Android 5.0 was announced at the Google developer conference as "Android L," but now has the official name of Android Lollipop. It's a significant upgrade, as is implied with the change from 4.4 (KitKat) to 5.0.
What Are the Goodies?
Android
Lollipop is adding more devices into the fold. Android KitKat began
supporting Android Wear watches as well as phones and tablets. Lollipop
adds support for connected TVs, cars, and other devices.
That's a lot of different types of screens and different needs.
Using
Lollipop, you can better share your content across devices, such as
starting a song on you watch and continuing it on your tablet. It also
changes how content displays on different devices to take into account
the form factor and purpose.
Google's example for this is that tablets
display a full inbox and list of recent messages along with that email
message, while your watch should only show the most recent message.
Material Design
The Android OS
is getting a makeover with a more modern look that includes drop
shadows, transparency and layering. The idea behind this is that
elements will have a 3-D look and feel, or a "z-index" as designers call
it. So your menus can stack upon each other and have the illusion of
depth. This also allows for new gaming possibilities as soon as
developers have a chance to take advantage of the new features.
Beyond
just the new interface pretties, the user interface is designed to be
more functional and allow you to more quickly access settings or act
upon notifications.
Filter out the Noise
Android
Lollipop will have the ability to screen alerts for importance. If you
hate getting swamped with constant new message alerts, setting
priorities should be simpler and more efficient. This filtering will
appear in other areas, such as notifications.
Notifications
Enhanced
notifications will appear on the lock screen, so you can just pick up
your phone without unlocking it to see if you've got any urgent
messages.
You'll also have more ability to respond to
things directly from your lock screen (although this feature may be a
bit problematic - imagine the chaos if someone finds your phone at a
party and starts responding to your important messages without having to
unlock your phone)
Battery Saving
Android Lollipop adds
the ability to turn off power drains when your phone starts to get low
on juice. Google claims this can add up to 90 minutes of extra battery
time to your device. This is important as fewer and fewer devices offer
the option to swap out batteries.
Guest Users and Guest Locks
You
already have the ability to add multiple users to your tablets, but
Android Lollipop is extending your ability to do this with more devices
and better features to protect your data. You can also intelligently
pair your device with another trusted device, such as your watch or your
car, so it always unlocks when it's near your Android Wear watch but
needs the password phrase when it is not. That means you won't have to
struggle with unlocking your phone to put on some tunes without leaving
your device unlocked for everyone.
Google suggests that you can
use the guest users feature to share a phone between friends of family
members. For example, if I forget my phone when I'm out shopping with my
family, I could grab my husband's phone and log in as a guest. I'd
still have access to my contacts, and as soon as I logged out, my
husband would not.
Overview
Overview is basically a
replacement for the "recent apps" function on previous devices. Use this
to see a 3-D stacked deck of "cards" that represent the different
running tasks. You can switch between them like you switch between tabs
in a Web browser.
Availability
Android 5.0 Lollipop will
ship with new Nexus 6 phones and Nexus 9 tablets now. It will also be
available as an upgrade for many other modern phones. No word on exact
timing, since some devices require more Android adaptation than others,
but users of the HTC One M8, Samsung S5, and LG G3 are likely to get
updates sometime in late 2014 or early 2015. No guarantees, though. The
timing and availability depends on the device manufacturer.
By Marziah Karch
Google Expert
