Android 6.0 Marshmallow has now launched on the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P
Yes folks, it's now November, meaning Christmas is quickly approaching, and many people will no doubt be unwrapping fancy new tech this festive season. While some will undoubtedly still be running the older Android Lollipop build, in the coming weeks we can expect more and more hardware to arrive with Marshmallow pre-loaded and for manufacturers to begin rolling out updates to their devices old and new. What delights does your new Marshmallow device (or your old device updated to Marshmallow) have in store for you? That's a question we aim to answer with the words on this very page. Read on to find out...
Google's big 2015 launch was unusually chock full of new hardware; two new Nexus phones with the Nexus 5X and the Nexus 6P, an updated Chromecast 2, and a brand new surprise with the Google Pixel C convertible hybrid tablet, plus a new initiative that looks to breathe life back into old speakers called Chromecast Audio. Of course the main event was the new iteration of Android itself, Android 6.0, aka Android Marshmallow.
Google announced Android Marshmallow as Android M a few months ago at its annual Google I/O expo, which took place in the US. Since then it has released a bunch of beta versions of the software to developers and eager Android fans who couldn’t wait for the final build.
For the most part, Android Marshmallow is a serious breath of fresh air inside any handset. The software is more polished, looked better and is less power hungry. Boot up a Nexus 5 with it and you’ll experience about 30% uplift in battery performance -- we kid you not. On more premium handsets running the latest-gen CPUs the difference should be INSANE. HTC has confirmed it will be releasing a new handset -- the HTC One A9 -- later this month, and that will be one of the first handsets to ship with Marshmallow, save for the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.
Android Marshmallow, on the whole, is a pretty comprehensive update that looks to fix many of Android’s latent problems. The most notable of which is security and power management. We’ve just finished listening to what Google had to say about its latest version of Android and below are the thing we felt were most noteworthy.
Android Marshmallow: App Permisions
Information from Samsung had previously hinted at this, but Google's announcement has now confirmed that Marshmallow's app permissions have been tweaked, enabling users to reject or approve permissions from individual apps and individual functions within that app. You won't be hit with a big wall of permissions when you install an app anymore, instead when you use a feature, say the voice message recording inside WhatsApp, that's when it'll ask you for permission. You can still go into permissions for a given app and tweak them at any time, however.
Android Marshmallow: Web Browsing & Chrome
It wouldn't be new Android without at least some attention given to the web experience via the Chrome browser. Most notably Google has added "custom tabs" which allow Chrome to open up links to web content inside an app as an overlay, rather than jumping you out of the app entirely and into the full-blown browser, as has been the case until now.
This feature will allow app developers to customise the tabs to fit the look and feel of their own app design language, but will be directly linked to Chrome on that device and a logged in user account, preserving things like remembered passwords and login details - allowing for a seamless experience.
Android Marshmallow: Fingerprint Scanner
Between the inlcusion of fingerprint scanners on a range of Android phones (including the new Nexus devices) and the rollout of Google's own Android Pay it was inevitable that some attention be given to fingerprint scanning and biometric security. Google's gone for standardised, built-in support for fingerprint authentication, allowing developers to make use of the feature for unlocking devices, logging into apps and content, and purchases via either webstores or points-of-sale in bricks n' mortar retail outlets.
Android Marshmallow: Android Pay & Mobile Payments
Speaking of which, Google went into more detail about its own specific platform; Android Pay. "Simplicity, security and choice," are the buzzwords here. The firm explained that you'll be able to sync the service with your existing credit and debit cards and, as expected, it's partnered with a wide range of retailers and brands (although emphasis is, currently, on US retail).
Android Marshmallow: Battery Optimisations
We heard about Doze some time ago when Google previewed Android M - essentially it will use onboard sensors to detect when the phone has been un-used for a while and goes into a specially tailored low-power sleep mode, which switches off a bunch of power-hungry background processes. Naturally the new USB Type-C is integrated for rapid charging.
Material Design: New App Drawer & New Animations
It's not a big visual overhaul but Material Design has been tweaked a little, most notably the new animations designed to make everything even more visually integrated, intuitive, and seamless. On top of this a new app drawer design is much cleaner, features vertical scrolling, discretely colours itself the same way as your wallpaper, and prioritises your most-used apps at the top. Lastly, Google has added a more seamless homescreen rotation functionality, and options for toggling this on or off.
Android Marshmallow: Android RAM Manager
No this isn't a kind of shepherd. The Android RAM Manager keeps a close eye on your phone's Random Access Memory and shows you a much more detailed background of which apps are most hungry for your phone's grey matter.
Android Marshmallow: Adoptive Storage
Another one we've heard of before, Adoptive Storage allows the Android system to "adopt" an external memory device such as a microSD card and treat it as onboard storage
Android Marshmallow: Dark Theme
Pretty much does what it says on the tin; there's a dark theme now if you want it!
Android Marshmallow: Google Now
Plenty of attention has been focused on Google Now, generally with the intention of making it smarter, faster, more responsive and accurate, and overall easier to use and get exactly what you need out of it.
Google says the Google Now suite understands context better than ever before, so for example, if you have a route set up in your Maps already you can ask "how far is it?" and Google Now will know you are referring to the current route's end destination - you don't have to be so specific any longer.
Android Marshmallow: Voicemail
Google has expanded voicemail functionality to include a lot more useful details at a glance and allowing you to control your message playback via a slider, pause, delete and much more, rather than having to go through the annoying process of pressing number keys to perform these functions when prompted. This functionality will need to be enabled on a carrier-by-carrier basis, but support is expected to become widespread.
Android Marshmallow: Status Bar Customisation
The settings menu has been expanded to allow you to directly customise which icons appear in the status bar - don't want to see a Bluetooth indicator? Toggle it off or on as you wish.
Android Marshmallow: Android Marshmallow Release Date
According to a report dating September 25, courtesy of MobileSyrup, the existing Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 handsets will be receiving Android Marshmallow by October 5. The info comes via Canadian carrier Telus, which published a software update schedule for several of its devices. Amongst these, the two Nexus devices were mentioned with "Android M" as the new build.
A report on September 29, the same day as Google's big Marshmallow and Nexus launch, appears to confirm earlier rumours that the new Android build will roll out on October 5. The word comes via Android Police's sources which state it will be pushed to the Nexus 5 (2013), Nexus 6 (2014), Nexus 7 (2013), Nexus 9, and the Nexus Player. As the report states, the OTA update rollout will probably be quite lumbering over a period of several weeks, but there will be a quicker option to manually update too.
The report also confirms that older models not listed, such as the Nexus 4 and earlier Nexus 7 tablet, will not be upgraded to the new build and will instead remain on Lollipop
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