{"id":24048,"date":"2015-06-03T21:01:37","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T13:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=24048"},"modified":"2016-07-29T04:13:15","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T20:13:15","slug":"android-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/android-m\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Things You Should Know About Android M"},"content":{"rendered":"

Android M<\/strong>, the next generation of Android has been announced (albeit no word on what M will be yet). Google recently showcased the Developer Preview of the latest version of its advanced mobile operating system in Google I\/O 2015. This new release of Android tries to improve the fundamentals<\/strong> with big changes and plenty of bug-fixing.<\/p>\n

After revamping the look and feel of Android Lollipop, this focus this round is to improve the core user experience of Android, and giving control back to the users. Note that this is just the developer preview and there may be other improvements coming when Android M is finally ready for the masses. In the meantime, here are some of the changes you can look forward to for Android 6.0.<\/p>\n

1. App Info And Permissions<\/h2>\n

Android M makes every app \u201cfess up\u201d on the storage<\/strong>, battery life<\/strong> and data<\/strong> it is taking up, alongside the permissions it requires to work. And this is all provided in a more streamlined, structured and cleaner app info page, where you can also make further adjustments to the notifications<\/strong> it can display, app links<\/strong> (more on that later) as well as optimization preferences<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The permission model has also been changed. Whereas previously permissions were asked at the time the app was downloaded, now the apps will ask for permissions it require at runtime.<\/p>\n

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Aside from that you also have more control over app-specific mass-permissions, which is just a fancy phrase to say you can control permissions based on an app. For example, you can tap on Location and see a stream of apps that have access to your location.<\/p>\n

From here you can choose to revoke permission from apps you don\u2019t think should have access to your location, while keeping other permissions intact.<\/p>\n

2. Doze<\/h2>\n

Android M brings a new feature to improve your device\u2019s battery life \u2013 Doze. A battery management feature, Doze is the name for the deep-sleep state<\/strong> of Android M \u2013 this state uses just half of the power in sleep state, which means that your device\u2019s battery lasts double the time<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Android M\u2019s Doze feature is auto-activated once the device is left unattended for a while. This feature uses motion detection. If it is not attended to for a significant amount of time, or is stationary with the screen off or unplugged, Doze kicks in.<\/p>\n

Doze\u2019s deep-sleep mode allows the device to only periodically resume normal operations and for brief time periods. App syncing and pending operations will still run, and if the app receives a high-priority Google Cloud Messaging message, Doze allows brief network access.<\/p>\n

3. Android Pay<\/h2>\n

Android Pay is the Google\u2019s answer to Apple Pay. Like Google Wallet, Android Pay is a NFC payment feature<\/strong>, which allows anyone with a NFC-enabled Android device to pay at any NFC terminal available at partner stores. But unlike Google Wallet, Android Pay comes pre-installed in the device.<\/p>\n

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Android Pay, as per Google claims, is better and more secure<\/strong> because it only uses a virtual card number<\/strong> during the transaction and not your actual debit\/credit card number. Moreover, starting from Android M, users can even authorize their Android Pay transactions using their fingerprint, thus easing the whole process.<\/p>\n

There are 700 NFC-enabled partner stores in the US and thousands of Android Pay supported apps already available.<\/p>\n

4. Google Now on Tap<\/h2>\n

Google Now is Android\u2019s virtual assistant which shows you weather updates, travel reminders, news and content based on your interests and enhances your overall search experience. \u201cNow on Tap\u201d is an attempt to enhance that experience by bringing in real-time context<\/strong> to searches and content.<\/p>\n

What does that mean? It means no more breaking away from what you are doing<\/strong>, fumbling between one app or another to look up information. Google Now on Tap lets you use the Home button to get the info delivered to you.<\/p>\n

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IMAGE: technobuffalo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If in the middle of your Whatsapp session, or in an email, your friends mention going for a movie and you want more info about that movie, just long-press the Home button and Google will bring you titbits of information, the kind you would probably look up anyways.<\/p>\n