We all knew it was coming,
and now it’s finally here. Android “L” was officially unveiled earlier
today during the first half of the Google I/O 2014 opening keynote. As
expected, L packs quite a long list of both user-facing and
developer-centric features.
In a surprise turn of events, Google has decided to make the
developer preview images of Android “L” available for the Nexus 5 and 7
tomorrow morning. Join us as we take a closer look at what makes
L important.
Material Design
Perhaps the most immediately noticeable user-facing change in Android L comes courtesy of Material Design. Previously known as “Quantum Paper,” this new UI paradigm redefines how you will interact with your device.
As we mentioned earlier, Material Design brings a fresh, new look
that is inspired by paper and ink. This new UI also features a new
elevation value to give a unique perspective to an app’s different
components, and the overall look is able to reform dynamically with
surfaces that respond to motion and touch with splashes of animated
feedback.
Notifications
Notifications were also given a healthy boost . In Android L, lock
screen notifications can now be interactive. They are also now
ordered based on your usage habits and what matters most to you. And if
you happen to be in a full-screen app, heads-up notifications are also available.
Recents
Building on Material Design and Notifications, Android’s core UI has
also been upgraded through changes to the recent apps menu. Thanks to a
new API, applications are now able to populate multiple pages in your
recent apps menu.
With Recents, individual Chrome browser tabs to live alongside native
Android applications. So now, you can manage and switch between your
Chrome browser tabs just as you would manage and switch between
applications, seamlessly.
ART and Improved Performance
As we first noticed thanks to recent changes to the AOSP master branch a few weeks ago, Dalvik is out and ART is in.
This was officially confirmed during the keynote, and L will run
exclusively on ART compiler, which according to Google provides on
average a 2x performance improvement over Dalvik, fewer Garbage Collect
pauses, less RAM usage, and readiness for 64-bit computing.
In addition to CPU performance increases, GPU features have been
increased. With Android Extension Pack, game developers are able to make
use of features like tessellation, advanced lighting and more–bringing
Android’s graphics capabilities to near feature parity with DirectX 11.
Project Volta and Improved Battery Life
What good is an improved UI and speedier performance if your phone is
out of battery, right? Luckily Google is also approaching the battery
life issue with Project Volta.
While not much is known about Volta at this time, we
do know
that Android will offer a very robust Battery Historian UI (seen in the
screenshot on your left), which will allow you to see what is
responsible for your battery woes in great detail. In addition, Volta
also offers a new Power Saving mode, which reduces device performance in
favor of better battery life. This mode can be automatically enabled
and disabled depending on battery level and charging status. Finally,
Volta also brings a new JobScheduler API that allows your app to be more
battery efficient for non-critical tasks.
Developer Preview
Last and certainly not least, Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2013) users will
get to enjoy the Developer Preview version of Android L.The images will be posted for download on the:-
Android Developer Site
Did L bring everything you were hoping for? What is your favorite
Android L feature? Is there anything they forgot to add in that you were
hoping for? Let us know in the comments below!