Android N: What To Expect From This New Innovation?

Google surprised everyone by releasing, in March 2016, a developer preview version of Android N; also dubbed as Android Nougat, not Nutella as everyone was expecting it to be. The developer preview was released and updated four times which has revealed a lot of new features.

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Read ahead to find out more about what to expect from Google’s Android version 7.0, Nougat. The preview was released on the Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 (Wi-Fi and LTE), Nexus Player and Pixel C on the Android Developers site.

Split-Screen Mode for Better Multitasking

Android N will feature a split-screen mode which will effectively enable anyone to run two applications simultaneously on one phone, tablet or phablet. The split-screen mode can be accessed by holding down the task switching button. Although apps like Twitter and Chrome work fine; it seems that full support for split-screen mode will take a while to be implemented in major applications like Instagram, which are not yet compatible with it.

Source: The Verge.

Quick Switch (Alt-Tab for Android)

Want to switch back to the most recently used app without the hassle of going through a list of all the apps you used? Well, with Android N, all you have to do is to double tap the task switching button and voila! Not one of the most useful features, yes, but it does add a bit of a new flavor to daily use. Google calls this function, Quick Switch.

Notifications

The notifications’ dropdown menu has been entirely revamped (and dare I say, made much better than Android Marhsmallow).

Source: The Verge

Firstly, the need for swiping down twice to access quick shortcuts for Wifi, Bluetooth and other functions has been made much easier by displaying five icons on the top (all of which are customizable). Icons which are used frequently can be set for ease of access. However, you still have to double swipe downwards if you want to access all of the quick shortcuts though. Nonetheless, this is a great improvement over Marshmallow.

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Secondly, notifications for apps can be customized for the dropdown menu. Don’t like apps being too “clingy”? Well you can turn off notifications for it or choose to just have silent notifications appear for the app in question.

Keyboard Themes

Source: The Verge

Google has introduced a variety of keyboard color themes to choose from in Android N. If that wasn’t enough, Google has also added the use of custom images for keyboard themes. It may not seem much now but the addition of this feature ensures that everyday use will never be the same as before.

Seamless Updates

Google really pulled a surprising one with the addition of this feature. Updates, no matter how important or useful, are usually a pain to install but not anymore. With the release of Android N, all updates will be downloaded in the background and your phone will not pop any prompt asking you to restart the phone. Instead, the downloaded updates will be stored in a secondary partition of the phone, allowing you to keep working on the phone without any interruptions. The updates will be installed when you next restart your phone but the notorious wait for these updates will not be as troublesome as before. The JIT (Just-In-Time) recompiler ensures a swift install and little to no wait between updates.

Much can be anticipated from Android N but, rest assured, Google really has outdone itself with it.