With only 4 days left for the start of Google’s I/O 2015 developer conference, all eyes are being centred upon San Francisco’s Moscone centre where the event will happen. Nerds from all over the globe will congregate over there to buff up their coding aptitude. The event will be host to major announcements regarding Android TV, Android Auto and Android Wear alongwith the preview of the new Android version – Android M.
Next Essence – Android M
Keeping in line with the past tradition of naming the Android versions after pastries and candies, the new essence of Android may be called as Muffin or Marshmallow or Milky Way or M&M. For the people who want to know about the nomenclature system for Android, here are some tips. All the releases will be named in an Alphabetical Order like 1.5 was Cupcake, then Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Kitkat and the current one is known as Lollipop. As far as the number goes it may be Android 5.2 or Android 6.0 if rumours are to be believed.
Design Evolution
Android M in terms of attributes will be a fruition of the current Lollipop instead of being a radical new version. This means the existing features will be improved rather than bringing in plenty of fresh things. Gaze and experience of Android’s stock user interface is likely to be unaffected. There can be minor tweaks to existing Material design principle of Android 5.0 Lollipop. We may expect shadows to come under objects, slithering transitions, smooth icons and unobtrusive approach to graphics design in Android M.
Complimentary approaches to interact
If we consider the rumours going around in the air, developers have added potential of touch free operations of apps through which Android M can allow you to control them through your sweet voice. There is buzz that Android M will have a feature equivalent to Airdrop of iOS and will be called as Nearby.
Apart from the above there can be enhancements in UI’s notifications and volume control system may bring back the mute feature. However on these features very little details are available yet.
Augmented Privacy and Security
According to the ongoing rumours you may be able to control and edit the app permissions, so that they can only gather data about specific things which you want to be public.
According to description of session named Android for Work Update to be conducted in Google I/O
[quote_box_center]“Android M is bringing the power of Android to all kinds of workplaces. This opens huge new markets for hundreds of millions of devices to workers at small business, deskless workers, logistics and warehousing jobs; all be empowered by adoption of Android devices at Work Android M is bringing the power of Android to all kinds of workplaces. This opens huge new markets for hundreds of millions of devices to workers at small business, deskless workers, logistics and warehousing jobs; all be empowered by adoption of Android devices at Work “[/quote_box_center]
Google will build up on the enterprise features which have been introduced with Lollipop. This will make Android M the most enterprise-savvy version till date.
Finger Print Scanner – the current rage among the mobile manufacturers these days may give a replacement to screen lock PIN or password. Finger print scanner has appeared in many Android based phones like Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 4 etc. This will allow integrate capability into apps making them more secure.
Android Pay – layer for integration
Unlike the expectations of a complete new framework for payments, it will be just a layer for developers to integrate secure payment process in their apps. Android pay is expected to first use NFC as communication medium and later it could be supported by biometrics data.
Sooner or Later?
There are chances that an early release of Android M will be available for download after conference but a stable release may take some months to mature. This is as per the Lollipop’s experience where it has taken almost 5 months to launch after its first official preview. However devices running on Nexus and Google Play edition will be the first to receive the update followed by devices from other manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony, LG, Motorola and HTC.
Hook on to MobiPicker for more updates on Android M.