Android Wear, or Wear OS as it's now known, seems to have found renewed momentum lately with fresh efforts in fitness, updates to the interface, and new hardware coming on the horizon. The latest update brings one notable change the improves the interface for managing notifications, but also carries with it the signs of many other changes and additions to come.
Read MoreWear OS v2.16 prepares priority notifications for favorite contacts, optional media controls, and much more [APK Teardown]
Android N Dev Preview 3: Demo Mode Is Back, Now In Developer Settings
If you think back to when Marshmallow was unveiled, and then even further back to when it was still known as 'M', you may remember a feature in the System UI Tuner, known as 'Demo Mode.' It was a useful setting, especially for developers or others needing to take screenshots (ahem), since it replaced the notification bar with a generic, preset one which did not show any existing notifications or low battery warnings.
It disappeared in Developer Preview 2, though, seemingly gone without a trace. As with everything in the System UI Tuner, things are liable to disappear, break, or be removed at any time, so this wasn't entirely a surprise (see David's comment from a few days ago for more info).
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[Android M Feature Spotlight] Demo Mode Hides Notifications, Sets Battery to 100 And Clock to 5:20 - Perfect For Screenshots
On more than one occasion when trying out a new app and taking screenshots for the benefit of Android Police readers, something in the status bar has overshadowed the actual content I was showing off. It might be a battery in the red (which really seems to bother some people, even when they see it on someone else's phone!) or an incoming OTA update I've yet to flash. Apparently Google is tired of seeing this sort of thing in screenshots as well.
In the second version of the Android M Developer Preview, there's a new entry in the Developer options menu called "System UI tuner." (We previously took a look at this in the story about removing permanent items from the network cluster area.) Open the System UI tuner and you can also see an option called "Demo mode." Enable this, then turn it on, and your statusbar will hide all notifications, even new incoming ones, though they may still appear temporarily as heads-up notifications.
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