Android Q Beta out now

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AJB88

Original Poster:

12,404 posts

171 months

Friday 7th June 2019
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Alex said:
About to give it a go now on my Pixel 3XL...
Let us know how you get on, I expect Beta 4 to be fairly stable, don't want to loose my Banking apps this time so will just wait for release.

Corso Marche

1,722 posts

201 months

Friday 7th June 2019
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TheAngryDog said:
Android Q! I don't even have Pie yet on my Huawei P10 Plus, which is unlikely to get Q. Huawei seem to be slow with their Android releases... Must be all that spyware rofl
As mentioned above, here's the wife's P10 Lite.
It received Pie in the first couple of days in March.


VTR-L29; https://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/phones/p10/

TheAngryDog

12,406 posts

209 months

Saturday 8th June 2019
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My wife has a p10 lite and no pie for her either yet. Hopefully comes soon as the phones are worthless now lol.

Corso Marche

1,722 posts

201 months

Saturday 8th June 2019
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My wife's was bought in a different region (Middle East). I wonder if that's what the difference is. Any of you guys have the same VTR-L29 model number, or is it a variation of that model code ?

TheAngryDog

12,406 posts

209 months

Saturday 8th June 2019
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Corso Marche said:
My wife's was bought in a different region (Middle East). I wonder if that's what the difference is. Any of you guys have the same VTR-L29 model number, or is it a variation of that model code ?
Mine is a VKY-L09.

stevoknevo

1,678 posts

190 months

Thursday 13th June 2019
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Signed to the beta program on Saturday forgetting they'd paused the rollout due to bootloop issues on the 2xl. They opened it again on Tuesday night and I put it on my 2xl, it's been fine for me - only issue I had was with the Pixel 3 Gcam apk I was trying out (got stuck in an HDR processing loop on portrait mode, I just deleted the apk) Asides from that it's been solid - I however only use my phone for browsing/FB/reddit/twitter/YouTube/messenger/whatsapp and the occasional call/text - no banking apps or pay services and I've seen reports of some working, some not.

I've activated dark theme and changed as many apps as I can to dark, and have gone fully gestural after always using the standard 3 button Android dock configuration - I got seven hours SOT with 10% remaining on the first charge, about 45 minutes longer than usual. Asides from animations/font change, dark mode and the ability to change theme colour in developer options, I've not noticed much change.

AJB88

Original Poster:

12,404 posts

171 months

Thursday 13th June 2019
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Barclays wont work I know that, ill just wait for the release to come out.

Corso Marche

1,722 posts

201 months

Thursday 13th June 2019
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stevoknevo said:
Signed to the beta program on Saturday forgetting they'd paused the rollout due to bootloop issues on the 2xl. They opened it again on Tuesday night and I put it on my 2xl, it's been fine for me.....
Thanks. Post back if you come across any issues. I might give it a try, but am leaving for summer travels in 2 weeks and will be on the move for 6-7 weeks. I may try it before I leave, but I definitely don't want any bugs whilst on the move. With that in mind it's 50/50 whether I try the beta or wait till mid-August ! laugh

Edited by Corso Marche on Thursday 13th June 16:04

AJB88

Original Poster:

12,404 posts

171 months

Thursday 13th June 2019
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I would wait especially if you depend on non-google apps.

stevoknevo

1,678 posts

190 months

Thursday 13th June 2019
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AJB88 said:
Barclays wont work I know that, ill just wait for the release to come out.
Apparently Barclays have no plans until official release either - HSBC and Natwest have adapted their apps and now work apparently.

No way I would try the beta if I needed that kind of functionality TBH - I was happy on Pie, there's so few noticeable differences on Q you're better off waiting for the official release TBH.

AJB88

Original Poster:

12,404 posts

171 months

Friday 14th June 2019
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Yeh Barclays have always been the same, this is the same company that doesn't support Google Pay.

Corso Marche

1,722 posts

201 months

Friday 14th June 2019
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AJB88 said:
I would wait especially if you depend on non-google apps.
Yeah, I'll wait till August I think. If the June beta hadn't been buggy and the release put on hold I would've had close to 4 weeks of testing and rolling back if necessary. As it is 2 weeks isn't enough for proper testing, especially as I'll be on the move after that and will be reliant on it.

stevoknevo

1,678 posts

190 months

Wednesday 26th June 2019
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Corso Marche said:
Thanks. Post back if you come across any issues. I might give it a try, but am leaving for summer travels in 2 weeks and will be on the move for 6-7 weeks. I may try it before I leave, but I definitely don't want any bugs whilst on the move. With that in mind it's 50/50 whether I try the beta or wait till mid-August ! laugh

Edited by Corso Marche on Thursday 13th June 16:04
Still not noticing many issues TBH, the main one being gestural navigation stops working when a notification pops up on screen - wait for it to go away/swiping it away and it's fine, it's a known issue. Only other thing I've had is SwiftKey has greyed the keyboard out a couple of times but going out/in of the keyboard has resolved it, and it's only been 3 times max.

