Apple iPhone X’s “notch” may have been a butt of jokes, but it is increasingly becoming clear that many Android smartphone makers are getting ready to go for similar design in their phones. We have already seen leaked renders of Acer’s Zenfone 5 with the “notch” and the likes of Vivo, Huawei and others are rumoured to be working on phones with notches. Essential Phone already features a camera notch. Now, Bloomberg is reporting that Google is trying to make sure these smartphone designs with notch on top play well with Android P, the next major version of Android.
According to Bloomberg, Android P will embrace not just the notch, but other quirky designs like multiple screens and foldable screens. Built-in support for notch and other weird designs will allow the Android smartphone makers to further trim the bezels and offer bigger displays in smaller form-factors. Google is hoping to bring more iPhone users to Android with this change.
“A key goal of this year’s update to the Google mobile operating system is to persuade more iPhone users to switch to Android devices by improving the look of the software,” wrote Bloomberg.
In addition to the notch support, Android P will also more tightly integrate Google Assistant, the voice assistant from Google. The search giant is said to be planning to allow the app developers to integrate Assistant support in their apps. Further, Android P will improve the battery life on Android devices. No other details about the Android P are known at this point.
The Android version is expected to be released as a developer preview at the I/O developer conference in May, followed by the final launch around October.
Android P, which is internally called Pistachio Ice Cream, will be the 14th publicly available major version of Android. The Android 1.5 Cupcake was the first version to be publicly released.
