Google officially made its new mobile OS Android Marshmallow (Android version 6.0) available on October 5, 2015 focusing on the overall user experience improvement over its previous version Lollipop. Quite obviously, the Google’s nexus phones are ones that are going receive it first but others are not very far behind. LG has already announced that its flagship smart phone LG G4 will get the upgrade in a week time. Though Samsung did not announce anything yet but speculations are there that many devices of Galaxy series like Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ Samsung Galaxy Note5, Samsung Galaxy A8, Samsung Galaxy A7, Samsung Galaxy S6 edge etc will be upgraded to Marshmallow soon. In next few months quite a few devices will be available in the market with the new Android version. Before you get it on your device you might be interested in knowing about the new features of Marshmallow. Here is the summary of the most important features.
1. Google Now on Tap
It is probably the most important feature introduced in this version. It is all about to assist you to understand the current context better. For example, if you are reading about a movie in an App like WhatsApp, You will get relevant Apps like IMDb, YouTube etc and relevant links about the movie by long pressing the home button. You will get these without exiting the current App.
2. New permission architecture
Before this version all permissions were asked at the time of installation of an App. Later on the App will access your device resources without letting you know when and what the app is using. In this version the permission architecture is changed to ask for permission right when it is required. For example if WhatsApp needs of access your address book or camera it asks for permission when it is required. You can grant or deny permission at that moment. That way you will have better idea on what is going on. You can of course change the permission from the settings anytime.
3. Advanced power management
Marshmallow introduced a new power management trick, Doze, which automatically senses the inactivity of the device and puts the device in sleep mode. Doze is very close to switch off mode. The device does minimum task required hence it increases the battery standby time. You don’t need explicitly to do any special configuration. It is not going the sacrifice your important notifications and calls which will come immediately.
4. Expandable storage
Traditionally all the Apps and games are stored in the internal storage. So, you need to be careful in time of buying a phone or tablet about the size of the internal storage. If you want to install many apps or games you need to buy devices with more internal storage. In Marshmallow You can easily set an external disk or SD card as primary storage. Device will use the SD card or external storage device as encrypted expanded storage for your apps and data. So you can install lot of apps and games depending with the SD card size. You don’t need to worry about the in-built storage.
5. Share to your most-used apps
This is one type of machine learning to increase user experience. The device continuously learns about you sharing behavior and tries to assist you by providing your favorite app or contact at the top of the list when you share. For example if you share things to a particular person more often, then when you will try to share something next, that person will be listed on the top of the contact list to choose from. Similarly, if you share things with WhatsApp most of the time, WhatsApp will top the list whenever you will try to share something.
6. Android Runtime (ART)
Android has improved the performance and memory overhead of the apps. This will help smooth functioning of the apps.
7. Connectivity Enhancement
Android Marshmallow improved many things in space of connectivity. It supports USB Type-C connector for faster charging and data transfer, better multitasking. Now Bluetooth will take less power to scan for nearby beacons and your accessories to discover nearby Bluetooth devices. It will add support of Hotspot 2.0 to connect to the compatible Wi-Fi networks seamlessly and securely, support of Bluetooth SAP to make calls from your carphone using your phone’s SIM.
8. Fingerprint Security
Finally Android comes up with some type of bio-metric authentication. Now you can unlock your phone or any App easily with your fingerprint without using any third party tool for that. The OS will have native support for it. Of course your device need to have the hardware support for finger print scanner.
9. Device setup and migration
Now setting up a new device became much easier. You have to just say “OK Google, set up my device”. Google will transfer your accounts, apps and data to a new device. During setup wizard you can add an additional personal or corporate email account. Backup/restore of additional system settings such as your Sync settings, preferred apps, Do Not Disturb settings, Accessibility settings and enabled IMEs.
