Android Marshmallow or Android 6.0 is eagerly awaited and the usual questions of what and how it will deliver are being asked by industry insiders and smartphone enthusiasts alike. It is expected to arrive first on the Nexus 5X and the 6P, though it will not take time to appear on the older Nexus devices as well.
So what is the hype all about?
The first one is with the battery power and the feature it is introducing in the form of Doze. Many of us have had the experience of waking up to a dead phone just because we had forgotten to charge it at night or kept it for charging before going to bed. With Doze, you will cease to have such issues. The feature recognizes low power quickly and will step in to conserve battery power so that you get more juice out of your remaining battery power till you can suitably recharge it.
It does this by paying attention to the usage of the device, the period you have not unplugged it or unlocked and shuts down the apps that may be guzzling up battery life even when not in use. This feature itself is expected to increase battery power by close to 30%. In times when battery power is such a huge requirement and none of us seem to be having enough of it, this is a grand improvement.
The best thing is that it is an automatic setting and requires no human intervention unlike in earlier such features. Doze owes this ability to the hardware Google has equipped the Marshmallow with in terms of the Android Sensor Hub. This is the processor that continuously monitors data usage but without using up battery power.
It is able to pick out different activities using the accelerometer along with other sensor data and will even track exercise as well as location data of the user. Then you have the much talked about and anticipated Google Now on Tap feature. You are now just a tap away from any of the applications or suggestions you want your device to make available for you, be it text, email, video or applications. If you are within an app and wish to activate the Google Now, hold down home button and you will be presented with suggestions in the form of cards about the subject so that you are quickly able to see similar content without having to search for them.
You can even use this feature when listening to any audio to know about the singer, composer and other details pertaining to that audio content. Contextual delivery is what makes this feature so exciting.
Finally, you will have much better control over privacy and permissions you have always wanted to have. Why would apps want so much information from the user before delivering? The Android M will make this process a much refined one and will protect user privacy like never before. The user will now know clearly what are the permissions or information a particular app is seeking from the user and he or she would have the ability to permit or deny the same.
