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Google announced "Android M" at the Google I/O developer conference. It follows "Android L," or Lollipop, which only represents about 10% of the install base.
Google outlined six major areas of improvement in Android M. Permissions controls will be more granular, with apps asking for permission when some features are used (e.g. "Allow WhatsApp to access your microphone?"). You can install apps without allowing them all of the permissions they ask for, and manage permissions after the fact at any time. However, only apps targeting Android M with the latest Android SDK will allow these changes; existing apps won't automatically gain this functionality unless they update.
A feature called Chrome Custom Tabs will allow apps to have a customized instance of the Chrome browser run atop the application when a user clicks on a hyperlink. This allows customization of the user interface, increases performance vs. launching the full browser, and means that "all of a user's autofill data, passwords, and cache are available when they open links within that application." Custom Tabs are an alternative to using a WebView. Apps will also be able to communicate with their own web servers to verify that links to their own websites should be redirected to the app. Previously, clicking a link may bring up a menu asking if you want to complete the action using a browser or an app.
Users will be able to use their fingerprint to authorize Android Pay transactions. Other apps will also be able to use the fingerprint authentication API.
Finally, Android M will introduce a new feature called Doze, which will use motion detection to decide whether the device should shut down background activity to reduce idle power usage, such as when it is sitting unused on a desk. Google is claiming two times longer idle battery life on the Nexus 9 using Doze.
Original Submission
(Score: 4, Interesting) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Saturday May 30 2015, @08:54PM
Yes, the permissions thing is a good idea that should have been part of Android all along. But introducing it now is problematic. As an app developer, I can't just target Asteroid M with this new functionality, because it will be years/decades/never before this thing is available to many people. A lot of devices never get updated. So what do I do? Release multiple versions of the same app, one targeting old devices and one targeting new ones? Cut off users of anything other than this new version? You can't put multiple versions of the same app in the same Google Play store and keep your reviews/star rating/feedback. Google solved one problem by introducing a bigger one. There is no way to handle backwards compatibility gracefully that I can see. I'm still supporting Android 4.0 because so many devices are pre-4.4. With some feature, not all, you can do awful if-statement programming to see if the feature is available (hello, Chromecast!) but this is a bad hack, too. With something like this, which depends on the manifest, you can't even do that. Unless there's something I've missed.
Fortunately, I have Yoda-like powers to see into the future! Next year, Android N (version 38 if they do a Chrome-like increment) will have a way to target multiple releases in the same binary.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @09:21PM
I'm still running 2.3 on my phone. Though it is Cyanogen so I can block app permissions at-will. (And block ads too.)
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday May 30 2015, @11:40PM
Apple solved the problem of targetting multiple instruction set architectures back in the mid-90s.
They also have supported multiple releases of one ISA in the same binary for quite a long time.
I'm not pointing out that Apple is better, rather that this has been a solved problem for well over twenty years. Perhaps our friends at google should Read The Fine Manual.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by M. Baranczak on Sunday May 31 2015, @12:00AM
Targeting multiple instruction sets is something that Android has always supported. Most applications are written in interpreted bytecode, so they don't care at all about the ISA. If you're using native code, you can include binaries for different ISAs in one application.
Different OS versions is a much harder problem. But I agree, they could have found a better way to solve it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Sunday May 31 2015, @04:48AM
"Fortunately, I have Yoda-like powers to see into the future! Next year, Android N (version 38 if they do a Chrome-like increment) will have a way to target multiple releases in the same binary."
You wish...Only, given the weird mindset at Google the last year, I doubt you will find anything rational coming out of Google. From what I see coming from Google either the entire management team at Google is on a huge Ecstasy binge, or Apple has sent in a 5th Column of programmers to wreck the whole company.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2015, @10:15PM
Some install a M ready app on a older Android, they get the same permissions list as always.
And you can check what version of Android the app is running on, so if you are running on something older than M assume you have the permissions you put in the manifest.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday June 01 2015, @06:33PM
What makes you think this won't *already* work on existing apps without any change? What makes you think if the apps *are* changed, that they won't be backwards-compatible?
Cyanogenmod already has this feature. It's been there for *years*, and works perfectly fine with the existing apps in the play store. Perhaps if you've coded your app incredibly poorly and it responds to a null value (or whatever this gives) by crashing or shutting down, then it'll be a problem. But I've never encountered a single app that behaved this way. It should just work, with zero developer input required.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2015, @10:36AM
Get an F-droid fork going that supports paid-for apps?
It already has support for handling 'compatible' versions of the same app. Not sure about review support, since I have never had a need for it, but it could certainly be added if there was demand.
Show google what they need to add in their own marketplace by making a competitor!