In case you’ve forgotten since the last time we all talked about Android 10, there are plenty of new features to try out here. Android now has a system-wide dark mode, for one, which should ease the strain on your eyes and on your Pixel’s battery. Google also overhauled its gesture navigation scheme (again), and while you don’t have to use these tweaked controls, it’s still interesting to see how Google thinks we should be interacting with our Android devices.

Sharing links and content should be a lot more elegant this time around, and Google’s new Focus Mode should make it easier to silence certain apps while you’re trying to get work done. Oh, and this version of Android packs full support for foldable like the Galaxy Fold, though it’ll be a while yet before we actually get to see what’s new on that front.

Of course, Google baked a slew of new security and privacy features into Android’s core too. Some, like more insistent permission controls for your device’s location, will be pretty hard to ignore. Many others, though, like Google’s push to compartmentalize certain Android components for faster updates through the Play Store, should be much less intrusive.

Unfortunately, even Pixel owners will have to wait a little longer to try out some of the features Google showed off at its developer conference earlier this year. Live Caption, which automatically converts audio into on-screen text, will launch later this fall on Pixels before rolling out to a handful of other devices. At this point, we’re not exactly sure what’s going on with the super-fast, shrunken-down Google Assistant the company demoed on-stage in May either — we’re installing the final build to see for ourselves, but we’re not holding our collective breath. All told, though, there’s a lot to dig into once you’ve installed the update, and we wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve stopped reading by now to get a feel for everything yourself.

You’ll see more characters for accessibility, such as guide dogs, wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs. Also, the well-known “holding hands” emote now includes many more combinations of skin colors and gender. You can also find India-focused emotes like a Hindu temple, a Diya lamp and a sari. On the silly side, you can expect animals like sloths, otters and flamingos, not to mention underpants and yo-yos.

Apple will only say that the new emoji are coming as part of a software update in the fall, but that’s basically shorthand for the releases of iOS 13, iPadOS, macOS Catalina and watchOS 6. The Google-inclined, meanwhile, will have to either try the Android Q beta or wait for Q’s finished release to reach their hardware in the months ahead.

In the meantime, the Unicode crew isn’t standing still. It’s talking about a possible mechanism that would let you modify the color of non-human emoji. You could have a black cat, or show white whine instead of red. The system could come as soon as the Unicode 13.0 spec (that is, 2020), but it’s not set in stone just yet.

If you’d rather just limit the use of certain apps altogether, then try its daily limits. That feature similarly locks down chosen apps once you’ve done enough mindless scrolling for the day. Don’t need the willpower assist and want to manage use on your own? Then check out another beta feature, the Usage Assistant brings the stat tracking of how much you’ve been using a particular app to the notification shutter and lock screen.

ActionDash works on versions of Android going back to Lollipop, and while it’s free in the Play Store, the app isn’t an attempt to siphon usage data. Instead, information remains on your device (unless you choose to enable backups to Dropbox or similar), since it’s supported by a $6.99 upgrade that enables these new features and allows for those backups. Also, it pulls the data from the Android OS, so it shouldn’t add any additional battery drain.

ASUS decided to throw in a generous 5,000mAh battery here, while most other phones tend to top out at 4,000mAh. The engineers went to great lengths to justify this decision: It was either a smaller capacity with super fast charging or a larger capacity within the same battery size, but slower charging.

ASUS went with the latter, claiming that endurance should come before convenience. There’s also the concern of faster degradation with high-power charging. According to the company’s comparison tests, both implementations eventually reach the same charging capacity at around the same time, so ASUS might as well offer more battery juice to its users. As a bonus, the battery here does reverse charging too, meaning you can share some love with others in need, so long as you have the right type of USB-C cable handy.

And now, the camera. You’ll find both a common 48-megapixel f/1.79 main camera (with laser focus), a 13-megapixel 125-degree ultra-wide camera on the flippable module plus a dual-LED flash. There’s no optical stabilization here due to limited space, but both cameras support up to 4K video recording (up to 60fps on the main camera but no electronic stabilization at this speed), and the main one also handles up to 720p 480fps slow-motion capture.

