8 ways Lollipop 5.0 reinvents Android
8 ways Lollipop 5.0 reinvents Android
Enhanced security, improved architecture, extensive APIs
-- bold changes make Android 5.0 better for business
By Anndrew Vacca
InfoWorld | Nov 20, 2014
Android 5.0 Lollipop heralds a new era for the operating
system, one aimed at unifying the Android experience across devices and built
with business use squarely in mind. While iOS may have enjoyed early darling
status in the enterprise, expect business organizations to take Android much
more seriously going forward, thanks to a raft of significant improvements, an
extensive set of new developer APIs, and clear signals that Google intends to
lead the Android ecosystem more intentionally than ever before.
Lollipop is in many ways a reimagining of what Android
can be, and Google has rebuilt Android Lollipop from the ground up with the
future in mind. Injecting new support for faster and more efficient hardware,
Google has laid a strong foundation for developers and device makers to take
the platform to new heights in powering the next generation of smartphones,
tablets, and wearables.
Lollipop is currently rolling out to most Nexus-branded
devices and some Motorola and LG devices, and it's in the hands of device
makers like Samsung and HTC for testing and rollout in the coming weeks and
months. Here is a look at the improvements to Android Lollipop that make it the
most powerful and adaptable Android yet.
Simplified setup
With Lollipop, Google has streamlined device setup, a
welcome improvement over previous versions of Android. Connect to a Wi-Fi or
cellular network, and Android will automatically download any available updates
right out of the box, rather than waiting until the setup process is complete
as in versions past. With Lollipop installed, you’ll enter your email address
and password, then begin setting up your Google profile on your new device.
Android Lollipop’s setup process also now supports NFC transfer which will
allow you to tap your previous NFC-enabled device to your new one to transfer
your settings, apps, and profiles. (Note: Over-the-air updates will still
require manufacturer and carrier approval.)
Android Lollipop’s most notable improvement to the setup
process is the ability to restore your device from a specific backup. Rather
than automatically downloading every app and setting affiliated with your
Google profile, Lollipop now allows you to restore from a particular device’s
profile. Simply choose your backup profile, and you can handpick the apps
associated with that profile that you want to load to your updated device. This
new feature is particularly handy for those who use multiple Android devices,
enabling them to keep separate sets of apps on each device.
Material Design: A fresh, new unifying face
Lollipop introduces a complete and aptly named visual
overhaul of the Android UI: Material Design. Google’s reimagined look and feel
for Android is more vibrant, fluid, and cohesive than in previous versions. The
impact of Material Design can be felt throughout the entire OS, from its new
navigational buttons and reimagined menus all the way to Google’s portfolio of
stock apps. Thanks to this new unified aesthetic, everything about the new
Android looks and feels like it fits together seamlessly.
Tap and flick your way around Android Lollipop, and
you’ll quickly see that the “surfaces and edges” with “seams and shadows”
approach does in fact readily reveal what can be touched to trigger actions, as
Matias Duarte, Google’s vice president of design and lead architect of Material
Design, said at this year’s Google I/O. This translates into richer, more
colorful apps with vibrant transitional animations and visual cues that make
navigation more intuitive. It also means a shallower OS, ditching the deep,
often confusing menus and rabbit holes of Android’s past and placing more of
what you need at the surface.
Google’s Material Design guidelines give developers the
tools to create a unified experience across device sizes. It’s true that the
Android tablet experience is in some measure that of an enlarged phone, as some
have suggested, but it is clear that Google aims to improve this based on Lollipop’s
developer guidelines. This emphasis on uniformity is also in evidence in
Google’s simultaneous rollout of the Nexus 6 smartphone and the Nexus 9 tablet,
enabling developers to target the latest smartphone and tablet at the same
time. Material Design should extend that unified experience to wearables and
beyond.
For a tour of Lollipop’s new Material Design, check out
our first look at Android’s fresh new face.
Some of Lollipop’s most notable improvements can be found
among Android’s central elements: its lock screen, notifications bar, and app
drawer.
Android’s new lock screen provides a quick view of unread
notifications, which can be swiped down to reveal more content, double-tapped
to open, or simply swiped away. You can control which notifications, if any,
that you would like to be displayed on the lock screen by navigating to the
Sounds and Notifications settings.
