Google I/O 2016 came to a close a few days ago, after having unveiled a plethora of new products and features the company has been working on. From virtual reality to integrated car support, the technological monolith has been innovating across all areas in life, but perhaps the biggest news to come out of the event was focused on Android N.
We already know that Google’s VR platform, Daydream, will run off Android N and it’s all thanks to the Vulkan Graphics API. The Vulcan API allows CPUs to process data more smoothly and quickly so we can expect devices that run on Android N to be at the cutting edge of mobile processing speeds. Furthermore, apps will now install 75% faster and there will be a 50% reduction in compiler code. As a result you can say goodbye to that annoying “Android is starting” dialogue box thanks to the new JIT compiler.
Productivity seems to be a major aspect of Android N as well. There will finally be a “Clear All” button in the apps tab, something we’ve seen in skinned versions of previous Android versions. Furthermore, users can quickly switch to the previously used app by double tapping the recent apps button, a feature Google calls “Quick Switch”. A new Multi-Window mode lets users view and interact with multiple apps at the same time. There are two submodes for Multi-Window: Picture in Picture lets you shrink down what’s on the screen to a small box, letting you do something else with the bigger full screen window. Splitscreen on the other hand, splits the screen between different apps, though some at the time of writing are still incompatible with this interface. Furthermore, it isn’t necessary for apps to be updated to use this mode. Of the two modes, only splitscreen is available for smartphones currently.
The notification drop down menu has also been revamped. The menu is now more compact and each notification has more function; double tapping on a notification expands it beyond its normal headline and lets you choose how to interact with notification. For instance, you can immediately reply from the notification itself. Furthermore you can also change how each app alerts you in the future by holding down on that apps notification.
The settings menu has also seen change. A new embedded list of settings is now available, letting users in the WiFi menu to quickly jump to other system settings via the embedded menu. Furthermore, the default systems settings menu also gives nuggets of information for each setting, such as the number of apps installed and how much free space you currently have.
Keyboards are seeing a visual change! While not a big change it does add a level of customizability to everyone’s Android phones, letting them change the keyboard’s colour, set a picture as a background or choose from numerous set of themes. Android N will also come with a slightly different set of emojis.
Of course there is also the VR compatibility, which you can read more about here.
Even though Android N is slated for a Q3 release, users can already download the public beta build, if they have a compatible smartphone.
