Six Android 6 Marshmallow features you must know

These few features of the incredibly powerful and customisable Android 6 OS from Google will surely improve upon the earlier Lollipop OS and provide a better user experience.

Android OS is the market leader in the smartphone segment and therefore, the excitement that a new update of this OS generates, is unmatched by any other OS in the world. The first Android OS called Cupcake was released in 2007 and since then the company has launched 10 upgrades and the latest is Android M or Marshmallow. All these upgrades are named after confectionaries and are named alphabetically.

With every new upgrade, the OS has also evolved and is now a very robust system that incorporates several powerful and dynamic features making the current Android 6.0 virtually indistinguishable from its first release. In the latest upgrade for the Android smartphones, Google has focused on six specific areas to improve the performance vis-a-vis the Android Lollipop OS.  We take you through these six must-know features:

1. App Permission

The Android M comes with a new feature called app control mechanism that allows the user to have granular control over the permission requirement of each of the app that is installed in the handset. Currently, in the Android Lollipop, the user has to give bulk permission for the access to different areas of the handset without realising why they are needed in the first place by the application.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow will grant the applications certain permissions immediately before the app needs it and not in bulk during the installation. This feature will improve the security of the device and will make the user trust the apps a little more because they can now understand why the permission is required.

In the new OS, Google introduces the API Level 23, which allows app permission to be granted on demand.

2. Web experience

To provide the users of Android M (Marshmallow) a better and smoother web browsing experience, Google has refurbished the Goggle Chrome browser. In the new browser, the user has the option of opening a customised Chrome window on the top of an already running app.

This will allow the user to access both the functions simultaneously and prevent wastage of the valuable time by looking at the white screen when they are switching between the running apps and the web. To make this happen, Google has tweaked the custom tab of the Google Chrome.

The tweaked Chrome Custom Tabs also support auto fill password, automatic sign-in, and multi-process security that help the browser to have a secure integration of the app and web experience.

3. App links

Another feature that will eventually enhance your web browsing experience is the ability of the new Chrome browser to open content directly through the App Link feature. Until now, the browser used to prompt the user whether s/he wishes to open a link to the twitter or YouTube that has link with the site, which the user is currently accessing. This allows smoother access to the website without any irritating prompt that will make web browsing a true desktop like experience.

4. Mobile payment

With the passage of time, we are moving towards a cashless society. The Android M has taken a huge step towards this direction by incorporating features that supports mobile payment option in the Android M OS.

In the latest Android OS, the checkout process is speeded up and makes it compatible to a host of cards like the Master card, Visa, American Express and others. However, to use it the handset must support NFC connectivity feature.

5. Finger print support

The Android M OS has made the finger print support uniform across the board. However, to use it, your smartphone must have the fingerprint sensor. It will be very useful for not only the phone security, but also for the payment of the goods, you wish to make payment through Google Pay.

6. Power and charging

Android devices are notorious for their lower battery life. To minimise the problem, Google has put in a new feature called ‘Dose’ in the Android Marshmallow. This feature with the help of motion sensors integrated in the smartphone tries to figure out, whether the mobile phone is in use or it is simply lying around. If latter is the case, then it automatically switches of some background process to improve the overall battery life.

Beside, these features, the new OS boasts of several other elements that make it such an exciting OS. These include, USB Type C Slot, which make charging the phone faster and more importantly, allow the user to charge other devices through the handset.

The app drawer on the Android M is redesigned and it can now be scrolled top to bottom instead of sideways as was done until Android Lollipop. The app drawer also allows the user to search for any app alphabetically by the addition of a new A to S index. Several new animations have also been incorporated in the app drawer to make the user experience smoother and entertaining. 

In addition to these, the new OS also allows users to use the voice command feature from the lock screen itself. The pre-installed apps have also faced the axe and now there are fewer of them, which improve the overall performance of the handset.

Android M also allows for voice interactive support for the third party application, which will surely improve the overall user experience. The Android M also allows you to view the home screen in landscape mode. In addition, to all these it also comes with a new exciting feature called the ‘Google Tap now’. This feature allows the user to access a host of information in a stack of cards, when s/he presses the home screen for a longer period. This feature tries to anticipate your need at that moment and tries to bring the relevant information on the screen for your ready reference like info about a movie about which you are chatting, or allows you the link to book a table in the restaurant, which you have mentioned in the chat with your friend and so many more.