The G8 ThinQ is the latest flagship from LG, pre-loaded with Android 9 Pie and V40 ThinQ is a last year flagship came with pre-installed Android 8.1 Oreo and received the official Android 9 Pie update in Q3 of 2019. The next big update for these flagships is Android 10 Q which is the tenth anniversary edition.
The first Beta of Android Q arrived on 13th, March with many exciting features but they are still buggy at that time. Later, on April 3rd, the Search giant pushed out the second beta with some improvements. At Google I/O 2019, on May 7th, the third Beta is released with official night mode and many new features. The final and sixth beta is pushed out for Pixel series in August with final system behaviours and Google released the Android 10 update officially on September 3rd. The final update is called as Android 10 only without any codename as Google dropped the tradition of naming Android updates with famous desserts.
When will LG G8 and V40 get Android 10 ?
The South Korean tech giant promises at an event in South Korea, that they will rollout the Android 10 updates quickly to regain the consumers trust. Because of Project Treble and other optimizations, we also expect that LG’s Android 10 rollout will proceed quickly and smoothly without any hiccups.
LG already announced a beta program of Android 10 for G8 ThinQ in its home country and the rollout is scheduled to begin before the end of October. The rollout will spread to V50 ThinQ in November, 2019. Albeit LG made no official announcement, we can expect the beta rollout for V40 ThinQ in December, 2019.
So it is very clear that LG is aiming for stable rollout for G8 in early- Q1 of 2020. Most likely, the unlocked V40 consumers may receive the stable update in late-Q1 of 2020. Carrier locked users of V40 may receive the update in early-Q2 of 2020. We will post the official rollout schedule here, as soon as LG announced it.
What new features coming with Android 10 update ?
The Android 10 update for LG G8 and V40 is coming with many exciting features like dark mode, improved Gesture navigation, refined Digital Wellbeing and many more. Most likely LG may rollout UX 9.0 user interface with the update, since the tech giant rolledout UX 8.0 with the Pie update. The new features in UX 9 are yet to be revealed.
Android Q Dark mode
The dark theme is one of the most requested features and now waiting is over. The third beta cum preview of Android Q feature full system-wide dark theme for UI and also apps. Users who installed the preview can enable the dark mode by going to Settings > Display > Theme.
The developers can develop a dark theme manually for their apps or Android apply the dark theme automatically. So users don’t have to manually change the theme while using apps. Full details about the Dark theme will be revealed in coming days.
Gestural Navigation
The Search Giant introduced the gesture navigation and removed Overview icon from the navigation bar in Android 9 Pie. Continuing innovation, Google unveiled full gestural navigation in Android Q. By selecting Gestural Navigation option in Settings, users can use full screen real estate without navigation bar.
Instructions for Gestural navigation are there in Settings menu. In coming days, new gestures might be introduced through updates. However, it up to LG whether use the Gestural navigation in UX 9.0 or not.
According to latest leaks, the fifth Beta is coming with an improvement for Back gesture of Android Q. There is an option to change the sensitivity of Back gesture, according to the leaked screenshot. So user can change the sensitivity from low to high. The option, Fully Gestural navigation renamed to Gesture navigation in the upcoming Beta.
Improved Digital Wellbeing
The Search giant brings the Digital Wellbeing feature with Android 9 update last year to decrease smartphone addiction in android users. Now with the Android 10 update, Google refined the feature further with two new components : Focus mode and Parental controls.
Focus mode helps to reduce distractions while working on something on smartphone, so that improves productivity. By using Focus mode, users can watch a video or browse web without any interruptions from notifications. To switch-on the focus mode users can go to Digital wellbeing dashboard and it can be turned-off by tapping on the shortcut created on Home screen or Quick settings toggles.
Parental controls is a new component which reduces smart phone addiction in children. Users can set a timer for specific app usage, screen-on time and even lock some apps.
Improved Notifications
In Android Q third beta, snoozing of notifications is gone and replaced with other options. Google introduced snoozing of notifications feature with Android Oreo, so that users can set a particular time i.e. 2 hours after that the notification re-appear. Removal of snoozing might be hard for some users, but they can use other new options.
Notifications of apps can be set as Inturruptive or Gentle in Android Q. In Inturruptive setting, notifications of the app appears on lock screen and play sound while in Gentle mode, they don’t make noice and don’t appear on lockscreen. In coming Beta, the Search giant may refine notifications further.
Native support for TLS 1.3
TLS 1.3 (Transport Layer Security) is a new security protocol through which users can access Websites on internet more securely. The newer protocol comes with many refinements over previous TLS 1.2 both in terms of speed and security. Google added support for TLS 1.3 in Chrome 66 and Mozilla added in Firefox 60. However, third-party apps running on Android 9 Pie still uses TLS 1.2 to connect to their servers.
