Update: Google announced on October 15 Android L is officially called Android Lollipop.
Android
L (Android Lollipop)
or shall we say Android 5, is here, and it's brought a bundle of new changes,
with Sundar Pichai, head of Android, proclaiming it to be one of the biggest
upgrades to Android yet.
New design like 5000 new APIs, has been available as a developer preview for a while, and it's going beyond the mobile form factor. It will be contextually aware of its surroundings, plus voice is going to me a major input source.
Smooth experience across
devices - phones, TVs, and tablets - so making Android Lollipop devices
communicate properly is at the top of the feature list. That said, don't think
your handset will get left in the dust. Pichai was at pains to point out the
mobile phone will always be the priority. If you've got a sweet tooth for all
the information about Android Lollipop, then you've come to the right place.
Here's everything you need to know about Google's new mobile platform.
Big thing : The next major
upgrade for Android
Date of release : In the
coming weeks
Cost : Nothing, it'll be
free
Android Lollipop
release date
Google
has said it will be available for the Nexus
4, 5, 7, 10 and Google Play edition devices "in the coming weeks" - so
some users should be seeing it show up come November, if not before.
HTC
has already been in contact, giving the following statement about its
forthcoming upgrade to Android Lollipop (formerly known as Android L):
"HTC
is excited about the new features in Android L and we can't wait to share them
with our customers. We are committed to updating our flagship HTC One family as
fast as possible.
"We
will begin rolling out updates to the HTC One (M8) and HTC One (M7) in regions worldwide
within 90 days of receiving final software from Google, followed shortly
thereafter by other One family members and select devices."
Android Lollipop
Material Design
Changing
the way it looks is going well beyond the mobile phone to the tablet, TV
screen, watch and even the car.
The
new Material Design is strange in that it bucks a trend at the moment - yes,
it's flat, but it's heavily based on making every animation, every ripple,
every shadow look real, which is something that most brands are shying away
from.
Google
tells us that this feels more intuitive, which means that there will be shadow
gradients, 3D tiles that slide over one another and most importantly: access
for developers to use this for themselves on their apps.
The
idea is obvious: remove the fragmented way Android looks and bring consistency
to the app world no matter what device you're on. Google intends to create an
expansive ecosystem that will allow you to start a song on one device, move to
another room, pick up a separate Android device and continue right where you
left off.
The
Roboto font has been updated too, so everything from watch to TV to mobile
looks the same.
The
whole interface is updated and improved
Every
animation on screen will be allowed to connect to one another - so there's no "teleportation between apps". The home, back and multi-tasking window buttons
on Android 5.0 have been refined too, and overall, this is a massive step
forward for a cleaner, more intuitive-looking version of Google's mobile
platform.
To
get a taste of Material Design now just head on over to the Play Store on an
Android device, as the material design update is currently rolling out for it and the
Google Chrome app.
Notifications and
lock screen
Notifications
on Android Lollipop are getting an overhaul, so only the more relevant
information about your apps is being presented.
You
can even adjust the OS to display notifications from the most important people
and apps during the evening hours or an important meeting. The notification
panel is being merged with the lockscreen so you can see what's going on as you
pick up the phone, and a simple swipe up takes you into the phone.
Imagine
that the lockscreen is similar to the notifications panel now, and you're
pretty much there.
Android
Lollipop will also learn from you, working out what you look at and interact
with more often to priorities that notification.
Interlocking apps
on Android Lollipop
Google
wants your apps to be able to talk to one another on Android 5.0 - it used the
example of searching for a place, only to have it served up in Google Earth,
which is where it originally was being looked at.
The
idea goes much deeper than that though - Chrome browsing has an API that other
apps can take advantage of, so if you click a link to book a table in the
browser you'll be taken to something like OpenTable directly, rather than the
mobile site.
This
feature depends a lot on app developers taking advantage of the new tools, but
all the onboard Google apps will be much more dependent on one another.
Faster, better looking and more efficient
Whilst
Android 5.0 comes with some nifty new features that make an immediate visual
impact, Google has put a lot of work in behind the scenes to ensure that
Android Lollipop is the fastest yet.
If
you're not big on codespeak, then this is the upshot: a new way of putting the
platform together when you're using the phone makes everything slicker, faster
and more efficient.
If
you're interested, here are the finer details: ART, an optional runtime in Android KitKat, has now been made the
standard for Android Lollipop and works with ARM, x86 and MIPS platforms and
runs twice as fast as the Dalvik runtime that is found on previous Android
iterations.
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