And if your device is locked with a PIN or password, you
can choose to show only the top line of a notification instead of its sensitive
content (defined by either the user or the app developer). As in previous
versions, the lock screen also provides direct access to the notifications bar,
camera, and the device’s various user profiles (more on that in a bit).
Lollipop’s notifications bar can now be swiped down once
for a top-line view of your notifications and pertinent Google Now cards or
swiped down twice (alternatively, with two fingers rather than one) to reveal
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and location settings, along with toggles for airplane mode,
rotation lock, and a flashlight.
The notifications bar also contains a slider to control
your display’s brightness and a one-touch button to “cast” (aka share) your
screen with any compatible device (such as Chromecast) on the same Wi-Fi
network. In addition, the bar provides access to your device’s full settings
menu and user profiles.
Lollipop offers several Notifications enhancements to
ease your ability to keep on top of important updates.
Notifications have undergone a significant overhaul.
Android Lollipop now prioritizes notifications based on what you will likely
find most important. These prioritized notifications always find their way to
the top of the list, surpassing chronological order in both the notifications
bar and on the lock screen.
Lollipop also introduces heads-up notifications -- visual
“cards” that appear at the top of your screen for certain real-time alerts that
you can chose to interact with or file away for later.
You can also now manage which and when notifications
appear through your device’s volume menu: quickly toggle between displaying all
notifications, priority notifications, or no notifications at all. Alternately,
dive deeper to program specific times to display all information and other
times to display only certain information.
The new and improved app drawer feels more connected to
the overall Android experience.
Finally, Android’s app drawer has been given a fresh coat
of paint for the first time since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, so it seems
more connected to your home screen, with a folderlike look and feel, rather
than spun off as an entirely separate area of the OS. The app drawer is
brighter, offering a white background rather than a black or transparent one,
and it is now limited to apps, with access to widgets restricted to a long
press on your home screen.
Recents: Reinventing multitasking
Google invented mobile multitasking as we know it. With
Android Lollipop, it has pushed the concept further via Lollipop’s new Recents
window, which provides access to nearly all your apps rather than a handful of
recently used ones, and is now arranged in cards similar to those found within
Google Now. These cards scroll through a Rolodex-like motion, providing a
shrunken view of your multiple apps and windows.
Recents takes mobile multitasking to a new level.
The Recents UI goes deeper than Android’s previous
multitasking solutions, giving you the ability to not only toggle between
windows, but also between windows within windows. Suppose you’re composing a
message within Gmail; click the Recents button and you’ll be able to access not
only other apps but other aspects of Gmail, such as your inbox. It works for
Chrome, too, allowing you to toggle between open tabs through the multitasking
menu.
The ability to toggle both between and within apps
provides an entirely new way to jump from one point to another within Android,
drastically cutting back on the amount of times you’ll click the Back button
throughout the UI.
Multiple-user profiles: Sharing the power of Android
Another significant feature introduced with Lollipop is
Device Sharing, which enables Android Lollipop smartphones and tablets to
support multiple user profiles, similar to what Google introduced in Android
4.2 Jelly Bean for tablets only. With Device Sharing, a family or a team of
business colleagues can share one device without having to share their personal
information.
There are three options for user profiles on a
Lollipop-powered device:
An Owner account has access to the entire device and
everything within it, as well as control over other profiles on the device.
A User account, on the other hand, has limited access to
certain apps and content controlled by the device’s main user, as well as
limited calling and SMS capabilities. A User account can, however, download his
or her own apps and customize certain settings that remain limited to that
profile.
Finally, there’s a Guest profile, which provides access
to the core functions of your phone or tablet, including calling, messaging,
and core Google apps. Guests can access their Google profiles to sync contacts
and even purchased apps, but all information is limited to one session and is
wiped upon exiting Guest mode. This is useful for those times that you want to
lend someone your phone but don’t want them poking around your own personal
messages, photos, call history, or other sensitive information.
In the same vein, you can now “pin” your screen,
restricting access to a sole app, window, or piece of content you want to
share, thereby preventing your guest from navigating away from the pinned
element to anything else on you device.
