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posted by chromas on Wednesday August 01 2018, @07:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the common-sense-notchctl dept.

Google bans Android phones from having three or more notches

Google is building official notch support into Android P, but it's laying down some ground rules first: two notches is the limit. In a blog post for developers yesterday, Android UI product manager Megan Potoski wrote that Google is working with device partners "to mandate a few requirements" for app compatibility purposes. Among those are limits on notches.

The mandate says that Android P phones can't have "more than two cutouts on a device." Only one notch is allowed per side, and notches are only allowed on the top and bottom edges — not the left and right.

At this point, we haven't even seen phones with two notches, so the ban on tri- or quad-notch phones and left- and right-side notches is all theoretical. But the switch over to notched phones felt like it happened overnight (well, in the span of a few months), so putting some restrictions in place before things devolve should be helpful for making sure that apps continue to run properly on these strange new screens.

But I want a notch on my notch.


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  • (Score: 2) by Marand on Wednesday August 01 2018, @05:47PM (2 children)

    by Marand (1081) on Wednesday August 01 2018, @05:47PM (#715816) Journal

    Google is concerned that if they were to write a whole new gestures API, the SoC fabs won't update the kernel modules which will effectively mean older phones (as in, year or two old) won't see new kernel versions.

    Considering the abysmal track record Android phones tend to have for updates, I'm surprised Google even cares about this.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @06:16PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @06:16PM (#715838)

    If you had been paying attention, you have noticed that Google has been trying for a long time to improve that situation. The fact that most phone manufacturers are still crap with pushing out updates isn't their fault.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Mykl on Wednesday August 01 2018, @11:49PM

      by Mykl (1112) on Wednesday August 01 2018, @11:49PM (#715977)

      I think that Android's dreadful update situation is absolutely Google's fault. They designed an ecosystem that requires updates to go through phone manufacturers rather than direct to the customer - what did everyone think would happen?