Android O beta released on 2 bn devices

Affirming its dominance in the tech world with announcing beta version of ‘Android O’ operating system, Google is celebrating the milestone of reaching two billion monthly active Android devices globally.

On the first day of its annual I/O conference at its mountain view headquarters in San Francisco late on Wendesday, Google said ‘Android O’ that will be released later this year, would bring more fluid experiences to the devices as well as improvements to areas of the phone called ‘vitals’ like battery life and security.

"With picture in picture, you can seamlessly do two tasks simultaneously, like checking your calendar while planning a party on a duo video call. Smart text selection improves copy and paste," the compnay said in a statement.

By using machine learning to recognise entities on the screen like a complete address, you can easily select text you want with a double tap and even bring up an app like Maps to help navigate you there, it added.

'Android O' is aimed to make phone startup quicker and apps faster, with added optimisations for developers to help prevent your battery from draining. With an aim to reach out to ‘the next billions of users’ with a new initiative, Google also unveiled Android Go, a new configuration of Android for entry level Android devices.

All three of these things will ship together, as a single experience, starting in 2018. Google also introduced Google Play Protect, a comprehensive set of security services for android, providing powerful new protections and greater visibility into your device security.

‘Play Protect’ is built into every device with Google Play, ‘Play Protect’ detects and removes apps that might be harmful. As part of the "Google Play" protect, the company also launched 'Find My Device' that allows users to locate, ring, lock and erase your Android devices, tablets and even watches remotely.