It's always fun to poke around a developer preview in search of what might have changed in Android. Some things are more obvious, like moving the volume slider around or making Quick Settings vertically scrollable, while others are a little more subtle. This one falls squarely in the latter category.

In Android P, the cell selection animation — the one that shows up when you tap and hold on a menu item — has changed slightly. Whereas the previous animation in Android Oreo would fully highlight the entire cell and display a sort of expanding water drop animation, the animation in the Android P only includes the drop animation, though somewhat larger than before. If all I just wrote sounds completely indecipherable, have a look at the GIFs below to see what I mean.

The cell selection animation in Android Oreo

The cell selection animation in Android P

I can't decide if I prefer the newer animation or the older one — to me, they're just different. On the other hand, some might subscribe to the theory that new is always better, so this change should strictly count as an improvement.