Mars, Milky Way, M&M’s, Mentos, Mike & Ikes, Mounds, Milk Duds, Mr. Goodbar…? Ever since Android M was announced back in May, Android users across the globe have been trying to guess at what Google was going to call its next Android version. Today it was announced that the next version of Android will be called Marshmallow and be version 6.0 of Google’s mobile operating system.
More importantly though is the news that the final developer preview and the Android 6.0 SDK have been released. As well as updating the Android SDK to version 6, the Android Support Library was also updated to v23. Both the SDK and library are available to download through the SDK Manager in Android Studio. The release of the Android M Developer Previews gives developers an opportunity to update their apps to be ready for when Android 6 Marshmallow goes live. The biggest change of course is a new permissions model that allows users to allow apps access to specific permissions and disable permissions the app is requesting that they don’t want to give access to.
Users on the developer preview should see an OTA update soon, the system images are also available on the developer preview site for those who don’t want to wait. The Android Developer Blog also mentions that those running the preview will need to reflash their device to a factory image when it launches later this fall in order to receive consumer OTA updates.
As far as changes from the previous version, the main updates pertain to the Android Platform and APIs. The full changelog can be accessed in the release notes.
- Android Platform Change:
- Final Permissions User Interface — we updated the permissions user interface and enhanced some of the permissions behavior.
- API Change:
- Updates to the Fingerprint API — which enables better error reporting, better fingerprint enrollment experience, plus enumeration support for greater reliability.
And we leave you with a video showcasing the history of Google’s Android naming conventions.
What do you think of Android 6 Marshmallow? Could you care less? Personally I think the new mascot should have been wearing the marshmallow instead of holding it… Let us know in the comments below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://android-developers.blogspot.ca/2015/08/m-developer-preview-3-final-sdk.html” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Android Developer’s Blog[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