The obvious benefit of having a flip camera is that much like the other phones with a (less complicated) pop-up camera, their screens don’t have to put up with a notch. But a flip camera also provides a range of practical uses, namely free-angle shooting (0 to 180 degrees), automatic vertical or horizontal panorama photos and more. You can also use the flip camera for face unlock, but note that it’s not as safe as 3D cameras.

The whole flippable module is wrapped in what ASUS calls “liquid metal,” mainly for its improved lightness and toughness compared to, say, stainless steel. The movement is activated by a stepper motor which smoothly rotates by two degrees per step. Like the pop-up cameras on other phones, it automatically retracts when a fall is detected — just in time for a 1.25-meter drop, or at least within a safe angle if it’s just a one-meter drop, as ASUS claims. All told, the company says the mechanism has been tested to last for over 100,000 continuous flips.

I haven’t had much time to properly try the ZenFone 6’s cameras, but my selfies were some of the best I’ve seen — perhaps with too much detail, even, thanks to the super high-resolution main camera, but there’s always beautification mode to patch up my facial flaws. Indoor pictures look accurate so far, and the HDR++ mode produces even cleaner details, though I’m less impressed with my few cloudy outdoor shots. I’ve also tried the motion tracking video mode, but again, it’s still work in progress; sometimes the tracking stopped halfway through. I’ll be able to make a better assessment once I’ve spent more time with the phone with its final firmware.

What he didn’t expect, back when he was helping define 4G, was that video streaming would explode in popularity the way it did and become the most obvious benefit of the new network technology. “4G made it possible to do video streaming, which was not conceivable before,” Grilli told Engadget at Google I/O this week.

The biggest users of 4G’s video streaming capacity today are Facebook and YouTube, according to Grilli, something the world wouldn’t have imagined back when the standard was being drawn up. The increased bandwidth paved the way for Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to add video posts to users’ feeds, and the explosion of mobile video spurred generations of flagship phones designed to display and capture high-quality footage.

During his 20 years at Qualcomm, Grilli has worked on technologies for UMTS, 4G and now 5G standards. He thinks 5G will spur the same sort of unanticipated trend the way 4G did for video streaming. “Maybe there will be a moment when some developer will come up with an application that doesn’t run well on this generation that will work well on the next to become the killer app,” he said.

As for the “killer use case” for 5G? That depends on developers, and that’s why this week’s announcement that Android Q is designed to let apps detect the 5G network performance matters. Basically, Qualcomm and Google extended an existing Android API tool that provides developers with network performance information to work with 5G as well. Since the calculation at the modem level is different for 4G and 5G, Grilli said, some work had to be done to enable Android Q to deliver this information to developers.

Armed with that data, developers can code different options into their app. “I can enable some new attributes of the app that I couldn’t use before because it wasn’t feasible,” Grilli explained. Say you find you’re experiencing high throughput and fast speeds. A video streaming app, for example, can choose to immediately push through high-res video at 60 fps or 120 fps, while loading just 720p clips at 30 fps on slower networks.

YouTube is one of the biggest users of this tool, Grilli said, as it checks a device’s downlink speed to adjust buffer rates. Grilli also gave an example of how game developers could use this feature to create a “5G mode.” Players on faster networks can compete against users with similar latency and speeds, instead of having an advantage over others on slower connections. This advanced mode could also serve up higher frame rates for smoother gameplay.

Grilli and his colleague Ignacio Contreras spent Thursday morning at a “Thinking in 5G” workshop with Google’s vice president of marketing, platforms and ecosystems Bob Borchers (and close to 100 developers). After Borchers and Grilli gave a brief presentation, developers broke into groups to come up with proposals on ways to use 5G. Each team’s favorite idea was submitted into a pool, and participants were given stickers to vote for the best suggestions.

