Google Inc.’s latest mobile operating system, Android P, was released in beta today with an upgrade that comes jam-packed with artificial intelligence features, part of a focus on AI across the company at the Google I/O conference today.

Pitched as a way of making a phone users’ life easier, Android P applies AI across the board for a range of new features, ranging from small to large. At the base, AI has been implemented to manage both battery life and screen brightness.

The former is often being the bane of many Android devices users, while the latter is usually not given nearly as much thought. “Adaptive Battery” has on-device machine learning powered by Google DeepMind to estimate app usage patterns on a particular device. It then can disable those apps when it believes a user will not want to use them, resulting in what Google claims is, on average, a 30 percent reduction in processor usage and hence power.

The similarly named “Adaptive Brightness” links into the battery feature by adjusting brightness preferences based on what it predicts a user prefers in terms of brightness, also saving power.

For direct user interaction, Android P gains “App Actions,” an AI-powered predictive feature that uses machine learning to guess which features a user is likely to use their phone for, making them easier to access. For example, if a user plugins in headphones, it learns that the user may wish to continue listening to music.

Tied into the user interface changes is the addition of “Slices,” a feature that works with existing apps to give users quick access to data from apps without having to load the entire app, both a battery-saving feature and one focused on convenience. A Slice offers a “mini snippet of an app” that can also be interacted with, for example allowing a user to book a vehicle with Lyft Inc. or Uber Technologies Inc.

Android P also gets a new user dashboard that ties back into some of the newly announced features. The dashboard allows users to see and manage how much time they’re spending on their devices. That includes data such as which apps they spend the most time on, the number of times they’ve unlocked their Android device and how many notifications they’ve received.

Although a granular breakdown of phone usage may seemingly appeal to control freaks, Google is pitching the new dashboard as a way for people to unplug, or as Google’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai describes it, “JOMO,” short for the Joy of Missing Out.

Three specific JOMO features within the dashboard include an App Timer, a feature that lets users set time limits on app usage; a Do Not Disturb mode that will not only silence phone calls but notifications and visual interruptions; and finally Wind Down, which will switch on Night Light when it gets dark, turn on Do Not Disturb and fade the screen to grayscale at a chosen bedtime. In short, it’s Google’s idea of providing tools to combat phone addiction.

Android P Beta is available from today on Google Pixel, Sony Xperia XZ2, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, Nokia 7 Plus, Oppo R15 Pro, Vivo X21, OnePlus 6 and Essential PH‑1.

Image: Google