As we all know google announced the next version of their Android Operating system at their google I/O developer conference on 28 may 2015. Much like how android lollipop was originally previewed as Android L,the next major released of Android O.S is previewed as Android M. Most of the time common people wants to know about the difference between the different versions of Android and why they need to upgrade their O.S(Operating System) while developers easily identifies it. So this post is for both developers and common people where we will discuss about major difference between Android M and Android L (Lollipop).

Difference between Android M and Android L (Lollipop)

Here we will discuss major difference between Android M and Android L , so let’s start with its previous version i.e., Android L where L stands for Lollipop. I will not discuss a lot about Android L as it is previous version while will discuss in-depth about changes in new version i.e., Android M.

Features of Android L(Lollipop)

In previous version of Android i.e., Android L (Lollipop) , you observe a comprehensive redesign of O.S.  Android L was more about user interface , they enhanced it’s user interface by introducing new card layout system , animation , improved lock screen  etc .

Features of Android M

After the comprehensive redesign under the hood changes in Lollipop ,Android M brings a greater focus on bringing greater polish to Android and improving the user experience. There are six major areas where google had targeted for improvement in Android M. Let’s discuss them one by one ….

Permission

Permission is their first area of improvement. The permission system in android is less than optimal as in earlier days. At the time of installation of application in previous version i.e., Android L, it asks for permission , and if user denies any of permission(as they can’t , either they should grant access to all or they can’t install application) , then they could not install application.
Android M changes the existing permission system by breaking down user permission into specific categories, and having apps ask the user for permission at the time access to a feature is required. It simply means that user can grant some permission at the time of install but not others, and they can manage these permissions after the fact. For Ex In below image you can see whatsapp asks for permission to use microphone while it needs .

But the problem is that the new permission system would not be automatically available after upgrading your system to Android M. It means, new permission is only for the targeted applications for Android M with new sdk.

Behavior of web views

The next area of improvement in Android M is to the behavior of web views within other applications. this will uses the feature known as chrome custom tabs .This feature allows to run chrome browser atop of their apps and all the data , password and saved cache are available to that browser.

How Android Intents handles web links

The third major improvement in Android M is how Android  Intents  handles web link. In previous version, it asks user – whether they have an app to handle it or they want to open it in web browser.  With Android M, app developers can now have the operating system verify that certain types of links are meant to be opened with their app by checking with the web server that those links point to and verifying that it is meant to be opened with that app.

Other Areas of improvement in Android M

Other areas of improvements in new Android M are in Android pay. It is not really the addition in Android M as users already uses this features in Android 4.4 kitkat or higher version. But they increase the level of security in Android Pay by including Fingerprint sensors on Android devices. It simply means that users will be able to authorize Android Pay transitions from both Play Store and in apps using fingerprints and also developers will be able to use user’s fingerprints for verification.

See Also:Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition Smartphone Launched in Europe

Power Usage

The last and the most important area in new android O.S is power usage. More specifically the power of device when it is idle. it’s really the matter of thinking when we talk about power consumption of smartphones. And it also difficult to maintain the balance between managing power and keeping application in the background updated.
With Android M , Google includes a new feature called Doze. Doze uses motion detection which check whether a device is left idle for a long period of time or not. Android M manages the background activity using this feature to save the power.According to Google, they’ve seen up to 2x longer idle battery life on the Nexus 9.

There are some more minor improvements, if you have something to add, please share in comments.

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