Android Q will reportedly give network carriers more control over network devices

Recently, four commits were made in Android’s Gerrit source code management, under the title “Carrier restriction enhancements for Android Q.” These new commits specify that Android Q (the next in line Android OS) powered devices will give more control to network carriers to specify which networks devices will and will not work on.

What this means is that Android Q will consist of blacklist and whitelist carriers called “allowed” and “excluded” to specify carriers, what will and won’t work on a particular phone. According to a report by 9to5 Google, “this can be done with a fine-grained detail to even allow blocking virtual carrier networks that run on the same towers as your main carrier.”

This will also eliminate allowing carriers to set individual restrictions for each SIM slot. WIth Android Q, writes 9to5 Google, “carriers will be able to lock out the second slot unless there’s an approved SIM card in the first slot. This SIM lock restriction is applied immediately and will persist through restarting the phone and even doing a factory reset.” Emergency phone calls will still work the same.

Last week, XDA confirmed that Android Q will feature a system-level “Dark mode” that can be enabled in Display settings and features an “Automatic (based on time of day)” option.

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