Yeah, I got the same on my S8 the other day due to the Oreo update. It's mildly annoying but, aside from the 'alt-tab' switch which they've thankfully kept, I don't really use the app switcher so I imagine I'll get used to it pretty quickly.

How do you switch apps?

By tapping their icon to launch them.

That's the Oreo update. I don't think you can revert it, bit I might be wrong.

You mean Pie

I can only assume that page looks different to you.

What if that icon isn't on your homescreen? And you were just using it previously? You would go digging through your folders to find that app again?

IS THAT WHAT YOU'D DO?

Yep, like some kind of caveman. In seriousness though, it's often still quicker then going through a random list of apps. If the one you're after isn't in the most recent 2 or 3 then you're almost certainly quicker just going to where you know it will be.

Oh I only do it if I'm literally switching between apps e.g. From 1 password to chrome browser.

If it's just between your last two most recently used apps then just double tap the switcher button to alt-tab.

Pre-alpha refers to all activities performed during the software project before formal testing.
...
The alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin software testing (alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, used as the number 1). In this phase, developers generally test the software using white-box techniques. Additional validation is then performed using black-box or gray-box techniques, by another testing team.
...
Beta, named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet, is the software development phase following alpha. Software in the beta stage is also known as betaware.[3] Beta phase generally begins when the software is feature complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs.[4] Software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, speed or performance issues, and may still cause crashes or data loss. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing. The process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release and this is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it.

This Beta release is designed for use in compatibility testing and early development only. Please be aware of these general notes about the release:

This release may contain various stability and performance issues on devices that may make it not suitable for daily use on phone or tablet.
System and app performance are known to be periodically slow and janky, and devices may become occasionally unresponsive.
Battery life may be regressed in this early release for screen-on and screen-off use cases.
Some apps may not function normally on Beta 1. This includes Google's apps as well as other apps.
This early build is not Compatibility Test Suite (CTS) approved.

I spoke to the nice man at Huawei (Harry?) and he recommended doing a factory reset. Which is fucking perfect three weeks into owning a phone, when I've finally got everything setup and downloaded as I want it.

Doesn’t Android take a backup of your phone? Surely it’s a case of doing the factory reset and then restoring your backup.

Doesn’t Android take a backup of your phone? Surely it’s a case of doing the factory reset and then restoring your backup.

Ah right, so Android doesn’t take backups. Fair enough.

Yes, it does.

Yes, it does.

Not full iOS style backups though?

On the plus side you can totally blame Chinese Hackers, Mr Fop.

It's complicated, but more no than yes. A lot of apps don't do the right things unfortunately and can still lose state.

It's one of my biggest annoyances (I factory reset my phone 6+ times a year) and I am a relentless filer of bugs about this stuff. I'm quite well known to the backup and restore team. It's much better than it used to be, though.

It's much better than it used to be, though.

They'll have tested the shit out of that no doubt because it's a very obvious concern but I'm with you in being very sceptical that over time it won't ever be an issue. Not that I'm interested in it anyway but I'd only ever pick it up if the warranty was very robust around that specific issue.

Many of the reviewers are reporting broken screens.

Two of them may have accidentally broken it themselves by peeling off the top plastic layer, that looks a bit like a shipping screen protector but is actually an integral part of the screen.