Android Q beta gets new ‘Rules,’ ‘Gradual Ring Volume’ and album art for ‘Now Playing’

A few new features have been uncovered in the latest Android Q beta 5, with one being functionality that lets users alter their phone’s notifications at specific locations.

The new feature is called ‘Rules,’ and whenever you connect to a specific Wi-Fi network or are at a pre-set destination, the function can change your phone’s notification preferences.

For example, if you set the rule to engage when on your home Wi-Fi network, you can either silence your phone, set it to ‘Do Not Disturb,’ vibrate or ring, according to XDA Developers. 

It seems Rules are likely part of a Google Pixel exclusive feature set, as reported by XDA Developers.

The ‘Ramping Ringer’ setting is a bit of a smaller change that looks make calls a bit less intrusive but still noticeable when they come through. What the feature does is when someone calls you it vibrates the phone for five seconds and then slowly starts to increase the ringtone’s volume, claims XDA Developers, which tested Ramping Ringer out on a Pixel 2 XL.

The final hidden feature adds album art to the ‘Now Playing’ screen. In the version that XDA Developers got running, the album art section is blank with placeholder images, but it’s expected to be live in a future version of the OS.

Source: XDA Developers