, and with Google I/O just a little over two months, the guessing game not only for Android's next name but also its upcoming features is starting to warm up. With Assistant, Google seems to be driving its platforms, including Android, towards artificial intelligence and that may be partially true for Android "O" as well. According to a source, Google developers are working on some rather "smart" features that may end up in the next Android version or even the one after that.
Have you ever been in that situation where you saw something in one app then switched to another, only to realized what you really wanted to do was copy something from app A to app B? Currently, you have no choice but to switch again, long press and copy whatever content, switch apps again, and paste. With an upcoming feature called "Copy Less", Android might cut out some of those steps and save you some stress. Once you start typing, for example in a messaging app, Gboard, Google's fancy new keyboard app, will make suggestions what to add next, including that location you may have searched for in another app.
Another feature in development would automatically identify a piece of text as an address and turn it into a link that you can tap on to launch Google Maps. No more copying and pasting from e-mail or messaging app just to see where that address is located. Gmail's web version already does something like that for dates and times but not on mobile and definitely not for addresses.
Both of these features rely on some level of machine learning to correctly identify the context of the action, be it within a conversation or just within a piece of text. The last feature, in comparison, probably doesn't need as much brainpower. A gesture or character drawn on the whole screen, for example, can be interpreted into a command to open an app or start an action. Some OEMs, apps, and ROMs already provide this "quick launch" feature.
While already in the works, the way the source tells it, it seems that Google isn't exactly in a rush to roll them out. That said, iOS already has some of these features, to some extent or in some incarnation, so the window of time to implement these features is growing smaller by the month.
VIA: VentureBeat