Android 6.0 Marshmallow: Features. What's new?
Android 6.0 Marshmallow features: What's new?
Google has started the rollout of Android 6.0
Marshmallow. Here are the features you can expect from the latest version.
It’s time to prod the Marshmallow: Android Marshmallow is
here. But you still have a while to wait unless you own a Nexus 6, Nexus 5,
Nexus 9, or have recently picked up a Nexus 5X or Nexus 6P.
So, the question: is Android 6.0 Marshmallow worth
getting excited about? We’ve been spending some quality time with the new
software to see what it offers over the Android Lollipop version we’ve been using
for what feels like forever.
Here are the features that take Android Marshmallow a
step further. Is it enough to steamroll iOS 9 and Windows 10? For now at least,
we’ll leave that to you.
The
apps menu is crazy-different
One Android Marshmallow change all of you will notice is the way
the new apps menu works. It’s totally different to Lollipop and the other previous
versions of Android.
This
time, instead of a bunch of apps ‘pages’ you flick through horizontally, the
apps box is a scroll thumbed through with a smooth vertical movement. It’s a
lot more like Windows 10/Windows Phone’s apps menu, or that of the HTC Sense
custom Android interface.
Is it
better? Is it worse? This is very much a case of being different rather than
better, but it does scroll very snappily on the Nexus 6 we’ve been using. Those
with big app collections may find it faster. And, as in Android Lollipop, the
apps are arranged alphabetically rather than letting you move them about
yourself.
As
before, there are no app menu folders either. You have to keep these on the
home screens, if you want them.
App search bar and
favourites
In
order to help those who think the new apps menu is worse, and there will be
some, there are some extra features to the apps area. First, there’s a search
bar up at the top.
This
is a text bar you just type words into, and Android Marshmallow searches your
app collection for any apps with that name. There’s also an option to use the
search term to look for other apps in Google Play.
If your apps library is so massive you can’t remember which
apps/games you’ve uninstalled, this bit will let you get them back on-board
sharpish.
There are also four special apps slots right at the top of the apps
menu. These are filled using an algorithm that picks the most important apps
based on those you use most, and have used most recently.
On the Nexus 6 these extra interface elements can feel like a bit
of a stretch to reach. But then 95 per cent of people think the phone is that
bit too big anyway. The Nexus 6X should feel comfier.
The clock has gone all stylish
Lollipop upped Android’s style game, and Marshmallow tries to take
that a step further with a redesigned clock. It’s little more than a font shuffle,
but does give the new software a bit of a different, sharper visual
personality.
Check it out below. The date text is now written in all-caps, and
the font of the time characters seems to be a bit thicker, as if Google has hit
the ‘bold’ button.
Google has added a memory manager
One of the
complaints about Android Lollipop was that its memory-hungry nature introduced
all sorts of performance problems in phones without absolutely loads of RAM.
A new feature
lets you check out the memory usage of all your installed apps without using a
third-party app.
There’s a whole
new ‘Memory’ area in the main Settings menu.
However, before
you get too excited, it’s mostly about monitoring RAM use and seeing if there
are any apps doing things they really shouldn’t rather than tinkering with how
much memory apps are allowed. You can see the RAM use over the last 3, 6, 12 or
24 hours, to let you identify when and where things are going wrong without too
much active monitoring on your part.
As is so often
the case with Android, you’ll still likely have to try
uninstalling/reinstalling any apps that are seriously misbehaving.
You can add a lock screen message
A tiny little
tweak of Android M is that you can now add a little line of text to your lock
screen. Maybe you’ll want to add a little tag to your ‘Jim’s VHS and DVD
rental’ small business, or a way to tell you and your other half’s his ’n’ hers
Nexus 6s apart.
Unlike the date
font, this little extra line is written in lower case, and seems to have
opacity of just under 100 per cent, making it a bit less bright than the clock.
It’s basically a
custom number plate for your phone: go to town.
Battery optimisation now on a by-app
basis
Android only
really started to embrace proper a battery-saving mode with Android Lollipop,
even though custom skins have had such features for years now. Android
Marshmallow adds a whole new battery area called ‘optimisation’.
This tweaks how
apps eat energy when not being actively used in order to save battery life. As
standard, all apps bar the Android system itself use battery optimisation, and
all you can do is make important apps exempt from this feature.
