Android M is on the way - but may not be Android 6 after all
Android M Update: Second Preview Lands Ahead of Q3 Release Date
Here Are Google’s Android M Preview 2 Release Notes
- Developer Preview 2 includes an updated SDK with system images, documentation, and samples for developing against the latest Android M platform.
- SDK platform and system images (Nexus and emulator) for building and testing. You can download the updated tools from the SDK Manager, and the system images are available by over-the-air (OTA) update or download (see below).
- Updated documentation. The Behavior Changes, API Overview, and Permissions documents have been updated to reflect the latest changes in the platform. An updated Developer Documentation download package is available, including full reference docs and API diff reports.
- Translations of the documentation are now available. Use the language selector at the bottom right corner of any page to switch languages. Note that some of the translated docs are not yet updated for Developer Preview 2 (coming soon).
In an industry as fast paced and dynamic as the tech and mobile space there's a familiarity with change so rapid that the sheen very quickly wears off new innovations. Brand new devices which are the darling of the tech press and salivated over by fans are all but forgotten in a matter of weeks. These days attention turns to rumour of the next-generation of hardware and software sometimes before a new model has even hit the market. All the while, developers and manufacturers are constantly having to push the envelope further and further to get attention and mark their product out from the competition. If a handset is too similar to the previous model, it's considered "not good enough".
When it comes to tech, you can't keep fans happy for long. Perhaps this is nowhere more true than in the realm of Android, the most popular mobile OS on the planet.
Last November Google hit a home run with the Android Lollipop. It had some huge under the hood improvements like the switch from Dalvik to Android Runtime, which greatly improved app performance. Android L also saw the improvement of notifications, allowing them to be seen as banners even within apps and accessible from the lock screen. But the biggest new feature of Android L was its redesigned user interface.
For this interface Google created an all new design language known as Material Design. Material Design took its cues from the Google Now app, which used a card-based layout and the company seemed to achieve both a flat new look while not sacrificing depth. As a Google designer described at the time: "Material has physical surfaces and edges. Seams and shadows provide meaning about what you can touch."
The developer preview of Android M is now available and Google aims to have another version released before the close of July. Available on the company’s Nexus 9, Nexus 5 and Nexus 6, the Android M preview is NOT to be viewed and used as release-grade software – it’s beta and that means bugs and performance issues.
Google’s Android platform has had more than its fair share of security issues over the years. Some were pretty benign, while others were cause for concern for millions of users the globe over. A lot of these exploits are caused by Android’s fragmented nature; there are still plenty of handsets running Android Ice Cream Sandwich, for instance, and this makes it extremely hard for OEMs to ensure all their code, even year’s old code, is fully up to date with the latest security patches.
Basically, a lot of this has more to do with OEMs than Google. If they looked after their older handsets better, none of this would happen. But as anyone who has owned an Android phone in the past six years will tell you, this just doesn’t happen. You get 12-18 months of support at best, and then you’re on your own.
Still, Google is working away on stuff at present that might one day help. Check out this post from Google’s Android blog, detailing how the Big G will soon begin rolling out monthly security updates to its Nexus handsets and tablets:
“Nexus devices have always been among the first Android devices to receive platform and security updates. From this week on, Nexus devices will receive regular OTA updates each month focused on security, in addition to the usual platform updates. The first security update of this kind began rolling out today, Wednesday August 5th, to Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 7, Nexus 9, Nexus 10, and Nexus Player. This security update contains fixes for issues in bulletins provided to partners through July 2015, including fixes for the libStageFright issues. At the same time, the fixes will be released to the public via the Android Open Source Project. Nexus devices will continue to receive major updates for at least two years and security patches for the longer of three years from initial availability or 18 months from last sale of the device via the Google Play Store.”
More recently, images of what is said to be the new Nexus handset popped up online inside an official piece of marketing material from Google. In the image you can only see the back of the handset, but if your memory serves you correctly, you will recollect that this exact thing happened prior to the launch of the Nexus 5. But as we said, fans are rarely content for long. There's already a huge chorus of people chomping at the bit for the next version of Android. Here's everything we know about it so far.
Currently Android Lollipop is on version 5.1, which means many assumed the next major release of Android would be version 6.0. However, according to reports dating July 21, we may not be looking at a version 6.0 at all, rather version 5.2.