While Grilli believes some popular uses for 5G will involve 4K and VR streaming, many of the ideas developers came up with at the workshop had to do with live sports experiences and broadcasting over multiple cameras.

There were some unique, intriguing ideas, too. One participant from Korea suggested using 5G and AR to leave video restaurant reviews that could be overlaid on top of the actual location. Future guests could stream the clip over 5G and see the reviewer inside the restaurant talking about their experience.

A woman with a passion for music suggested tapping 5G’s promised low latency for live jam sessions with remote instrumentalists. Playing in sync over existing networks has been challenging since there are delays between one musician hitting a note and it actually sounding on the other end. If 5G’s latency is low enough, it could enable real-time remote jam sessions with no lag.

Whether 5G truly changes our lives hinges on how we use it. Developers are a key piece of the puzzle, and at this Google I/O, they certainly appeared to be thinking about the next-gen technology. As networks come online and compatible devices begin to proliferate, the next step is clear: apps must evolve and make full use of 5G’s promised benefits. “We need to encourage and explain to them what 5G is and why they need to pay attention to it,” Grilli said. “If they don’t, someone else will and they’ll be left behind.”

Dark Mode

The most obvious new feature, which got a loud, welcoming response during the keynote, is Dark Mode. It’s not just a night-friendly mode that saves your eyes; it saves your phone’s energy, too. Go into Settings and search for “Dark” and select the Dark theme (as opposed to the Light alternative). This flips the color scheme from dark text on a white background to the reverse throughout the system and in supported apps.

It’s important to note here: not all apps support the dark theme. In this beta, at least, supported apps are mostly Google’s own, like Photos, Messages, YouTube and Dialer, but these already had a version of the dark interface. Calendar does a strange thing where its startup page will be black or white depending on the mode you’re in, but the actual interface is the same light background in both cases.

Google said that it’s developers who need to make their apps display a different color scheme when dark mode is activated, and it has tools to help them with that. One of them shows developers what their apps would look like dark mode simply by flipping its colors. If they like the way that looks, the tool can cut down many of the steps needed to add support for dark mode. Otherwise, there are other tools to help them figure it out.

For now, Dark Mode on the Android Q beta 3 is not yet truly system wide, but it’s a nice start.

Don’t expect the beta to be the same across all compatible Android devices, though. While the beta is available across 21 different phones, it’s up to manufacturers to decide which parts of the UI they want to implement. On a Huawei Mate 20 Pro, for example, I tried to enable dark mode but saw no difference when it was on or off. I also couldn’t find gesture navigation or dark mode on some of the other handsets on display, like an Essential PH-1 or a Nokia 8.1. Only the LG G8 I was using had all the new features. Basically, your experience with this beta may vary depending on the phone you have.

Gesture navigation

Another significant change is in navigation. With Android Q, you’ll be able to use a fully gesture-based system that resembles the one in the iPhone X and XS. That means you can replace the triangle, circle and square (back, home and all apps) with a swipe-based system. To be clear, you could already do this in Android P, but Q introduces some new gestures and completely removes the back button altogether.

This isn’t a mandatory or default mode (not yet, anyway). You can enable this in the settings by searching for “gestures.” When enabled, you’ll find a bar at the bottom that’s slightly wider and thinner than the “pill” in Android Pie. While you could tap the pill to go home, in the Q beta, the bar doesn’t do anything when pressed. It’s more of an indicator for where you should be swiping.

Flick it up quickly to go to the home page and swipe sideways on it to switch between your open apps. Go back by swiping in from the right edge of the screen. You can pull up the app drawer from the home or recent apps pages, though not if you have an app open. You also no longer summon Google Assistant by long pressing on the pill or home button; instead, you have to drag diagonally up from the bottom left or right corners of the display. Or, you know, say “OK Google.”

