For some time now, Android users have been pretty upset with Google over something some would call a minor inconvenience; the lack of a restart button. Our smartphones and tablets are essentially computers just like our laptops and Desktops of old, which means that there’s a lot going on behind the web pages and games that we play around with day-to-day. As such, it’s often good to give these machines a reboot, to let the RAM clear out and the system start up fresh once again. On the vast majority of devices, there’s a restart option provided users when they press and hold in their power buttons. This is because the likes of LG, HTC and Samsung have added this option in on their own, Google does not provide such an option in stock Android, and it has not appeared in a Nexus or Pixel device for years; until now.
Android 7.1 quickly became the newest version of Android followed by the recently-launched Android 7.0 Nougat release, and has now become available in a Developer Preview for select Nexus devices. This brings with it a number of improvements and new features, but one of them is sure to please those users that either modify their devices or just lament the lack of a restart button. The Developer Preview of Android 7.1 – which could be one of many previews – is available for the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and Pixel C tablet. It adds a simple restart option to the same menu that used to offer nothing more than the option to “Power Off” a device. While this isn’t a long list of Nexus devices, Android 7.1 itself is more than likely going to roll out to all Nexus devices that currently run Android 7.0 Nougat.
The fact that this has made its way into the latest version of Android suggests that the Restart button is here for the long term, and it has even been given its own fancy new icon, too. While a small and insignificant change to a lot of users, there are a lot of Nexus users out there that will no doubt be happy to see change finally make its way to stock Android after all these years.