Android 7.1 2 easter egg. Surprise! Let's remember all the Easter eggs in Android

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At the beginning of July, monthly statistics on Android distribution appeared and for the first time the Nougat version in it exceeded 10%. This Google product has had problems with adoption rates since its birth. The reason is too many stakeholders.

Google releases new versions every year, they are available to everyone for free, but then the difficulties begin. Each device manufacturer, such as Samsung, LG or HTC, wants to create their own Android shell, stand out and thereby attract buyers. It takes time to develop and test these varieties. After this, mobile operators can come into play and must adapt different shells to work in their networks.

There are advantages to all this. For example, third party vendors bring new ideas. Each company offers at least a couple of new features, sometimes Google includes them in stock Android in the next generation. An example is the ability to respond to SMS directly in the notification panel, which is now available on stock Nougat, and before that was available only on Samsung devices for several years.

Below we will describe nine interesting features of pure Android Nougat. Testing was carried out on the Nexus 6P smartphone. It is possible that these options will not be available on other smartphones or will work differently.

Split display mode

This feature is not new, as several manufacturers have had it before. For example, it existed in Galaxy Note models. Now the option is included in pure Nougat and should reach most models.

You can display two applications at once in landscape and portrait modes. When one program is open, you can launch the second by long pressing the recent applications button (small square). After entering multitasking mode, this button turns into an icon with vertical stripes. The ability to change is limited and only available in portrait mode. You can exit multitasking by dragging the dividing line all the way to one side or by long pressing the recent applications button.

Not all programs support separation yet. For example, Google Search is not optimized for it.

Quick switch

Nougat allows you to go back and forth between your two most recent apps by double-tapping the recent apps button. This works both in normal mode and with two applications open. This simple trick should have been introduced into the system a long time ago.

Secret UI Tuner

To access the hidden UI Tuner menu, double swipe down to open the gear icon and long press on it. The menu will appear in the settings in the “System” section. When activated, a warning is issued that this contains experimental features, they may change in the future, not work or disappear.

There are interesting options here, like the ability to make changes to the status bar, the Do Not Disturb feature, etc. Explore them, but keep in mind that not all of them will be usable. UI Tuner is available in stock Android Marshmallow but is missing in the Samsung variant. It is quite possible that this menu will not be available from most other manufacturers.

Editing the Quick Settings Panel

With two swipes down, you can access the Quick Settings tiles. The latest version of the system allows you to edit these tiles.

When the panel is pulled out, expand the small arrow on the right side to see a full list of tiles, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode, etc. The system allows you to choose which tiles will be here permanently. To do this, click on the “Edit” button in the lower right corner and get access to the full list of tiles, they can be dragged and dropped.

Another useful change is that you can swipe left or right to access additional tiles. In theory, you can display all tiles for quick access.

Advanced Notifications

The system gives the most corrosive users the opportunity to gain complete control over it. First, you need to activate the UI Tuner menu mentioned above and in the “Other” section turn on the “Advanced notification control” switch. Here you can set the priority on a scale from 0 (block everything) to 5 (show at the top of the list even over the running program).

By going to Settings > Notifications, you can set each app's priority by tapping the big green "A" on the left.

Easy editing of notifications

You can open their settings by long-pressing on a specific notification in the drop-down panel or moving the notification to the side to reveal a gear icon. This trick also works on the lock screen.

Set different wallpapers for the lock screen and home screen

Some manufacturers already had this opportunity, but now it has appeared in a clean version. You need to long press on the home screen to change the wallpaper. Once an image is selected, you'll be asked if you want to set that wallpaper on your home screen, lock screen, or both.

Display size

Thanks to the proliferation of computers and mobile devices, vision problems are affecting more and more people at an increasingly younger age. As a result, a larger image and font may be required. Pure Android satisfies this need.

You can change the image size by enlarging the text and icons at “Screen > Display Size”. There are five options available here.

Easter Egg

As usual, Google didn't forget about a little surprise. The two previous versions of the system offered a hidden Flappy Bird game. The game was so difficult that many quickly lost interest. Nougat offers a strange cat game.

1. Go to Settings > About Phone and tap the system version number repeatedly until a large "N" logo appears.

2. Long press on the logo until you see the cat icon at the bottom.

3. Swipe down to open the notification panel.

4. Click edit, scroll down and find a small cat icon that says “???? Android Easter Egg. Drag and drop anywhere.

5. Now, when you open Quick Settings, you will see the “Empty Bowl” tile. Pressing gives you a choice of four types of food.

