Google announced the next version of Android i.e. L release aka Android 5.0
Lets quickly walk you through what’s new and what you should expect from next version of Android:
1. New Design – Material Design
Google has refreshed the whole design philosophy behind Android OS and apps along with web applications. The new design, which they call as “Material design” takes inspiration from real world objects like pen and paper.
Everything from contacts, dialer, Gmail have more real-life like animations and transitions. No longer do 2-screens in application look disconnected.
Material design is all about 3D UI elements, as well as shadow effects and new 60fps animations that show movement, ripples and quicker touch feedback (the amount of time it takes to tell you that what you just touched is actually producing the expected result). This new design language features hierarchy, it’s responsive colorful and is meant to unify all Android-based platforms.
All UI elements get depth, which is in-contrast to Apple’s iOS 7 Flat-design.
2. Notifications & Lockscreen
Notifications are getting overhauled. They now popout of notification bar for increased visibility, they’re called “heads up notification” — They are actually helpful when you’re in fullscreen playing a game.
Quick settings have also been integrated into the notifications panel. These settings are hidden by default but can be made visible from view when you pull down the notification bar, but they’ll appear if you keep pulling (or if you tap the bar on the top).
Notifications are now also displayed on Lockscreen. You can scroll through them, single tap to expand and double tap to launch right from lockscreen.
With wearables, your device is automatically unlocked (no security pattern) when your wearable is in vicinity of the android device.
3. Performance
Dalvik runtime has been replaced with ART (Android Runtime). A new runtime VM that has 2x times the performance of Dalvik VM under all circumstances.
The performance is not just for computational logics but also for graphics. Android 5.0 will have huge boost in graphics with Google assuring DirectX11 level graphics on decent hardware smartphones. Android L release includes Android expansion packs with things like shaders and tessellations.
Android is now 64-bit across all hardware platforms: ARM, x86, MIPS.
4. Battery life
On an average, ART runtime alone improves battery by 30% over Dalvik. Among other improvements, a new project called Project Volta, that aims to reduce battery consumption by scheduling network calls only when device is awake (or at regular schedules) so that device can enter deep-sleep for longer durations.
Android now offers a Battery saver mode (finally). Battery saver mode limits CPU cores/clock, and even disable background data for extended usage. In-addition it switches-off animations, reduces refresh-rate to improve battery life further.
On Nexus 5, if your (screen on) usage is 4hours, it will extend by 90minutes with battery saver mode.
5. Security & Enterprise support
Android is way more secure than before. It inherits some features from Samsung knox to support data sandboxing between Office (corporate) and personal apps. This enable users have single device for work and fun.
6. Deeper integration with web
Google is making Android native apps work seamlessly with the cloud. Most Google webapps would like just like native apps (with Material design) with similar experience across Web, tablets, phones.
Chrome Tabs will also appear in the recent applications, blurring the difference between webapps and native apps.
Google search results can now open directly inside app.
7. New APIs
Developers will have 5,000 new APIs to play with. Animations, transitions are way more powerful and easier to do that ever before.
Few new API support: Full 64-bit support across all platforms: ARM, x86, MIPS, Improved AV-sync, hardware assisted Hot-word detection, NDK media APIs, burst-mode Camera APIs, TV input framework, path animations, CardView, RecycledView, color space correction, lock to app apis, Document-centric multitasking, and several others.
Android L HandsOn Video (Early Preview)
Availability:
Android L Release (Android 5.0) developer preview is now available to developers for getting ready. The final release will be made available by late October – November 2014.
What would L Release be called?
Most probably it will be called Android Lollipop. But there are several other predictions like Ladoo, LimePie etc.
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