Media Feature Pack For Windows N

By , Contributing Editor, Computerworld |

About |

Not your boilerplate Android news — a diverse mix of advice, insight, and analysis with veteran Android journalist JR Raphael.

My ii favorite features in Android 'N' (and so far)

Hint: They aren't the obvious marquee items.

Don't tell anyone I told y'all this, but I'm starting to recall Google'southward got it out for me.

Let me explain: I took last calendar week off, in case you didn't notice. (What?! Yous mean your world doesn't revolve effectually my presence? How cartel!) Information technology was a seemingly quiet calendar week in March -- afterwards the large trade shows and before the early spring proclamation rush. A fine fourth dimension for some offline family time...or so I idea.

And then, BAM! Out of nowhere, Google dropped the first programmer preview of the upcoming Android "N" release -- without alert and without precedent. (These things normally happen at the Google I/O developers' convention, which is what most of us were expecting this go-round.) At present, I don't take that much vacation time. So seriously: What are the odds of that happening this one random calendar week when I was tuned out in March?!

Coincidence? Probably -- though I do seem to accept a knack for this sort of matter. But enough virtually me: The bespeak of all this rambling is that I'g getting to know the Android "Northward" developer preview correct at present -- and yous know what? It's got some pretty interesting elements beyond the obvious big items.

By at present, y'all've probably heard plenty about the marquee features similar native support for a multi-window mode and a fine-tuned (though, sorry, still snooze-free) take on notifications. Those are promising changes that should heighten the device-using experience for a lot of people. For me, though, it's been ii smaller tweaks to the software that have made the nigh meaningful touch in day-to-day employ.

Let'due south get into 'em:

Android 'N' highlight #1: Fast app switching

1 of my long-standing beefs with Android from a productivity standpoint has been the lack of a snappy manner to switch between apps. It'due south well-nigh credible when you're using a laptop-emulating device similar the Pixel C, but once y'all pick up on it, it'southward hard not to discover on whatsoever regular phone or tablet, also.

The current preview of Android "Northward" fixes that by introducing a super-speedy "Alt-Tab"-similar option: You simply double-tap the Overview primal (the foursquare system icon correct next to Abode), and -- shazam! -- you're taken instantly to the last app you had open. You tin can do the double-tap from within another app or from your dwelling screen, and information technology works the same mode:

(The actual process is snappier than what this video shows. Screen recording just gets a footling hasty sometimes.)

You can still single-tap the Overview fundamental to view a card-based list of your recently used apps as well -- and from that screen, you can at present go along single-tapping the Overview primal to cycle apace through the cards and find what you lot desire:

I'grand not entirely sold on the implementation, as it adds a new factor of complexity into the operating system -- a hidden command that near typical users won't be aware of, which is the kind of thing Android had been moving away from for a while. But the office itself is fantastic and makes the act of hopping between apps far more instant and desktop-like on any device.

Equally far every bit I'm concerned, that's worth a lot.

Google has gone through a agglomeration of dissimilar methods of organizing Android'southward Share menu over the years. All-time I tin tell, most of them boil downwards to "a seemingly random order I tin never quite effigy out, where the apps I need are never in the right place."

The first Android "North" preview offers an answer: the power to manually pivot your nearly used apps in the Share carte and so they e'er appear at the top. From the Share card, y'all but long-press the icon you desire to pivot, and a new dialog box appears:

In one case you select "Pivot," that app moves to the first position in the Share menu and stays in that spot with every subsequent share from anywhere in the organisation:

You tin pivot multiple apps, too, and they'll appear at the top of the list in the club they were pinned. (Your call is of import to us! Please stay on the line...)

A simple improvement, to be certain -- but ane that'll make my life easier numerous times a day. Over again, I'k a teensy bit wary of the hidden nature of the implementation, every bit it's not the most obvious or user-friendly sort of UI, but this isn't the fourth dimension to nitpick.

Retrieve: This is simply a developer preview -- and the first public build of it, at that. It isn't consumer software, and it isn't the same thing that'll make its way to phones and tablets later this year.

An early preview is by its very nature unfinished and rough around the edges -- and, as nosotros've seen with past years' previews, some of the features may end upwards working differently by the time they're done (or may even end upward being eliminated altogether). Other elements that aren't present now could show up equally surprises past the time the concluding release rolls around.

Merely for all the asterisks, this software gives us a good general idea of the things Google's working on and the sorts of concepts likely on the horizon. And with that context in heed, I'm optimistic virtually what Android "N" will deliver -- and excited to see how it's about to evolve.

Contributing Editor JR Raphael serves upwardly tasty morsels near the human side of technology. Hungry for more? Join him on Twitter or sign up for his weekly newsletter to become fresh tips and insight in your inbox every Friday.