Google hasn’t laid
out too clearly exactly what optimisation does, but you can bet part of it is
about regulating access to mobile data and how freely they can perform
background processes.
The volume
controls have changed yet again
One part of
Android Lollipop that everyone got quite angry about originally was the volume
control. The silent mode was ditched completely. It caused a bit of a fuss.
It has returned,
sort of. Android Marshmallow has a Do Not Disturb shortcut in the notifications
drop-down that lets you switch off certain alerts for a period of time, or
indefinitely. It does feel kind of fiddly still, but is designed to make sure
you don’t switch the feature on and then end up missing your early morning
alarm.
This new spot for
Do Not Disturb lets Android Marshmallow pare down the volume controls a bit.
Press the volume button and you’ll see the slider for system notifications. Next
to it there’s a drop-down arrow that gives you access to the separate ‘media’
and ‘alarms’ volume dials.
Fingerprint
scanners supported as standard
Finger scanners
have been found in Android phones for years now. However, it’s only with
Android Marshmallow that the system supports the hardware natively. Before now,
software for these scanners had to be jammed in by the manufacturer.
Both the Nexus 5X
and Nexus 6P have rear fingerprint scanners, and Google calls the system Nexus
Imprint. It lets you unlock your phone with a finger-press, as an
identification measure in apps and to sign off on Pay wireless payments.
Pay has been
around for years now, but more recently Google re-announced it as Android Pay.
Hopefully it’ll catch on this time.
Instant Google
Now ‘Ok Googling’
Android 6.0 makes
the system’s digital assistant way more useful. Where before it was largely consigned
to the Google Now area of the phone, it can be accessed to look up things
wherever you are, using something called Now on Tap.
First of all, you
can talk to the assistant whenever the phone is on the home screen just by
saying ‘Ok Google’.
Don’t like
talking to your phone? One of the neatest parts of Android Marshmallow is that
the digital assistant can now be called up everywhere. A long-press on the Home
button makes the Google Now assistant scan whatever’s on the screen to find
extra info online that might be helpful.
It works
absolutely anywhere. One example of a good use we found was looking at Tripadvisor
for a local restaurant, then using Google Now to fly straight to that place’s
menu URL. Neat, right? The only bit it doesn't seem to do yet is to OCR text in
photos to Google Now-ify your photo gallery. Maybe one day, eh Google?
Permissions are
on lock down
Before Android
Marshmallow, app permissions were granted at the point of install. You agree to
give an app access to, say, your camera, contacts and storage as soon as the
app begins installing. This has changed.
From now on, apps
will have to ask for your permission to access the camera, at the point where
they want to use it. It’ll make things much clearer, letting you see exactly
what apps are doing in the background.
For all apps
already granted permissions, you’re also given a much clearer round-up of
what’s what in the Settings menu. A dedicated section shows you which apps have
access to your camera, your contacts and so on, and you can revoke them at the
press of a switch.
USB Type-C/3.1
support
One important bit
of future-proofing is full support for USB-C, which is closely linked to the
USB 3.1 standard. We’ve seen this plug already in the OnePlus 2, but it was
really just a USB 2.0 port with a different connector.
The big news is
the new set of capabilities we’ll see when ‘proper’ USB-C phones arrive, with
USB 3.1 support. They’ll be able transmit 40x the power of the current USB
connectors, although exactly how much power phones of the future are going to
gobble up is something we don’t know yet.
Doze
In a bid to
hopefully give your battery life a boost, Android Marshmallow introduces a
feature that recognises when the Android device is in a rested state to help
conserve power. Google says it has tested it with a Nexus 9 and claims it can
help make battery life last two times longer in standby mode by using fewer
background services. If you're worried about missing out on alarms and incoming
instant messages, Doze will still allow those notifications and modes to be
activated.
When will Android
6.0 Marshmallow be available?
Google has announced
that the Android Marshmallow launch will be at the beginning of October.
Currently, developers can play around with the final Android Marshmallow builds
on the Nexus 5 and 6 smartphones plus the Nexus 9 and Nexus Player set-top box.
Google has since confirmed that the Nexus 7 will also be among the first
devices to the get the Marshmallow treatment.
