11 useful Android 9 Pie features you shouldn’t overlook

Google has officially released Android 9 Pie, the latest big update of the company’s mobile operating system. It’s got a new look, gesture navigation, more AI smarts, and, if you sign up for the beta, Digital Wellbeing tools to help you gain a better understanding of your smartphone usage. There’s other legitimately helpful stuff in there, too, like adaptive battery, which learns your usage patterns and restricts the amount of juice that rarely opened apps can use up.

I’m not going to discuss any of those things today. They’ll be covered in our full review of Pie. (Don’t we all love reviewing pie, after all?)

Instead, I want to highlight some of the cooler, under-the-radar features that Google built into Android 9.0.

It’s a Bluetooth speaker party

Android 9 Pie allows the user to pair “up to five Bluetooth devices and switch between these devices seamlessly.” If a phone call comes in, Google says that Android P will route it to any Bluetooth speaker or paired audio accessory that’s capable of handling calls. Android O supported two Bluetooth audio connections at once. But now? Let your heart be your guide.

Android Pie remembers your volume preference for each Bluetooth device

Speaking of Bluetooth, we’ve all had that ear-piercing moment when your wireless headphones or your car’s audio system just blast sound cranked up to 11 when you first connect them to your phone. No longer. Android 9.0 remembers the last volume level for paired devices.

Google added a rotate button to the navigation bar that only shows up when you need it

This might sound a little confusing, but it’s pretty great. If you’re like me, you probably disable Android’s auto-screen-rotate to prevent your phone from switching between portrait and landscape orientation when you don’t want it to. In Android 9 Pie, Google has added a nice touch that’s meant just for us.



With Pie, whenever an app is open that supports landscape and you turn your phone that way, you’ll see a new rotation lock icon pop up in the navigation bar to the far right. Tap it, and the app will rotate. This does not change the overall system setting. Just keep in mind that you're actually locking that app to landscape when you tap the icon. To switch back, just rotate your phone to portrait and tap it again.

Easily see which apps recently sent you notifications and which of them interrupt you most frequently

Did a random app hit you with an annoying or totally useless notification? Even if you didn’t address it at the moment, Android Pie makes it simple to see which apps have recently pinged you and stop it from happening again.

Go to Settings —> Apps & notifications. Then tap on “notifications” near the bottom. The next screen will show you the apps that have recently displayed a notification.


Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If you tap on “see all from the last 7 days,” you’ll get an option that’s potentially even more useful. Instead of sorting them by most recent, you can pick “most frequent” to get a surprisingly and maybe frustrating understanding of which apps pester you the most.

Android Pie suggests turning off notifications that you frequently dismiss

If Android 9.0 notices that you routinely swipe away an app’s notifications without ever tapping into them, the system will show a prompt asking if you’d prefer to just shut off notifications for that particular app instead of swiping over and over again.

There’s a new, helpful Accessibility Menu

Google has added a new Accessibility Menu to Pie that, when enabled, gets its own icon in the bottom navigation bar. The Accessibility Menu provides easier-to-reach shortcuts (and larger tap targets) for performing common functions like triggering Google Assistant, opening the app switcher, pulling down the quick settings / notification shade, taking screenshots, and more.