Google I / O 2019 is the current topic of conversation in the city, as everyone looks to dig deeper into all of the announcements Google has made in its portfolio of products and services. At the event we got to know Android Q Beta 3 with changes and features like dark mode, new navigation gestures, digital wellbeing improvements, notification channel suggestions, Project Mainline for Faster security updates, bubbles, live captions and much more. These announcements are only scratching the surface, as more interesting information can be found in new resources that Google revealed at the event. For example, Google is currently testing a car crash detection feature for its Pixel devices.
An APK teardown can often predict features that might arrive in a future update of an app, but it’s possible that one of the features we mention here may not in a future release. This is because these features are currently not implemented in the live version and can be checked out by Google at any time in a future version.
Android Q Beta 3 offers a new Google application called “Safety Hub” with the name of the package com.google.android.apps.safetyhub. The functionality of this app is exclusive to Pixel, as shown in the Manifest statement:
Channels in the app suggest that Google is working on a feature that will detect when you’re in a car accident:
Car crash icon Car Crash Detection Dogfood Car Crash Dogfood @string/car_crash_permissions_menu_item_text Car Crash Dogfood Permissions u0009Welcome to the car crash detection dogfood. In order to properly use this feature, please enable the following permissions.Once you enable them, this dogfood will automatically launch an alert activity when the device detects you are in a car crash.
Two graphic elements are also included in the application for this functionality:
Although the channels suggest automatic detection of a car crash, it is not clear exactly how such detection would be achieved. Google could resort to the accelerometer and microphone data, but even that may not be foolproof with its detection. The channels also don’t reveal what happens once a crash is detected – we’re assuming the app could alert first responders or emergency contacts listed on the phone. Hopefully future Q Betas will reveal more information on how this app would work and what it would do.
Thanks to XDA editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman for finding this.
Thanks to PNF Software for providing us with a license to use Decompiler, a professional grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.