The software is expected to be given a name for its "M" moniker fairly soon and with it a build number too, but screenshots have emerged showing the the latest version of Google's Android M developer build. It's been observed that with past screenshots Google has shown the version number of Android via the system clock; the time displayed in the screenshots, and in this case it's 5:20 - Android 4.4 showed 4:40 while Androdi 5.0 showed 5:00. Given what we've seen before it's a pretty convincing argument.
What about the name? Well Google has historically named its versions after confectionary and in alphabetical order: Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop, and now we're at "M". The current speculation is Milkshake, partly because an illustration was spotted on a Google exec's smartwatch screen which resembled a milkshake.
In what can only be described as a VERY ODD MOVE, Sony confirmed it would support the Android M preview on quite a few of its handsets, starting at the end of June. So far, the handsets included are as follows: Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Compact, Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact, Xperia Z2 Tablet, Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact, Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia E3, Xperia M2, Xperia T2 Ultra and the Xperia T3.
Sony is the first non-Nexus line of phones to support the Android M developer preview. Could this be something we see other OEMs adopt in the future? Possibly – fans love getting early access to new builds of Android, so don’t be surprised if we see Moto and Samsung and LG doing something similar in the coming months and years.
Google’s 2015 Nexus handset is expected to launch alongside Android M and will either be built by LG or Huawei – or there will be two handsets, each from either manufacturer. Not much is known about Google’s plans for its Nexus line, though there is plenty of anecdotal evidence suggesting the Big G is keen to move its handset line back to its glory days a la Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, meaning great specs and hardware and a low-end price.
Google has released its second preview of Android M, an update it describes as incremental. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find thousands of tiny fixes and plenty of updates. All of which are targeted at making Android M the most secure update Google has ever released, as the company sets out to patch security holes and further optimise its platform.
One of Android M’s flagship features is to do with application permissions. In the new build of Android M, applications will no longer get blanket access to all of your phone; rather, apps will have to ask for permissions to certain elements of your phone and explain why they want said permissions.
“The platform changes in Preview 2 mostly deal with modifications to these permissions,” reports ZDNet, “including moving external storage to ‘dangerous’, requiring apps intending to write to it to request permission at runtime. Other permission changes have been made to Bluetooth, wi-fi, accounts, and identity.”
One new feature is to do with memory and how it is used aboard devices running Android M. According to reports the new build of Android M features a detailed memory analysis widget which lets the user see exactly what apps and content are accessing the phone’s memory. Previously it just detailed applications in a fairly arbitrary manner.
What's included
Android M: Most Wanted Features
Again, no word here yet from Google on what new features Android M might contain. However we can extrapolate some likely candidates from the way the tech landscape is heading in general. For starters it seems like 2015 and beyond will finally see greater adoption of smart home appliances. Apple is betting on this, which is why they created the HomeKit SDK in iOS 8 last year. It's very likely Android M will feature some kind of similar SDK that offers smart home integration. Considering Google owns smart thermostat maker Nest, this seems almost a given.
Another growing tech trend is in the car space. Everyone knows Google is working on self-driving cars, but while those are years away from a public release, the company currently has a strong Android Auto platform. It's likely Google–again, just as Apple has done with CarPlay–will strengthen its Android Auto integration in Android M by baking it into the OS.
Besides those two clear verticals, there are still a number of minor feature improvements Android fans are clamoring for. The first involves notifications. Right now Android devices don't do the best job at syncing notifications. For example, receiving a messaging notification on a smartphone and reading the message there often will not clear that notification on a tablet. This lack of notification awareness between devices is a headache.
Another feature people are requesting is Quick Reply to notifications. Apple introduced a similar feature in iOS 8. It allows a user to click a notification banner and reply instantly to a message or email without leaving the current app they are in.
A final popular feature request is multi-window support, which allows for two apps to be open on the screen at once, making multitasking a lot easier. To see how Quick Reply and multi-window support may work, check out the awesome concept video below.
Given that Android L received a significant UI makeover with Material Design, it’s very unlikely that Android M won’t sport major design changes. Sure, there will be refinements, but massive sweeping UI alternations are very unlikely. Instead it’s reasonable to believe that, besides the features listed above, it's likely that Google could use Android M to really iron out the bugs and kinks in the OS and focus on stability over radical new features.
If so, it would be similar to the tactics Apple is rumored to be doing with iOS 9–take a year off of major new features to really concentrate on the user experience and squashing bugs. As both iOS and Android have been rushing at a mad pace year after year to add features, they've both become a little buggier, so a year to take a breather is something most Android users wouldn't complain about if it meant greater stability.
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