Loads of complaints from 3/3xl users regarding st battery life, phone heating up, laggy performance etc, but the 3a & 2xl seems to have far less issues - indeed my screen on time is frankly superb, 8 and a half hours on Monday, 9hr13m yesterday although I only had 2% left testing that and was on wifi all day - reports of 3/3xl getting 3-4 hours! I did however download the latest Blokada 4.0 system wide ad-blocker on Sunday and that seems to be accounting for the SOT improvement (I use Opera which has built in adblocking for browsing, and Vanced YouTube app which blocks ads too, notifications is a bit broken if that's a necessity for you)

Not a Beta thing, but Google rolled out RCS to the messaging app in the UK yesterday (standard SMS app on Pixel phones and only the uk/France are getting it currently) It brings rich Messenger style features to SMS like read receipts, group messaging and notification that the order person is typing etc - haven't tested it yet as it requires both/all parties to have the app, going to get my Mrs to put it on her P20 Pro to try it out.

stevoknevo

1,678 posts

190 months

Thursday 11th July 2019
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Got the Q5 beta yesterday (first release candidate) 2xl/Original Pixel didn't get the dark splash theme when booting that th 3/xl & 3a/xl received frown Apart from that it's much smoother and they seem to have gotten rid of some gesture foibles, there's corner indicators for Google Assistant and a new Google coloured animation when you activate Assistant, and one or two other graphic changes - should be pretty good when it releases next month smile

Corso Marche

1,722 posts

201 months

Thursday 11th July 2019
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They've paused the OTA update of Beta 5 for all Pixel devices. Similar install issues as Beta 4 last month.

It'll be made available again once they've identified the bug.

stevoknevo

1,678 posts

190 months

Friday 12th July 2019
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Corso Marche said:
They've paused the OTA update of Beta 5 for all Pixel devices. Similar install issues as Beta 4 last month.

It'll be made available again once they've identified the bug.
Yep, seems to be the exact same issue as last one, failing to install requiring a factory reset - I had no issues, done and dusted in 20 minutes. Still var banking apps and games not working, really want to play the new Harry Potter game with my son but no dice yet.

Corso Marche

1,722 posts

201 months

Wednesday 14th August 2019
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I've switched over to Beta 6. I had expected to stay on the '2-button plus gesture' navigation, but after spending time with full gesture nav and figuring it out I'm staying on it. It's more natural when flicking between apps. I was surprised at the psychological effect having more content displayed on screen also had. It just instantly felt "nicer". There's no logic to it as in messaging or email apps the stuff at the bottom is what you've already read/dealt with, but it struck me as being more aesthetically pleasing.

My only gripe is I had used an app to add one specific gesture previously. A quick swipe in with the thumb from the right used to drop down my notification and quick toggle drawer. None of the gesture apps work now on Q, as far as my testing has gone.
So I'm back to using the swipe on the fingerprint sensor to quickly drop down the notifications.
Anybody know if Google intend adding a gesture to quickly access the notifications and quick toggles?

TameRacingDriver

18,083 posts

272 months

Thursday 15th August 2019
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Corso Marche said:
I've switched over to Beta 6. I had expected to stay on the '2-button plus gesture' navigation, but after spending time with full gesture nav and figuring it out I'm staying on it. It's more natural when flicking between apps. I was surprised at the psychological effect having more content displayed on screen also had. It just instantly felt "nicer". There's no logic to it as in messaging or email apps the stuff at the bottom is what you've already read/dealt with, but it struck me as being more aesthetically pleasing.

My only gripe is I had used an app to add one specific gesture previously. A quick swipe in with the thumb from the right used to drop down my notification and quick toggle drawer. None of the gesture apps work now on Q, as far as my testing has gone.
So I'm back to using the swipe on the fingerprint sensor to quickly drop down the notifications.
Anybody know if Google intend adding a gesture to quickly access the notifications and quick toggles?
Funnily enough when I tried an iPhone XR a few months ago (I use a pixel 2xl) one of the first things that struck me was how much extra screen I seemed to have because of the lack of navigation bar. I agree with you, it's much nicer.

I am hoping Google add the swipe down to reach the notifications though. The finger print sensor gesture has always been rubbish for me, never seen what the fuss was about there

Corso Marche

1,722 posts

201 months

Friday 16th August 2019
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Yeah, it's sometimes amazing the difference small changes can have.

I don't know how they've done it, but I suspect battery life seems to have improved too. I'm definitely going slightly longer between charges, and the battery settings screen has been reporting 35-40 hours of expected uptime between charges. I always had good battery life, but I wasn't expecting an improvement with Q, especially on a phone that will have been a daily driver for 2 years come November.

I'm reserving final judgement on battery life/power management until I've used it for another week or two, just to be sure. It's been less than a week at present since switching to Q.

Alex

9,975 posts

284 months

Friday 16th August 2019
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Has anyone experienced the phone failing to recognise USB headphones? This has started happening to me and I cannot be sure if it is a fault with the port, or an issue with Android Q.