Google fixed the issue in Android 10 and added support for TLS 1.3. So all the apps running on Android 10 should connect to internet by using TLS 1.3 as default. The new protocol not only improves privacy of users but also drastically speeds up the loading by shaving off latency by about 40 percent. So users will experience quick loading of offers and other services in apps which requires Internet.
Live Captions
The Feature shows the real-time transcripts of Playing Video or any video calls in Skype. So challenged users can use the device without any third-party apps or difficulty. User experience will be enhanced with the Live Captions feature and normal users also can be benefited from the feature.
Usually captions appears at the bottom of the screen while playing a video or on a video call in Android 10. However, users can move captions box through out the screen. But there is no way to save these transcripts as they close automatically after the video or call ends. We hope Google improve the feature with more colorful UI and option to save transcripts in the upcoming updates.
Native Support for 5G
The Android Q update comes with native support for upcoming 5G networks with low latencies and lightening fast transfer speeds. So App developers can utilize the Android 10 support to make thier apps better and more user-friendly. The Developers of 5G expect that the invention of 5G and Android Q support will lead to some unanticipated new app or funtion as 4G spurred video streaming on facebook and Youtube. In coming days, more details about 5G support of Android Q will be revealed.
Project Mainline
The Search Giant revealed many details about Project Mainline at the I/O 2019 in May. According to Google, android developers can update the critical modules of Android straight from Google Play without the rollout of full software update from OEM. So these updates will be downloaded and installed in background and applied at reboot.
The Search Giant told that Project Treble will come to all devices running on Android Q, no matter the manufacture is. However, full details about Project Treble will be revealed in coming days.
Back sensitivity
The final-cum-sixth Beta of Android Q comes with a new feature to enhance Gesture navigation experience. After enabling Gesture navigation in Settings menu, user can tap on the gear icon besides it to adjust the back sensitivity. By the sensitivity slider user can customize the back gesture. High sensitivity conflicts with any gestures along the edge of the screen.
Battery Saver Schedule
Google introduced the Battery saver feature for stock android with the Lollipop updated and refined it further in Marshmallos and subsequent updates. The feature is very much useful to squeeze out extra hours from battery without affecting foreground performance much. In Android Q, users can customize the Android’s battery saver settings.
Previously, the option is there only to turn-on the saver when tue device charge dips below a particular level. But in Android Q, new option facilitates to turn-off the battery saver automatically when the device charge is above 90 percent. So the battery is cycled properly and that improves battery life. Users can use Schedule battery saver option to turn-on automatically based on typical charge frequency and usage or at at particular level. In upcoming releases, more refinements to the battery saver feature might come.
Other features in the stock Android Q Beta 3 release are parental controls in Digital well being, Vibration intensity setting, Native support for the AV1 video codec. The new features came with the Beta 6 include new fast rotation button, Back sensitivity, Improved Google Camera, new Emergency button, hidden Gesture navigation bar on the home screen.
Update on 4/9/2019 :
Finally, the tenth anniversary edition of Android came out of beta stage. The Search giant begins the official rollout of Android 10, few hours ago. Essential also starts the rollout for select PH-1 devices very soon after Google started the rollout. The final update is very similar the sixth Beta and fixes some bugs. We are still looking for any fresh changes in the official release of Android 10.
LG hasn’t announced any thing about the rollout of Android 10 for V40 and G8 flagships. We have contacted them to know any probable rollout dates. So we will post here, as soon as we get any response from them.
Update on 18/7/2019 :
The fifth Beta of Android Q hit the Pixel series devices and Essential Phone. The Beta rollout begins on 11th of this month but pulled very soon due to some reports of bugs while installing the update. But on 12th, the rollout re-started and continues without any problems. The fifth Beta is very near to final system behaviours, according to Google.
The Beta doesn’t contain Facial authentication feature as rumoured previously. The key features of this beta includes : dark boot animation for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL devices, silent lockscreen notifications, some improvements to dark mode and Notification snoozing customization. The sixth and last Beta is due to come in late-July or early-August, according to the official roadmap.
Update on 26/6/2019 :
Google released the fourth Beta of Android Q on 6th, June and began the rollout for the registered Pixel users on the same day. But due to multiple bootloop reports, Google stopped the rollout and later fixed the issue and re-started the rollout on June 12th. The update is a minor one and contains fixes for dark theme, changes in padlock position on lock screen, Face Authentication option in Settings menu and so on. In this update, Google finalized the APIs and SDK is available for developers.
With this update, Google sent signals that native support for Face unlock and Face authentication for payments is coming to Android with the Android Q update. The fifth and sixth betas are due to release in the next month, so we will learn more about Android Q in coming days.
