It's coming soon to an Ubuntu Phone near you

Oct 9, 2019 19:08 GMT  ·  By

The UBports community announced today the availability for public testing of the upcoming Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 software update for all supported Ubuntu Phone devices.

Originally planned as a small update that was supposed to contain only some bug fixes and improvements, the Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 release appears to bring quite some enhancements for Ubuntu Phones, such as a much-improved and smarter keyboard that introduces a Dvorak keyboard layout option, improvements to the Japanese and Polish layouts, as well as a new way to edit text.

"Using this feature, you can move around your typed text, undo and redo actions, move around a text selection rectangle, and use the cut/copy/paste commands, all from the same overlay. To get started, press and hold the space bar," explained UBports. "We are still unsure about the discoverability of this feature, so stay tuned for changes that will make it even easier to find and use."

Browser improvements, push notifications for everyone

UBports' in-house built Morph Browser web browser for the Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system also got some enhancements during the development cycle of the OTA-11 software update, among which we can mention the ability to save page zoom level per-site, the ability to set "Always allow" or "Always deny" on location access per-site, the ability to blacklist access to certain sites, and support for sites to launch apps via custom URL handlers like tel:// for launch the dialer.

On top of that, Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 promises to bring push notifications for everyone, without the requirement of having an Ubuntu One account, support for more devices powered by Android 7.1, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth fixes for Nexus 5 devices so they won't be so CPU and battery hungry anymore, and improvements for MMS messaging. You can try Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 on your Ubuntu Phone right now by following the instructions provided by UBports here.