ADAPTIVE BATTERY

About: The adaptive battery feature learns how, when and for how long we use apps over time and prioritises system resources to stop them from eating into battery life.

Why we like it: Google harnessing the power of AI to help us in our never-ending pursuits of a longer battery life is like a dream come true. Gone are the days when we played only a single game in the morning and got stuck with a dead phone by evening.

REVAMPED NOTIFICATIONS

About: We are now able to see previews of attached images, the last few messages in a conversation and Google Assistant-powered smart replies right from the drop-down menu.

Why we like it: Being able to send smart replies straight from the notification drop-down instead of unlocking the phone saves a lot of time, especially when one is in the middle of something important.

APP ACTIONS

About: Android Pie now predicts the actions we might take inside some apps after learning from our app habits. For example, if we regularly listen to a hip-hop playlist on Saavn, it might offer a quick shortcut to that playlist the next time we plug in earphones.

Why we like it: The smart use of AI to recommend certain actions not only makes our work easier but also prevents us from staying glued to our phones for a long time.

GESTURE NAVIGATION

About: A major difference between Android and iOS was the presence of physical (on screen) buttons for home, back and multitasking. Now there is an intuitive pill-shaped onscreen button that fires up a set of navigation gestures when swiped.

Why we like it: Even though it may seem a little intimidating to the less smartphone-savvy users, once familiar the seamless navigation will make you forget the ever-present buttons in no time.

APP TIMER

About: From the apps dashboard, we can directly tap into the apps installed on the phone and set a time limit for daily usage. We can also set a timer on any particular app. 

Why we love it: With a counter that keeps track of time spent (read wasted!) on Facebook, Snapchat and what not, the app timer does a great job of reminding us why we always seem to run out of time.

Search tricks

Search specific phrases

Searching a phrase in quotes will prompt Google to show only the pages which contain the same words in the same order as in the quotes.  
How to: Searching “black jack” will prompt Google to list all the websites with the exact phrase in it, in the exact order.
Using an asterisk to refine your search
This one’s really helpful when you’re looking for a song but know only a handful of the lyrics or if you’re looking for a particular expression but just know a couple of words from it.  
How to: Searching “kiki do you * me?” will show search results about Drake’s latest song.

Eliminating irrelevant search results

Rerun a search after figuring out the unwanted terms and segregating them with a minus sign will result in relevant search results.
How to: Searching ‘apple -fruit’ (without the quotes) will turn up search results about the tech company and not the fruit.

Search within a website

Think of this as a Google search only for a particular site. 
How to: “site:androidcentral.com android pie” will turn up search results for android pie, but will only list results from androidcentral.com.

Find similar websites

It’s always better to know similar websites while researching for a college project or looking for a new phone to buy. 
How to: Searching for “related:amazon.com” will list e-commerce websites similar to Amazon.
Finding specific files
The “filetype:” keyword displays search results for specific files on the Internet, rather than websites. Really useful for searching PDFs or other files whose extension is known.
How to: Searching “filetype:pdf python cheatsheet” will bring up search results featuring python cheatsheets in a PDF format.

A handy dictionary

Simplify your word search by using the “define:” keyword. This keyword will bring up the definition, its etymology and even its synonyms and antonyms. For slangs and acronyms, Google sifts the interwebs and brings up the best definition possible.
How to: Using “define:etymology” on Google will bring up the definition for the specified word.

Range Search

One of the most useful Google tricks on the list, use periods (..) between two numbers if you’re looking for things in a range. 
How to: Searching “moto smartphone 10000..20000” will show the pages that feature Moto smartphones between the price range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000.