Google has finally presented the much-anticipated Android M at the Google I/O 2015 conference. While Android 5.0 Lollipop was introduced before as a new interface and design, Android 6.0 codenamed 'Android M,' is now the company's most powerful OS release with several platform improvements. Here is the breakdown of the sweet new changes and features of Android M compared to Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Battery Life
With Project Volta of Android Lollipop, Google positioned the grounds for longer battery life. Android M would be featuring a new battery saving function known as 'Doze', which uses motion detection to see if the device has been left unattended for a long time and it will stop real-time updates during that period. Doze would temporarily close unnecessary battery-eating functions and apps. Compared to Android Lollipop, Google claims Doze saves battery life twice as better on Android M's standby mode.
Fingerprint Sensors Support
Android M also brings fingerprint authentication for individual apps. This new feature will let app developers integrate fingerprint payment and lock systems into their programs as Google finally programmed a standard support for fingerprint sensors.
Android Pay
Android M brings an updated version of Android Pay, which allows purchase with scanned fingerprint over NFC, just like rival's Apple Pay. Android Pay creates a specific virtual account number for each payment method to protect card details always, from retailers.
App Permissions
There is now an integrated way to manage app permissions with Android M. In Android Lollipop, users have to confirm first app permissions to proceed in downloading apps from the Play Store. However once the user clicked 'ok,' there is no way to return and change that permission setting unless through re-installation. However, Android M brings an option in the Settings Menu that allows control and alters the information that each app can use. Apps Permissions now will let you toggle on or off access to information like camera, contact, identity, location, and media.
Other notable improvements
Android M features an app drawer that allows better organization of installed apps. There is now an alphabetized scroll on the left-hand margin and a bar along the top containing four most recently opened applications. Android M placed a search function in the top-right corner.
Android Lollipop provides detailed information about the amount of RAM each app uses. Android M now displays two new fields, which inform users the maximum and average RAM usage of an app.
For users who do not want to see an error due to full internal memory, Android M now allows formatting of micro SD card so that the system would treat it as internal memory. It also permits direct app installation to the micro SD card.
