Honor has confirmed that the Honor 8 Pro will start getting Android 8.0 Oreo update starting today, while the Honor 9 will follow shortly. This information comes from Honor UK (though the update is not limited to UK units only, it seems, but all global models), and on top of Android 8.0 Oreo, Honor users will be getting Emotion UI (EMUI) 8.0, Honor’s very own skin which ships on top of Google’s operating system. Honor also added that this update primarily focuses on speed and efficiency, and that it brings improved boot times and reduced background activity which usually affects battery life and data plans.
This update will also bring a number of new Android 8.0 Oreo features to the two devices, plus some of Honor’s very own additions and changes. The Honor 8 Pro and Honor 9 will be able to take advantage of the Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode which was announced by Google last year, which essentially lets you minimize a video that you’re watching to a small window which you can move wherever you want on your phone’s display, and which is placed on top of everything else that you have going on at the moment. Do keep in mind that this mode will not work with any app, a particular app needs to support PiP mode, it will work with Chrome and VLC, for example, but it won’t work with a regular YouTube app, as you need to have YouTube Red subscription in order to get it to work.
Notification Dots are also included in this update, which is a feature we’ve seen in quite a few launchers thus far, and it will essentially place a dot on an app icon if you have a new notification of some sort. This feature will also let you to long-press an app icon and swipe away that notification, or open it, directly from the pop-up menu, without swiping down the notification shade. On top of everything Android 8.0 Oreo also brings a whole new emoji set to the table, and much more. That being said, both the Honor 8 Pro and Honor 9 have been announced last year, the Honor 8 Pro is the company’s phablet, while the Honor 9 is still the company’s compact flagships, at least until it successor arrives later this year. Do keep in mind that the update may not become available to you straight away, as this is a staged rollout, but you will receive it OTA once it becomes available.