I know that not everyone even has Android Lollipop yet, so I won't just concentrate on the differences between the two most recent versions of Android. Instead I'll look at the major areas of the new OS, whether they are new, improved or missing in action. I'll break the review down into the following sections: the visual appearance of Android Marshmallow; integration of new Google products; core features of the system; security; and improvements to usability.
Update: We've added some features that saw light with the update to Android 6.0.1, including a host of new emoji and adouble-tap camera quick-launch feature that has been added to Nexus 5, 6, 7 and 9 devices. Find out more about these below under 'Design and visual changes' and 'Usability', respectively.
You can also keep up to date with the latest additions to Marshmallow through our dedicated page:
Jump to a section:
- Design and visual changes
- Google integration
- Performance and system features
- Security
- Usability
- The verdict
Android Marshmallow release date
Android Marshmallow was initially announced at Google I/O on May 28, when it was released as the Android M developer preview. Several updates to the preview came out before Marshmallow was officially named on August 17. Google finally unveiled Android 6.0 Marshmallow, alongside the 2015 Nexus devices, on September 29, 2015.
As usual, Google's Nexus family was first to get the goods, and the brand new Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P were the launch devices for Android 6.0. Factory images for most of the existing Nexus range – the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Nexus Player – appeared on October 5.
To see when your device will get Android 6.0, check the following guide:
Android Marshmallow design
Android Marshmallow is visually similar to its predecessor, Lollipop, in many ways. Google’s Material Design language is now more pervasive than ever before and the main areas of the UI – settings, notifications shade and navigation – remain the same. But Marshmallow does have some differences in appearance and new features.
Settings shortcuts
Android has let you create shortcuts to particular settings, such as the battery or display, for a while, but until Marshmallow, the icons for these shortcuts all looked the same. Now, the standard cog widget shape contains an icon depicting what that particular shortcut goes to, as shown in the screenshot below.
Lock screen
The Marshmallow lock screen is almost identical to Lollipop's, complete with expandable notifications and app shortcuts. But where Lollipop had shortcuts in the bottom corners that took you to the camera and dialer, Marshmallow replaces the dialer shortcut with one to Google’s voice search. This small update is the first clue as to just how integral voice commands are to Marshmallow.
Voice search has a completely new look too. Four colored dots float, become a waveform and then rotate as your voice request is picked up and processed. The response rate varies, depending on the complexity of the search terms and your internet speed, but the results are generally accurate. You can also launch apps from the lock screen using your voice.
Home screen
The same voice command functionality appears on the home screen via Google’s dedicated search bar, complete with the colorful, post-Alphabet Google logo. The home screen itself is essentially the same as it was in Lollipop (the changes to Google’s search bar and app icons have rolled out to all devices via updates).
Google Now, assuming you have signed up for it, returns to its dedicated position to the immediate left of the default home screen. This area has also been updated but again, this is not a Marshmallow exclusive. Google Now on Tap (more on this later) is now launched by a long press on the home button in the navigation bar.
You have a few options for launching apps: from voice commands, app icons, the 'recent apps' multitasking cards or the new-look app drawer. You can also jump straight into the app drawer search bar by long-pressing the app drawer icon. This shortcut will also launch your keyboard, just as it did in Lollipop.
App drawer
The app drawer in Marshmallow went through a couple of changes during the developer preview process and appears in the final version as a vertical scrolling list as opposed to the paginated horizontal list that Lollipop had. You can scroll through the list or use a new scrubber bar on the right to jump to a particular letter of the alphabet.
An endless vertical list means it's easy to swipe right to the end of your app list – certainly moreso than swiping through multiple cards in Lollipop. Predictive apps, based on the time of day, frequency and so on, appear in a special area at the top of the app drawer and you also have the added bonus of the dedicated app search bar that's accessible via the keyboard or voice, as well as the scrubber bar.
As always, you can drag app icons from the app drawer to the home screen, but when dragging apps, you’ll now see the option to uninstall them at the top of the screen, alongside App Info or the Remove options. System apps are excluded, but it’s a much more convenient way to uninstall apps.
The best thing is that these changes are part of the Google search app, so an update to that will deliver these features to all older Androids as well. The update adds the new search bar, voice interface, search bar and alphabet scrubber in the app drawer, and vertical app drawer orientation, as well as the uninstall shortcut.
Notifications and Quick Settings
As with Lollipop, Marshmallow has a two-part notifications/Quick Settings area. A single swipe down from the top of the home screen will pull down the notifications shade, where your expandable notifications live. A second swipe down on this screen reveals the Quick Settings panel. A two-finger swipe down from the home screen will take you straight there.
The notifications area displays app notifications, which can be expanded or tapped to launch the full app. This area also shows persistent system notifications, such as when a Bluetooth device is connected or other system features are enabled. The 'dismiss all' button now faces the other direction compared to Lollipop, but it does the same thing.
