Last month, Google released new Android Pie to Pixel series phones and was later made available to select third-party mobile brands including the Essential phone. Now, Chinese technology major Huawei has plans to bring the latest OS to its phones soon. As the first step, it has opened the beta testing programme.
Huawei's Android Pie-based EMUI 9 beta programme is now live online and interested consumers can enrol in it. The sub-brand Honor is also a part of the initiative.
List of Huawei devices eligible for EMUI 9 beta programme:
- Huawei Mate 10 Pro
- Huawei Mate 10
- Huawei P20 Pro
- Huawei P20
- Honor 10
- Honor View 10
- Honor Play
Here's how to enrol for Huawei's EMUI 9 beta programme:
Step 1: Go to the official Huawei Friendly User Test website (here)
Step 2: Download the application of the same name Friendly User Test (Beta)
Step 3: After installation, open the app and agree to the terms and conditions
Step 4: If you already have a Huawei ID and password, log in to the app or else a create one by submitting official email ID and phone number for authentication purposes
Step 5: Once you are logged in to the app, tap the 'Join project' section >> 'Available project' and select Huawei EMUI 9 Beta. Then, do the sign-up procedure and you are good to go.
Once selected, users will have the Android Pie-based EMUI 9 software Over-The-Air to the phone. The testers can give feedback and also if they report any bug if they find it on the app. This will escalate the issue to the company software developers and will find a fix.
This will go for a month or two and once convinced, the software is fully optimised and bug-free. The company will release it to the public en masse, probably by the end of 2018 or early 2019.
Android 9.0 Pie: Key features you should know
Search engine giant Google has introduced numerous value-added features including latest security upgrades in Pie over the Android Oreo series.
One of the key attributes include full-view screen friendly swipe-based navigation interface option, revamped setting drawer, adaptive battery and display, extend battery life and several others.
Android 9 Pie also makes notifications more useful and offer actionable functionalities with conversations such as attach photos and stickers along with suggesting smart replies.
After upgrading to the Android Pie, devices will restrict any apps accessing users' phone microphone, camera, or other sensors when an app is idle or running in the background. (If an app does need to access a sensor, it will show a persistent notification on your phone.)
The new Android 9 also brings important improvements that protect all web communications and offer private web surfing. It enables encryption of Android backups with a client-side secret (the device PIN, pattern or password) for greater security.
Furthermore, Android 9 introduces a number of new security features, including a standardized biometric authentication prompt to provide a more consistent authentication experience across Android.
In addition to Google features, Huawei has plans to bring its own custom features like parental control features to limit the screen-time on children's mobile phones. It is also incorporating GPU Turbo 2.0 to make the device faster and also improve gaming user-experience.
