How to get Android O Features on any Android Smartphone.
With every new version of Android, we all look forward to important feature updates. And like every year, Google recently released the newest version of Android – Android O (if you ask, I’ll bet on Oreo).
However, who are we kidding. As of May 2, 2017 , only 7% of all Android phones on the market are running Android N. And if this trend continues, most of us are not going to try Android O for another 1-2 years.
But you know what, we got you covered. If you really want to give Android O a try, then here are some apps that might work for you.
Note . Your phone must have Android Lollipop or higher to use all features. Although some features may require root access.
On the subject: What’s new in Android N?
Let’s see what’s new in Android O:
- Fingerprint sensor gestures
- Image in image mode
- Responsive icons
- Custom Lock Screen Hotkeys
- Inverted Theme
- Smart Selection text
- Updated emoji
- and much more.
Get Android O features on any Android smartphone
1. Android O Stock wallpapers
With every Android release, Google provides a new set of default wallpapers. And this time with Android O, it’s a satellite image of the ridge from space. The wallpapers are embedded below, but just in case they get compressed here is the Imgur download .
2. Look and feel / adaptive symbols:
While you can always download Pixel Launcher from the side, you get a simplified version that lacks features like Google Now Panel and G Pill Search. A much better alternative is Lawnchair, developed by deletescape, it has all the Pixel Launcher features and works on all phones without rooting. Apart from this, it also contains some advanced features such as icon pack support, responsive themes, hide apps, and many other UI tweaks. It’s free and looks like Pixel Launcher.
But if you are using Android KitKat or below, you need to install Nova Launcher Beta and Pixel Icon Pack. Now go to Nova Settings , then select Appearance , then click Icon Theme and select Pixel Icon Pack.
You can even follow this Geek article on “How to convert Nova Launcher to look like Pixel Launcher”.
The following tweaks will definitely give your phone an Android O-style look.
3. Android O [Substratum] theme
4. Fingerprint sensor gestures
You can swipe down on the fingerprint sensor to open the notification panel. This feature appeared on the Pixel and was later transferred to the Nexus. Now, with Android O, they’ve become popular.
Here’s what you need:
- A rooted or non-rooted smartphone, both will work.
- Android 5.0 or higher.
Go to Google Play Store and install Fingerprint Gestures , now open the app and give it all the permissions it asks for and then configure it.
There are other features like swiping up or down or putting the phone to sleep, but these require root. So, if you have a rooted phone, start messing around.
5. Notification badges
Another cool feature of Android O is notification dots. These are small round blobs that only appear on the app icon if you have an unread notification. Kind of like what we have for centuries in iOS.
But it goes one step further: if you long press on an app icon, you get a quick preview of speech-like bubbles.
So, here’s how to achieve it on any phone using Nova Launcher.
Here’s what you need:
- Phone running Android 5.0 or later.
- Nova Launcher Prime Beta
First of all, you need to install Nova Launcher Prime from the Play Store. This paid app costs $ 4.99. Then you need to register as its beta tester. You can do this by going back to the Play Store link and clicking “ Become A Tester ” as the only beta update has this feature.
Now, after all this, go to Nova Settings on your phone, press Notification Icons and then select Points. You can even adjust the size and position of the dots. So, select large as the size and top right as the position.
[Update: 27-Jul-17]
You can now receive notification badges without using Nova Launcher Prime. You can get them with Lawnchair, a Pixel Launcher port from the developer deletescape.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Load the mower from the side and go to its settings.
- Now click on the UI then click on the notification icons and preview and give permission to access the notifications
It’s free and works like a charm.
6. Android O Emojis revamped
Now Google has finally ditched the teardrop emoji and replaced the round emoji. Perhaps they want to unify emoji on both Android and iOS. (iOS uses circular emoji)
But anyway, if you want circular emojis, you can follow this tutorial from linuxct at XDA Developers at this link . Usually you need to download the zip file and flash it from your own recovery.
Prerequisites for this guide are a phone with rooted and custom recovery installed, and Android version must be 5.0 or higher.
7. Customize Navigation Bar
One of the biggest features of Android O is that it lets you customize the navigation bar. Simply put, you can add extra soft buttons to the left and right of the traditional on-screen navigation buttons like – clipboard, keyboard toggle, volume control, etc. And you know, you can get the same function on any Android device. And then, too, without root access.
We even have a guide on how to get et Android O Custom Navigation Bar on any Android with Nougat [no root]
If your phone does not have Android Nougat, you can use the Pixel Navigation Bar app. Requires Android 4.2 or higher.
8. Picture-in-picture mode:
This is a special kind of multitasking, you can watch any video while doing any task. The video will play in pop-up format.
It will work with YouTube and some other apps.
We may not have an exact function, but we do have something close to it.
To do this, you need to download the Video Popup Player Floating app from the Play Store. This app will play any video from your internal or external memory in a pop-up window and you can view them by doing another task as well.
To play YouTube videos in popup format, you can use this
Free Music for YouTube: Stream App . By default, this app is set to display only music videos, and in order to configure it to display all video clips of all genres, we have to make one change to its settings. So, go to its settings and uncheck “ Music filter only ” and voila! Now you can play any YouTube video in both popup and full screen format.
Wrap-up: Android O features on any Android smartphone
While we Android enthusiasts love getting new Android updates, the sad truth is that most of us won’t be getting Android O by the end of this year or even next year. That said, this guide will at least help you see what’s next, if not the whole picture.
I especially love the notification dots feature in Android O and how easy it is to get it on any Android device using the Nova launcher. Let me know what is your favorite feature in the comments.
Related: 3 Ways to Loop YouTube Videos on Android and iOS