6. Wait. You will receive a notification that you have caught a cat.

Hardcore Android fans know that there are Easter eggs hidden throughout the system. The seventh version, called Nougat, was no exception. In it you can activate the game of collecting cats. You need to occasionally put a treat in an empty bowl and catch the cat that comes.

The process of activating the Easter eggs is described in detail in the blog, but here I will tell you what is under the hood.

In the game, cats appear with three-digit numbers. Theoretically, there can be 1000 cats from 000 to 999 (in fact, no, the program uses a different algorithm, but for us this is not important).

I was wondering how they are stored in the application. An Internet search led me to a resource where the source code for the Easter Egg is posted.

Later on Github I found a modified code that allows you to run the game as a regular application on any device, not just Android 7. The compiled version from these sources can be found on Google Play using keywords Neko Collector.

The second example is more convenient to study, since there is no extra code for activating the Easter egg, which we do not need.

It wasn't hard to guess that most of the magic happens in the Cat class.

Whiskers, paws, tail - these are my documents

It turned out that cats are not stored in the application as separate pictures. Quite understandably, a large number of images will bloat the program. In folder drawable Individual parts of the cat are stored as vector resources. For example, this is how the tail is stored in the file tail.xml.

Paws, eyes, torso, collar, bow, etc. are stored in a similar way. And then all this is collected in the inner class constructor CatParts

CatParts(Context context) ( if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) ( body = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.body); head = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.head); leg1 = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.leg1); leg2 = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.leg2); leg3 = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.leg3); leg4 = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.leg4); tail = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.tail); leftEar = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.left_ear); rightEar = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.right_ear); rightEarInside = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.right_ear_inside ); leftEarInside = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.left_ear_inside); faceSpot = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.face_spot); cap = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.cap); mouth = context.getDrawable(R.drawable .mouth); foot4 = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.foot4); foot3 = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.foot3); foot1 = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.foot1); foot2 = context.getDrawable(R .drawable.foot2); leg2Shadow = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.leg2_shadow); tailShadow = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.tail_shadow); tailCap = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.tail_cap); belly = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.belly); back = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.back); rightEye = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.right_eye); leftEye = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.left_eye); nose = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.nose); collar = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.collar); bowtie = context.getDrawable(R.drawable.bowtie); ) else ( // here is the code for older versions ) drawingOrder = getDrawingOrder(); )
Since the vector has a wonderful ability to change the fill on the fly, we randomly select colors and generate a unique cat. The main thing is not to overdo it. You should not paint one paw black and the other paw brown.

If you run the program in normal mode, then collecting cats will last for many hours. Therefore, we replace the code that is responsible for the interval, setting it to 1 second. Quickly fill the screen.

For comparison, the first picture I received on the Android 7 emulator.

And this is a picture obtained on an Android 4.4.2 device

Those who are learning programming for Android will find it useful to start services by registering the JobSheduler scheduler, creating dialogs, and using SharedPreferences.

In my opinion, the Easter egg turned out beautiful and lifted my spirits.
Collect cats!

Almost every fan of the Android OS knows that its developers hid some kind of “Easter eggs” in the system, which are not so easy to find. Each OS version has its own. One of these “Easter eggs” will be discussed further. What is the Empty Dish (Easter Egg) feature in Android and what is it for?

Description

Empty Dish (empty plate) is a simple game from Google, the main goal of which is to collect captured cats. Many deservedly compare it with Pokemon GO, but the “Easter egg” is much simpler. The game is available in Android Nougat versions (7.0 and 8.0).

Empty dish is a game Easter egg in Android 7.0 and 8.0

It’s worth mentioning right away that catching cats is not an easy task. You need to choose a treat to lure the cat, and then have time to catch it before the cat “goes away.” This can happen an hour after choosing a treat, or maybe a minute later. In this case, there is a possibility that a cat that is already in the collection will covet the treat. This is the whole essence of the game.

Of course, the developers have provided the ability to share their results with friends and other OS users. This also introduces a competitive effect into collecting. And of course, this game will definitely appeal to cat lovers.

How to run Empty Dish function (Android Easter Egg)

If you strictly follow the instructions, then there is nothing complicated about it. It is almost impossible to turn on the game yourself without knowing all the conditions. So what do you need to do to get started?

Instructions:

1. Open settings, section "About the phone".
2. Find the OS version and quickly tap on it until the OS logo appears on the screen - letter "N". It will appear in the background of your home screen.
3. Press and hold your finger on the logo. A red cat icon will appear below it for a few seconds.

