Google Android 6.0 Marshmallow was officially demoed on 2015 series Huawei Nexus 6P and LG Nexus 5X on Tuesday (29 September) in San Francisco.
Google's new sugar-treat flavoured mobile OS is said to come with all new features including security updates and power-saving mode, which was lacking in generation old v5.0 Lollipop.
To help provide a better perspective on the Android 6.0 Marshmallow, we briefly describe key features of the new OS.
1) Privacy & Security-
In the new Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Google has shown keen interest in addressing security issues by giving more control over app's permission to the users. Now, the users can deny the app permission to access personal info or any other data and can still use the app.
The company has also made strides in another security feature -- the fingerprint authentication system built right in to the Marshmallow. This is an additional layer of security to unlock the phone and also makes online purchases safer.
Verified boot system: Marshmallow OS has been hard-coded with new safety feature to monitor Android device during booting process to look out for any malicious firmware. If found, it will notify the user that the device's OS factory setting has been modified and take necessary measures to curb the vulnerability.
2) Battery life enhancement-
Besides the security features, Android has given equal importance to battery life extension. Android's Lollipop powered devices were plagued with fast battery draining and it further got complicated with bugs.
But this time, Marshmallow promises better power consumption management via Doze feature. If the device is in sleep mode, it will automatically put apps into a sleep state to increase device's standby battery life.
Furthermore, future Android Marshmallow is said to come in USB Type C port, so the transfer of power from power bank/outlet to devices will be much faster. It is learnt that just few minutes of charging is enough for the device to run for numerous hours.
3) Performance and System User-experience Enhancements-
The company claims the new Android Runtime (ART) has been improved to make the devices work faster and multi-task more efficiently by optimisation of power and RAM consumption rate.
Android team has also made improvements to enhance user-experience such as new personalisation options for Do Not Disturb feature (in quick setting), volume controls can now be used to manage notification, music and alarms from anywhere with touch of volume keys.
Some improvements have been incorporated in Google Now Launcher and also to the Settings to make it more streamlined. Now, important app related details such as battery consumption, memory usage, notifications and permission are put in one place.
4) Contextual Assistance-
Now on Tap has been integrated to Google Now as a value-added feature. Users can activate 'Now on Tap' just by pressing home button for some time and start talking to phone to pull any information out of internet or app. For instance, if user gets a message from a friend or an offer from app (food/retail/movie booking) and wants to know more about it, he/she can just hold home and the Now on Tap will intuitively know what information you really want to know and display it.
In other instance, if user is playing songs on music, he/she just touch home and activate voice-control to vocally give commands to change tracks and play your favourite tracks on your phone.
5) Android for Work-
With option for integration of corporate email account, Android Marshmallow now offers status bar in form of briefcase Icon. It will show notifications from any related apps installed via work profile. Another interesting feature is that users can view work related past messages/calls and contact details without having log in to from work profile.
6) Connectivity-
With battery optimisation mechanism in place, now Android Marshmallow powered devices will use less power for scanning nearby Bluetooth companion devices and nearby beacons.
Wi-Fi pairing has also been streamlined for secured seamless connection via Hotspot 2.0 as it will now support 5GHz frequency bands as well.
7) Support for more languages-
Once the device gets the new 6.0 Marshmallow, it will be able to translate 74 international languages. New additions include Gujarati (one of India's regional dialect), Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Albanian, Urdu, and Uzbek.
