Android Pie is now available to install, but only for Google Pixel, Pixel 2 users

Google’s latest version of its mobile operating system (OS) Android P, or Android 9, is out now, but only for the tech giant’s Pixel smartphones.

With this release, the company has confirmed that the ‘P’ stands for Pie and people who signed up for the Android Beta programme should receive the update by November.

The OS will be made available for devices from OnePlus, Sony, Oppo, Xiaomi, Essential, and HMD Global, while no date for other smartphone brands has been revealed.

Android Pie mainly focuses on making Android phones faster while conserving the device’s charge. These backdoor improvements include artificial intelligence (AI) tools that silently work in the background and suggest pages and apps, which pop up in small boxes. With this, the user can avoid downloading an app or opening up various tabs in his/her device’s browser.

The OS will also support phones with notches, to keep up with the latest trend in smartphone design.  These phones can now run apps smoothly without having to worry about the notches getting in the way.

Pie will also feature a simpler navigational style in the form of a centralised home button, which can be used: as a back button, to go to the home screen, to open up recent apps, and even summon the Google Assistant.

A setting called Adaptive Battery will make phones more efficient, especially for those powered with outdated processors, in other words, lower than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 or Huawei’s native Kirin processors. The setting will reserve more charge for apps used the most and limit charge for apps used the least.

The OS also has tools designed to help users use their phone less, which may seem contradictory. A new option in the Settings is a Dashboard that tells the user exactly how much time s/he has spent on an app, and even using the phone in general. Dashboard will also allow for setting time limits on certain apps.

As with previous Android models, smartphone manufacturers do not have to incorporate Android Pie into their smartphones the same way Google does. This also may seem contradictory as most Pie users may not be able to enjoy the same features a Google phone user may enjoy.

According to a recent report, only 12.1 percent of Android users use the latest Oreo OS, while about 75 percent were still on the older Nougat (2016), Marshmallow (2015) and Lollipop (2014) versions of the software.