The G7 and G7 Power are mid-range devices from Motorola, running on Android 9 Pie out of the box. Both devices are powered by Snapdragon 632 chipset and launched in February, 2019.
The next big update for these mid-rangers is Android 10 Q. Motorola already announced that the Moto G series is guaranteed for one major android update. So there is no doubt G7 and G7 Power will receive the Android Q update.
Google announced the first beta of Android 10 on March 13th and pushedout the second beta with many improvements in April. Recently, on May 7th, Google launched the third beta cum preview and rolledout for Pixel 3 and Pixel 2 series devices. Along with Pixel, the flagships of many tech giants like Sony, LG, Nokia has received the third beta. Unfortunately, since, Motorola is not in the Beta program, no official Beta is available for any Motorola devices.
The last beta of Android Q arrived in early-August with final system behaviours and security bug fixes. Finally, on September 3rd, the official edition of Android 10 came out. The rollout hits Pixel series devices on the same day. The update also comes with September month’s security patch. Google announced in a blog post that the naming tradition of Android versions with famous desserts is dropped, so the next major updates are called with version numbers only. So the latest android update is called as Android 10 only without any codename.
When G7 and G7 Power are going to get Android 10 Q ?
Although, the official rollout schedule hasn’t announced by Motorola, we can predict based on the previous rollouts. The Moto G6 began receiving the Android Pie rollout in February 2019 and the rollout spreads to the US in April.
So we expect the Lenovo-owned tech giant may begin the Android Q rollout for Moto G7 and G7 Power in Q1 of 2020. But carrier locked devices might get the update in Q2 of 2020. We will post the official release dates of Android 10 for Moto G7 series, as soon as Motorola has announced them.
What’s new in Android 10 Q update ?
The tenth anniversary edition of Android comes with some remarkable features like Dark Theme, Improved Gestural navigation, support for 5G, Digital wellbeing updated with Parental controls and so on. Now we explore the notable features of Android Q one by one.
Android Q Dark Theme
Dark theme for android is one of the most requested features and now Google brings it with Android Q update. Till now, dark mode is available only in some custom roms and Samsung One UI. The third Beta of Android Q features full system-wide dark theme which works even with apps. So users don’t have to change theme in individual apps, Android automatically turn-on dark theme in each app when Dark theme is on.
Users can turn-on the dark theme through the Settings Menu or by turning on the Battery saver. More refinements can come to dark theme through future updates.
Improved Digital Wellbeing
Digital Wellbeing is one of the great features arrived with Android 9 Pie. Using the feature, users can check their smartphone usage, mostly used Apps and many interesting metrics like screen lock open times. By using the feature, users can limit smart phone addiction and change to Black and White screen mode in night time to reduce eye strain.
In Android Q third Beta, Google added parental controls to the Digital Wellbeing feature. So parents can set specific app use time instead of just screen on time in the latest version of Digital wellbeing. Focus mode is another refinement to Digital well being in Android 10 Q. Using the Focus mode feature, users can temporarily disable some apps while getting done important work on other apps or during watching netflix in downtime. So there are no notifications from social media apps when focus mode is set.
Support for TLS 1.3
The Search giant brings support for TLS 1.3 for Chrome browser few months ago, with the version number 70. Now android will also support the latest version of TLS, so that all third party apps using Webview should communicate to their servers over TLS 1.3.
There are two major refinements in TLS 1.3 over its predecessors. The version feature more strenghthened cipher suites and zero-roundtrip-time, gives more safe and low latency experience to Moto G7 and G7 Power users.
Smart Reply
The latest iteration of Android comes with smart reply feature which is based machine-learning. The features basically in the way : When a message arrives in messaging or chat app, in the notification, quick replies along with emojis or quick shortcuts launch other apps will appear. For example, when the user received a message containing address, then a bubble showing option to navigate in Maps app will appear in the notification along with the message. Then, user can simply tap on the bubble to launch maps to navigate to the address.
As the feature uses on-device machine learning, replies will change according to user’s behavior. More details about the Smart reply feature will be revealed in coming days.
Battery saver schedule
The tenth anniversary update for Android came with many refinements to battery saver and AI associated automatic schedule is one of them. The Moto G7 and G7 Power users head to Settings>Battery>Battery Saver>Battery Saver Schedule and set enable option “Based on Your routine” and forget about Battery saver as Android will manage it.
The feature automatically enables and disables Battery saver based on user’s behaviour, charging patterns and many more. It uses AI associated on-device machine learning to analyze and improves battery life a lot, if the user sticks to a schedule.
Live Captions
The Search giant brings live caption feature with the third beta of Android Q in May. The feature offer real time transcripts of songs, videos and even support video calling apps like Google Duo, Skype. So to use the Live caption feature, user tap on the software icon in the volume slider box which appears after tapping any button of volume rocker. Then, user will see real-time transcripts at the bottom of the screen, by double tapping on transcript, user can move it through-out the screen. More customization for the live captions feature may come in upcoming Android updates.
However, we are not sure the feature come to Moto G7 series, as Google said that the feature will come only to High-end phones first because of its high ram requirements and intensive CPU usage.
Fully Gestural Navigation
In Android 9 Pie, the Search giant introduced the Gusture navigation to remove overview button and also Back button. In the third Beta cum preview of Android 10, the navigation bar is almost disappeared from screen.
When the user enabled the fully gestural navigation option in Settings menu, the user swipe up from bottom of the screen to go Home and to go Back swipe from left or right edge of screen. If user doesn’t like the new navigation gestures, easily change to Three button or Two button navigation. So Motorola’s own gesture controls might be replaced with Google’s navigation with the Android Q update, according to some leaks.
Update on 28/11/2019 :
It seems that Motorola is getting ready to begin its Android 10 rollout. The Android 10 update is certified for Moto Z4 and spotted in Wi-Fi alliance, few days ago. So it is clear that Android 10 rollout is imminent for Moto Z4. After Z3 Play and Moto G8 series, the next devices to receive the update are most likely G7 and G7 Power. So in a few weeks, confirmed rollout dates of Android 10 for G7 and G7 Power will be revealed.
Update on 19/9/2019 :
Finally, the tenth iteration of Android came out on September, 3rd. The rollout begins Pixel devices on the same day and on September 5th, the Search giant uploaded it to AOSP. Along with Google, Essential also started the rollout for PH-1 flagship devices. Motorola announced nothing about the rollout of the update for its devices.
With this update, Google dropped the naming of Android versions with desserts and so the update is called as Android 10 only. The update comes with September month’s security patch and some refinements like charging part clean notifications and so on.
Update on 5/7/2019 :
It seems that the fifth Beta is leaked early before its official rollout. A Pixel 3 user in Reddit claimed to have received the Android Q Beta 5 update recently and now 9to5Google confirmed that the rollout is legit. The screenshots leaked through 9to5Google reveals that a Back button sensitivity setting is coming to Android with Beta 5. The Pixel 3XL device in screenshots shows that the version number is QP1A.190626.001 which is different from the earlier version number begining with QPP. The device has received even August’s Security patch, according to the screenshot. So it seems the build is a very internal one and leaked accidentally.
The system navigation page in the build shows a Gear icon besides the Gesture Navigation options which seems to be renamed from Fully Gestural Navigation in the earlier beta. Tapping on the Beta shows Back sensitivity slider ranging from low to High and also shows warning that High Back sensitivity will conflict with the Gestures along the edge of the screen. According to the user received the update, Gesture navigation is working much smooth in this update. More details about the feature will be revealed once Google finalized the update and starts rolling out.
We will update this post soon with more details about Android Q for Moto G7 and G7 Power devices.
