Android O was released today, in the form of its first developer preview. And while Google did indeed announce quite a few changes to this version of Android, there are still quite a few changes that were not announced by Google . And one of those is in the System UI Tuner. This is a part of Android that actually debuted a couple of years ago, but it’s still mostly an alpha feature. It allows you to change aspects of the interface throughout the OS, and now it has the ability to customize your navigation bar. Now it doesn’t do anything crazy like change the color, or width, but it does allow you to add another button either to the left or right of the existing buttons, or both.
It’s pretty extensive actually. You can make these buttons do virtually anything you want. Now obviously this does still need a bit of work, but it does work pretty well. Some of the other additions to the navigation bar customizer is the ability to adjust the layout of the navigation bar. So if you are left handed, you can have the buttons a bit closer to the left side of the display, and the same for those that are right handed. This is going to make using those larger smartphones one-handed a whole lot easier.
The first developer preview for Android O is available right now, and it’s available on the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Pixel, Pixel C and the Pixel XL. Keep in mind that this is a very early version of Android O, and it is definitely not stable. Additionally, it is not in the Android Beta Program just yet, as it is still an alpha version, but it should be available soon. So this means that you’ll need to go ahead and flash the entire factory image onto your device if you want to check it out. If you’re a developer, it’s definitely worth checking out so you can get used to the new API’s and get your apps ready to support Android O when it launches in the third quarter.