After these simple steps, the game will become accessible, but that's not all there is to it. The next steps are as follows.

1. Fully expand the notification menu (curtain).
2. Enable its editing or the “Edit” button.
3. After clicking, an additional menu should appear, in which there is a cat’s face and a signature "???? Android Easter egg".
4. You need to drag the icon to the main notification window. After this, the title will only have question marks.
5. Minimize the notification panel and open it again.
6. Now instead of a cat's face there is a plate icon Empty Dish.

How to play

That's it, now you can play. Everything here is elementary simple. You need to click on the plate icon, after which several options for “treats” will be offered. Having placed the food on the plate, all that remains is to wait for the notification of the cat’s arrival to appear: "A cat is here". You need to open the notification in a timely manner to get the cat into your collection.

Helpful information

• If the cat has not come for several hours, then try another bait. On the other hand, long waits may be rewarded with rare species.
• Many people ask, is it possible to play the game on earlier versions of the OS? Yes, this is quite possible. The application has appeared in the Play Market Neco Collector, which is a ported version for earlier versions of Android.
• Please note that the Easter egg is missing in MIUI versions. This means that to collect cats on any OS version you will need to install the application.

Easter eggs in previous versions

Those who just found out about the presence of an “Easter egg” in the form of the Neko cat in Android (7.0 and 8.0) are always wondering what happened before in other versions? We answer:

In the eighth version of the operating system, the user can play with an octopus on his screen. All that remains is to wish you good luck in collecting a collection of cats, because you already know what Empty Dish (Easter Egg) is in Android and how this Easter egg works.

The Android operating system is fraught with many hidden functions and capabilities that only a few know about. If you study in detail all the functions of the operating system, including those that are in the section for developers, then you can, and even. All this is done using standard tools built into all Android smartphones. In addition, absolutely all mobile devices based on Google's OS have hidden games that almost no one knows about.

Many smartphone owners do not install games on them because I don’t play at all, but sometimes situations may arise when you need to somehow pass the time, since there is no Internet connection and there is no content on the phone itself. As if specifically for such cases, Google added three games to the Android operating system at once, which are well hidden from prying eyes, so it’s impossible to access them so easily. They allow you to pass the time, which can sometimes drag on for an indecently long time.

In order to find the three hidden games built into all Android smartphones, you need to launch the Play Games application. It should be pre-installed on all mobile devices right out of the box, and it can be found even on those phones that run on custom firmware, like MIUI (Xiaomi) or Flyme OS (Meizu). If for some reason there is no such application on your phone, then you should download it from the Google Play store, since it is part of the Android operating system.

After launching this program, you must go through the standard registration procedure, or skip it and use the entire “Play Games” service anonymously. Immediately after launch, a menu with cards and three applications will appear on the screen - PAC-MAN, Solitaire and Cricket. In addition, in the same section you can find all the video games installed on the phone, as well as information about the last time they were launched.

Game PAC-MAN

Solitaire game

Cricket game

In the absence of Internet access, owners of all Android smartphones can enjoy three arcade games to choose from - PAC-MAN, Solitaire and Cricket. All of them are aimed at allowing the user to pass the time, for example, while on public transport or while waiting for something. Every user should know about these hidden games built into the operating system by Google.

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The Android 7.0 Nougat operating system is almost ready to conquer the world. The Android Developers blog announced the availability of the final build of the new platform for developers. In other words, most of the errors and problems that emerged during the test period were overcome. However, this is technically a pre-release version of the OS, so there is no guarantee of stable operation.

The build was released in the form of images for current Nexus devices, as well as for some devices participating in the beta testing program. There is still no exact date for the release of the public version, but the launch of the platform is approaching: this is evidenced by the somewhat vague wording “later this summer.”

Cat fans also got a reason to rejoice with the release of Android 7.0 Nougat Developer Preview 5. The fact is that, in accordance with tradition, Google has built a new Easter egg into its mobile OS. This time the developers decided to pay tribute to the popular game Neko Atsume, which is about collecting virtual cats. It's unlikely that this mini-game will reduce the popularity of Pokémon Go, but at least Nougat users will always have the opportunity to have fun, even without installing additional software.

To launch it, you need to do the usual manipulations:

Now the game itself...

That's it - not that difficult. True, it is unknown how many cats Google has hidden inside its OS, and whether it is so easy to collect a complete collection. In any case, we can hope to add to the collection in future versions of Android Nougat.