I was a little upset at losing the back button at first, but over time I realized I like swiping from the edge of the screen. Since I can do so from basically anywhere on the display’s edge, so it’s handy when I’m gripping my phone nearer the top or holding it horizontally. And if you don’t like it, you can always go back to a more familiar button-based interface.

To Google’s credit, though, it’s offering users a choice. When new Android Q devices start going on sale later this year, they’ll all have the classic three-button navigation system and the new swipe-centric system we’ve been talking about. And to be clear, I do mean all new Android Q devices will have these options.

To make the act of using Android feel as universal and consistent as possible, device makers like Samsung, Huawei, LG and the rest will have to offer these navigation systems on new phones, even if they’ve developed their own gesture interfaces. If you already have an Android phone that you eventually update to Q, your navigation system won’t change by default. (For now, that seems like the only way to keep the gesture controls that debuted with Android Pie.)

The benefits to this approach are pretty clear: if you ever switch Android phones post-Q, you probably won’t face a steep learning curve as you get acquainted with your new device. And by ensuring that all new Android Q devices have the new gesture navigation, Google is making it so that devices with smaller screens don’t feel nearly as cramped. That said, most phone makers of note have already cooked up their own gesture navigation systems in response to the (lackluster) option available in Android P, and the last thing Google wants to do is take that option away from users.

The company will strongly “encourage” its hardware partners to embrace Android Q’s navigation schemes, but the Samsungs, OnePluses and Huaweis of the world can continue to make custom skins with custom gesture interfaces for people who really want to use something different. The catch, according to a Google spokesperson is that those companies have to offer Google’s gestures right out of the box if they want to include some custom gestures.

Huang said the reason for this push to standardize navigation is because of app developers: their job gets infinitely more difficult if they have to worry about how different swipe gestures performed inside apps gets misinterpreted as something else. By insisting on one (or two) main modes of interaction, Google is trying to take some of the load off developers who might otherwise have to design their software with specific devices in mind. As far as Huang is concerned, that doesn’t lead anywhere good.

“If everyone does their own thing, Android apps are going to get worse,” he added.

And to be clear, Google hasn’t just sprung this on its hardware partners this week. According to Huang, the company reached out to major phone makers well in advance, and some OEMs have specifically asked Google to develop standard Android gesture controls. Well, wish granted, whoever you are.

With Android Q’s summer launch getting closer by the day, Google doesn’t have much time left to iron out the early issues with its new gesture controls. Based on what I’ve experienced in the last few days, though, Google has taken some significant steps forward when it comes to the ease and quality of interacting with Android. That’s only going to become more important as it tries to connect with its next billion users, so here’s hoping the coming months are well spent.

To say that Google had a busy I/O keynote would be an understatement. There were new Pixel phones and a Nest smart display, but those were really just the start. Google also had an avalanche of AI and software updates, including a next-gen Assistant, AR search and of course Android Q. That’s a lot to digest, but don’t fret about catching up. We’ve assembled the highlights of the keynote in a 13-minute clip that will get you up to speed on Google’s many plans.

AT&T introduced the 5GE (5G Evolution) in January on Samsung’s Galaxy S8 Active and LG’s V30. But as true 5G networks are still being tested, 5GE really indicates 4G LTE-Advanced — a mix of 4G LTE plus technologies like 4×4 MIMO antennas, 256 QAM and carrier aggregation. AT&T’s competitors were quick to mock and dispute the icon. And a study by OpenSignal claimed the so-called 5GE network tested slower than enhanced 4G on Verizon and T-Mobile, though AT&T said the methodology was flawed.

The problem, critics charge, is that the label is misleading and will only confuse people, especially when actual 5G coverage is available. As Verizon previously wrote, “The potential to over-hype and under-deliver on the 5G promise is a temptation that the wireless industry must resist.” But this isn’t all that different from when AT&T started using the 4G label while everyone else was still on 3G. Now that the 5GE icon is available in AOSP, there’s a good chance that, as AT&T promised, we’ll begin seeing a lot more of it.