ART: Shaking up Android to the core
Lollipop’s change log includes a plethora of
under-the-hood tweaks, the most substantial of which is an overhaul of
Android’s core architecture, with Android Run Time (ART) replacing the Dalvik
VM. According to Google, this shift has made Android considerably faster and
more powerful. (Various reviewers report that Android Lollipop doesn’t run
slower on older Android devices -- a welcome indicator that ART may in fact be
faster.)
Whereas Dalvik compiled and processed apps each time they
were opened, ART performs ahead-of-time processing, translating an app’s source
code on initial installation. The result, Google claims, is device performance
of up to four times than that of previous versions with smoother, more visually
rich applications that open and operate more efficiently.
This performance boost was noticeable on my Nexus 5 at
the outset. As you begin to use Android Lollipop, you will certainly realize
that navigating the OS, transitional animations, and app switching is far
smoother than before.
Android Lollipop is also the first version with 64-bit
support, which Google claims will bring desktop-class CPU performance to the
OS. Android’s core applications, including Chrome, Gmail, and Play Music, are
now 64-bit-native, as is the Java engine that many third-party applications are
built on. The difference won’t likely be felt by users immediately, as nearly
all apps are still 32-bit, but it will allow hardware makers to incorporate
more powerful yet efficient processors, GPUs, and RAM into the next generation
of smartphones and tablets.
Project Volta: Optimizing power use
When we first met what was then referred to as Android L
in June, one of the most exciting and promising features was Project Volta, an
initiative that Google claimed would yield massive improvements in mobile
battery efficiency.
First, similar to a trick already used in Samsung, HTC,
LG, and other Android devices, is a new native power-saver mode that helps
Lollipop devices limit ravenous background data, haptic feedback, and the like
to squeeze extra life out of a nearly empty battery.
Behind the scenes, Project Volta’s Job Scheduler API
batches battery-intensive tasks and schedules them for optimal times. Instead
of completing each background task immediately, Android can now put off certain
functions until a device is connected to Wi-Fi or a charger, thus reducing the
number of times the OS draws power from the battery.
Project Volta also provides developers access to a
battery historian, which illustrates how and when apps use voltage, as well as
how efficiently they’re doing so.
In practice, you might not notice Project Volta right out
of the box -- in fact, multiple early reviews of the Nexus 6 and 9 have
reported merely average battery life -- but it holds exciting promise once
developers and hardware makers begin utilizing its tools.
Enhanced security and Android for Work
Lollipop heralds the first iteration of Android built
with enterprise use squarely in mind. Thanks to improved security features such
as default encryption on new devices, contextually aware device unlocking, and
Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) malware protection, devices running Android
Lollipop are now more enterprise-friendly than ever.
Among the security enhancements is Lollipop Smart Lock, a
feature that allows you to associate one or more Bluetooth devices (aka Trusted
Devices) as automatic unlocks, such as your key fob in your pocket. Smart Lock
also includes Trusted Faces, a previously available feature that uses facial
recognition to unlock a device. Look for it now in the Smart Lock group in Settings.
Also of interest is the newly available Trusted Locations, which enables you to
set locations where your phone could be left open for easy access, such as at
home or the office. Trust Locations is currently available through Google Play
Services, as opposed to Lollipop itself, so you may need to download and
install it yourself.
Most exciting, though, is Android for Work, a
dual-persona system Google acquired from Divide last spring that also is said
to include Samsung's Knox technology. Google’s Android for Work keeps work and
other sensitive data separated from your personal information and media. When
Android for Work becomes available in mobile management servers sometime next
year, IT personnel will be able to deploy apps in bulk to business-user devices
and maintain centralized control over sensitive functions.
Google’s Android for Work is built around three major
concepts: device and data security, support for IT policies, and mobile
application management. Lollipop implements its multiuser support to create a
behind-the-scenes user profile that employs block-level disk encryption to keep
sensitive data protected, similar to Samsung’s approach with Knox’s Workspace
or BlackBerry’s Balance. With Lollipop’s new enterprise-friendly APIs, IT
admins will have more tools than ever to configure system and application
settings and restrictions.
Android for Work is part of Android Lollipop, and Google
says it will be available as an app for devices running Android 4.0 and later
as well. Several mobile management vendors promise support for it.
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