The Quick Settings area displays your screen brightness slider as well as toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile data and so on. As with Lollipop, these features can either be toggled on or off with a tap, or accessed further through a Quick Settings mini-menu or the relevant area of the full settings menu.
At the top of both the notifications shade and the Quick Settings area is a kind of status bar area. In the notifications shade you’ll see the time and date, various status bar icons and the icon for switching users. Oddly, tapping this in the notification shade simply opens up the Quick Settings area where it must be tapped again to change users or enter Guest Mode.
In the Quick Settings area, this area expands a little further, displaying battery percentage, carrier information and a shortcut to the settings menu. Long pressing the settings cog icon will give you access to the System UI Tuner.
System UI Tuner
Once enabled, System UI Tuner will appear in the settings menu at the very bottom. It provides a few simple UI tweaks, including adding a battery percentage indicator to your battery icon, a customizable Quick Settings area, where toggles can be rearranged or removed and new ones added, and a menu for deciding which icons are displayed in your status bar. You’ll never have to suffer a cluttered status bar with NFC, Bluetooth and Alarm icons again.
Animations and Easter Egg
Animations and transitions make up an even larger part of Marshmallow than they did in Lollipop. Transitions between apps, pages and settings are quite often accompanied by animations, as is toggling features on and off within the various settings and menus. It’s relatively minor stuff but it all adds to the polished feeling of Marshmallow.
As always, there is a hidden Easter Egg in Marshmallow and it can be seen as a kind of metaphor for Marshmallow as a whole. In Android Lollipop the Easter Egg was a Flappy Bird clone. Just as Marshmallow looks an awful lot like Lollipop on the surface with lots of refinements and improvements underneath, the Flappy Bird Easter Egg returns, but with a bit of a makeover. It’s accessed by repeatedly tapping Android version in the About phone section of the settings.
The update to Android 6.0.1 brought with it 200 new emoji. These are default Android emoji and should be compatible with any keyboard. A lot of the emoji that were added have been in use on iOS and Windows 10 for some time, but others are new.
The list of new emoji includes the fabled unicorn, the tasty taco and the hungry squirrel.
Dark theme and rotation support
For unknown reasons, both the system-wide dark theme and support for a rotating home screen were removed from the final version of Marshmallow, despite appearing in versions of the developer preview. We may yet see these make a return in future updates to Marshmallow – they are frequently-requested features, after all – but for now they are not a part of the Android 6.0 release.
Some eager code-sifters have uncovered evidence of a dark mode in the source code for Android Marshmallow, indicating that Google may still have plans to include it in a future version. The source code mentions Night Mode, which, as you may remember, sounds a lot like the automatic theme changing capabilities (based on the time of day) we saw in the Android M preview builds.
Android Marshmallow Google integration
Google Now on Tap
Google Now on Tap is perhaps the biggest deal of all in Android Marshmallow. Google Now changed the game back in KitKat by offering time and context-sensitive notifications, information and reminders. Google Now on Tap basically shortcuts the need to search for additional contextual information and delivers it at any turn. Long-pressing the home button now activates Google Now on Tap, replacing the old gesture for Google Now from any screen.
When summoned, Now on Tap reads the content of any screen on your phone, whether it is in a Google or third-party app, and delivers information that might be relevant to keywords on-screen. This could be Google Search results about people, places or things mentioned in an article you’re reading or app suggestions that are relevant to what Now on Tap has picked up (Maps, Yelp or UrbanSpoon for a restaurant named in a text message, for example).
I’m still coming to terms with Now on Tap’s range, usefulness and significance, but I can tell you now: this is going to seriously change the way you use your phone. Now on Tap is a huge time-saver because it saves you the effort of having to Google someone’s name, launch a different app or cross-check information.
It’s basically everything we always wanted Google Search to be: instant, useful and effortless. It isn’t perfect, and you’ll still get results you’re not after from time to time, but it’s a really great start.
Voice API and Assist API
Marshmallow also introduces a new Voice API to Android. As mentioned earlier, voice search and voice commands are central to Marshmallow – even more so than they have been in previous iterations of Google’s operating system – thanks to the new Voice Interaction API.
This allows third-party apps to access Google’s voice command functionality in ways they couldn’t previously. Before, you could tell Google to open other apps, but other apps couldn’t talk back. Now they can. At least, the can in theory. The feature isn’t exactly working yet, but it has been successfully demoed by Google using TuneIn Radio.
Meanwhile, Google voice search is everywhere throughout Marshmallow and is always listening (if you want it to). Fortunately, Marshmallow’s focus on giving users more control, so you can also substitute Google for another third party voice assistant if you so wish. This option comes courtesy of the Assist API, available to anyone who wants to compile a voice assistant to make use of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment