Android O to Feature Paste as Plain Text, Individual Notification Channels for Chrome Websites

Google's next iteration of Android, known as Android O, recently got its final preview build - Android O Developer Preview 4. With the build, one new feature has been spotted - Paste as Plain Text. Besides, a Google Chrome code forum has revealed that the Chrome notifications pushed by apps via websites are also going to change in Android O, but more on that later.

The Android O Developer Preview 4 brings the option to let users copy any rich or formatted text and then paste it as plain text into any app, including Twitter and Google Keep, reports 9to5Google. This will essentially allow users to get rid of various types of formatting and just keep the text as it is. Android O uses machine learning to identify rich text and then suggests pasting it as plain text, however, in cases of normal text, this option will not be available on the floating widget that appears when you long press. In addition, Android O Developer Preview 4 also uses machine learning to recognise phone numbers, addresses, emails, and website URLs and opens associated apps.

Coming to the Google Chrome notifications, a process to implement new notification channels for individual sites is in development. The new Google Chromium Gerrit forum has revealed in its latest post that notifications from websites in Chrome will have separate notification channels. Presently, the stable Chrome version and Chrome Canary show just a few options under the Site Settings for such websites. The options inside the Site Settings include clearing the personal data and managing notifications under five different channels - Browser, Downloads, Incognito, Media, and Sites. With the new update, the websites' notifications permissions will now lead to site's notification channel where different controls will be streamlined.

Nevertheless, the new feature that's going to come to Google Chrome appears to solve many notification related problems for the users, it is not known when this feature will be finalised and roll out to the Android O running devices.