It was no surprise that Google was going to announce something new at the Google IO 2014 conference. As expected Google announced the successor to Android kitkat which comes as Android L, curiously the L has no name, but if things go just like Android KitKat, we could expect Google to go on a cross promotional deal once again and we might even get a name for the L.
Android L is months away from being released and for those who are curious to know more about it, here’s what’s new in Android L.
New Interface
Android L is not going to be anything of an major upgrade over Android KitKat, however as shown in the developer preview, the interfaced has got a serious facelift. Thanks to Google’s new material design concept, the top navigation bar seems to be less darker and most importantly the navigation icon have been changed to a triangle, circle and a square.
Along with a new interface Android L also includes an enhanced notification system. The enhanced notification system will show notification as cards. The most important notifications will appear on the top and the less priority ones will be hidden. Notification on Android L can be accessed from the lockscreen itself and can be double tapped to open in the respective apps.
As rumored, Android L also features heads up banner notifications which will pop up on the top of your phone’s screen. For example you might be playing a game and if you receive a call in between, the heads up banner notification will appear on your phone. You can simply accept or decline it and the notification will disappear.
Apart from the notifications, the recent apps menu is also getting a big makeover with all the recent apps appearing as stackable cards.
Performance Boost
With Android L gamers are up for a treat. The OS’ new Android Extension Pack will bring PC-level graphics to mobile devices complete with tessellation, geometry shaders, computer shaders and ASTC texture compression.
Battery Life
According to Google, Android L is going to come with a built in battery saver that will detect if your phone is low on power and automatically optimize or disable certain features in order to provide you around 90 minutes of additional power.
Android Auto
Android auto is a new feature in Android L which will enable you to connect your phone to a compatible car and control everything from maps to Google Music using either the car’s touchscreen, wheel controls and of course, your voice.
These were some of the major changes in Android 5.0 L and in the coming months we are going to know lot more about the Android l operating system. Sadly Google has not announced a release date for Android L but it is expected to be released later this year.
