Yesterday started the Google I/O 2016, one of the biggest events that are held today in the world of technology and of course one of the highlights was the Android N official presentation, of which at the moment we do not know its definitive name, something in which you yourself can intervene in a decisive way as we have commented in this article.
This new version of Android was already available in the market to be able to test it and examine it on Nexus devices, but we could say that it is now officially available after the presentation yesterday by Google. In this article we are going to review the main novelties that we can find, although yes, for the moment and unless you have a device with the seal of the search giant you will not be able to test them and you will have to wait a while to do so.
Android N revolves around five key points that we are going to review right now, ready to know all the news about Android N?
The multi-window comes to our smartphone
This is perhaps the most prominent feature of Android N and although it was already available on some devices thanks to the software of different manufacturers, it will now reach all smartphones and tablets in a native way. For example, it can be really useful if we want to do two things at the same time on our device, from watch a video on YouTube and comment on it via WhatsApp with a friend, or write an email while consulting any data in an image that is stored in your image library.
Thanks to the trial version of Android N or Android 7.0 we were able to test the multi-window. To activate it, you just have to click on the square button of this new function. Then you must press and hold an application and drag it up. The application that you have opened will remain at the top of the screen, leaving the lower part of the screen free so that you can work on it with another application.
The notification bar is full of news
The notification bar is one of the main and most interesting features of Android, and with the arrival of Android N it has undergone several important changes. In the new version of the operating system, just by sliding the notification bar down we will find five shortcuts to functions, without having to pull the bar again, as was the case before. Thank you Google for hearing our pleas and not wasting any more time!
These shortcuts can be edited and changed, although it is possible that we will only find them in Android Stock and it is that many manufacturers with their customization layers greatly modify these types of options and this one has all the earmarks that you will not like too much to manufacturers who sometimes prefer to look the other way and ignore the improvements that Google introduces in Android, to introduce their own.
Of course also it will be possible to respond to messages from instant messaging applications from the bar itself, to save us the trouble of having to open the application. In addition, notifications, which tend to group together, will now be displayed in a displayed way with just a small press.
We do not want to close this section without stopping to point out one last news and that is that in Android N we can finally see the information about the battery in the notification bar. This is something that most manufacturers have been incorporating in their customization layer and that is really useful for any user, but that Google was reluctant to incorporate. From this new version of the software we will be able to see the remaining battery percentage. In addition, just by clicking on the battery icon we can see the consumption graph and by clicking on "More options" we can go directly to the battery settings.
Android N is more secure
Many users consider Android an unsafe operating system, without having too many tests of course, but also based on some events that Google has had to suffer in its own flesh. However, it seems that the search giant is willing to improve the security of its operating system and that is why yesterday at the Google I / O 2016 presentation conference it repeatedly insisted that the new Android N will be more secure than any previous version .
Una new file-based encryption will allow any user to encrypt individual files, instead of having to encrypt the entire device. This is only the first security measure added by Google to which we must add the expanded protection of the multimedia framework that reduces the number of places where hackers and all kinds of spyware can sneak into our device.
To round off this matter, and although it does not have much to do with security, if it can affect it, Google has implemented in Android N the possibility of not having to download and install software updates manually. These are carried out in the background and we will not have to be pending at any time of the download and installation of updates, the only thing we will have to take care of is restarting the device if necessary. This leaves no device out of date and without the relevant security improvements, which were one of the many problems that exposed a large number of users to attacks or malware.
Users will choose the name of the new version
The new version of Android will be baptized once again with the name of a sweet This time it will start with the letter N. Many of us thought that Google had already closed an interesting agreement for the new Android 7.0 to be called Android Nutella, but it seems that this will not be the case in the end and it is that the search giant has given us the opportunity to choose the name of all users.
For this, it has made available a web page where we can vote for the name that we like or convince the most. Of all those that are proposed, the most repeated will be the one chosen by Google to baptize the new and now official Android N. Of course, I do not know the case that Google is going to make us and is to imagine that instead of a more or less normal name triumphs a convoluted and horrible name triumphs, will Google also baptize the new version of Android with that name? I'm afraid not.
Android N will officially arrive in September
Almost two months ago Google released the first version of Android N Developer Preview, which is currently possible to install on the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus Player and Sony Xperia Z3. The search giant has confirmed in a more or less official way that it will release a total of 5 preview images before releasing the final version.
These 5 images will be released until July and according to forecasts the final version, together with the new Nexus, would be released in September. Here is the Google roadmap for Android N;
- Preview 1 (first version, alpha), March
- Preview 2 (update, beta), April
- Preview 3 (update, beta), May
- Preview 4 (Final APIs and Official SDK), June
- Preview 5 (final test), July
- Final version and release of the AOSP code with the presentation of the new Nexus
About the new Nexus we have already known several rumors about a possible manufacture by Huawei although at the moment there has not been any important leak that allows us to see the design of the terminal or know its main characteristics and specifications.
If you have one of the devices compatible with Android N and its trial versions, you can install it right now in a more or less simple way and start enjoying some of the news that the new version of Google's operating system brings with it. You can also update your device as new images are released until you reach the final and definitive version that will already contain all the news of this new version of Androiod.
All of us who have a device with the Andropid operating system are looking forward to the arrival of Android N, because if with Android Lollipop the aesthetic improvements arrived and with Android Marsmallow all those technical improvements that were needed, now with this new version of Google software It seems that at last everything that users need will arrive and we have been demanding it for a long time.
What do you think of the main novelties that we will see in the new Android N that is already official?. Tell us your opinion in the space reserved for comments on this post or through one of the social networks in which we are present and where we are eager to share pleasant moments with you, debating on this topic and many more.