Last week the final developer’s preview of Android 8.1 has been release. Now, the latest Android OS is available for some of Google’s latest smartphones. Android 8.1 brings visual changes and bug fixes.

Android 8.1 new features and changes

Older Google smartphones have received some redesigns introduces with Pixel 2, such as Pixel Launcher. Pixel Launcher is a search bar and a Glance widget. Pixel owners have the quick settings transparent and there is a floating menu and light or dark themes to choose from.

The navigation bar is also lighter and some fixes addressing touch responsiveness and audio recording bugs have been made. There is even an Oreo Easter Egg on the wallpaper.

New changes for developers

Android 8.1 allows third-party apps to use the Pixel Visual Core on Pixel 2 phones. Two new hardware constraints will now give developers the opportunity to target their apps for low RAM devices.

So far there are 19 issues resolved by Android with the release of the December security patched 2017-12-01 and 2017-12-05.

Android Oreo

The latest version of Android has been released in March 2017 for developers. Some of the features of Android Oreo are the picture-in-picture support for video, battery optimization and performance improvements, Bluetooth 5, wide color gamuts, Wi-Fi aware and support autofillers.

Android fans are usually also owners of Pixel or Nexus devices, since these are the first smartphones to get the newest Android OS. Google has released Android Oreo at first for Pixel C, Pixel and Pixel XL, Nexus 5X, Nexus Player and Nexus 6P. The official release of Android Oreo was in August of this year during a promotional event in New York City. The first device sold with the pre-installed Android Oreo OS was Sony Xperia XZ1.