Android Nougat: the next desert on your phone

androidcentral.com

As android users, we’ve had Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop and Marshmallow. And now android will be releasing our next desert soon, android N now android “Nougat”.

In an unusual move Google unveiled the Android Nougat Developer Preview ahead of Google I/O in order to give it more time to incorporate feedback from developers. At Google I/O the company discussed some new features that we’ll detail below, and announced that a public beta of Android Nougat was available. According to Google’s revelations, we understand that the OS doesn’t offer any major new features but is rather more concerned with APIs. At I/O 2016 Google said the final version of Android Nougat would be available later in the summer, most likely in September. And depending on the phone your using, you will be able to get android N early next year.

We list some of the feature that we think will make android N a hit

Multi-window support

Users can now pop open two apps on the screen at once.

  • On phones and tablets running Android N, users can run two apps side-by-side or one-above-the-other in split screen mode. Users can resize the apps by dragging the divider between them.
  • On Android TV devices, apps can put themselves in picture-in-picture mode, allowing them to continue showing content while the user browses or interacts with other apps.

Direct reply

For real-time communication apps, the Android system supports inline replies so that users can quickly respond to an SMS or text message directly within the notification interface.

Notification Template update

We’re updating notification templates to put a new emphasis on hero image and avatar. Developers will be able to take advantage of the new templates with minimal adjustments in their code.

Android beta program

Another new addition from Google is a way to receive preview builds and updates over-the-air, avoiding the need for flashing factory images. Anyone with a compatible device is able to sign up for the Android Beta Program and receive these preview builds automatically.

These are just some of the new features of Android N, and many other improvements are yet to be implemented or previewed. Some features we may even have to wait for the final build to find out about. For now the app drawer still remains, although rumors suggest that it may disappear in the future.