Android marshmallow 6.0 Top 6 features

so now we know it M=Marshmallow 

The newest version of Android, version 6.0 named Marshmallow, has been available for developers to preview for some time now, with a public release pegged for November 2015. There are a lot of improvements that Google is promising with Android Marshmallow, which give you more control over the phone and improve performance, while also providing new ways to interact with your device.


Here are the 6 features from Android 6.0 Marshmallow that we are most excited about.

1) App permissions

Application permissions have been completely overhauled in Android Marshmallow. Now you will be able to grant apps individual permissions to device functions, instead of the previous model of all or nothing.

What this means is, if an app is trying to access your phones camera or microphone, the system would prompt you saying this app is trying to access camera/ microphone on your device and it will ask, "Would you like to allow this?" It's a big change from the current system where you have to either give an app access to all the services it wants; or not install the app.

Here's another example: If you want to send a voice recording on WhatsApp, the system would give you a prompt telling you that WhatsApp is trying to access the microphone on your phone. This means you don't have to agree to permissions from an app which doesn't make sense to you, such as if you don't want a specific camera app to access your contact list.

2) Now on Tap

This is one of the most impressive new features to be introduced with Android Marshmallow. Now on Tap takes the concept of the smart assistant Google Now, and spreads it across the entire OS so you can take advantage of it on any screen, regardless of what you are doing. All you need to do, is simply press and hold the home button, and Now on Tap will analyse the information you are looking at, to give you related cards.

For example, you get an SMS from a friend asking if you would like to go to watch the James Bond Spectre movie over the weekend; long press the home button and Google's Now on Tap will automatically recognise the context of the text based on words like 'movie' and 'James Bond Spectre' and show you useful results, such as screening timings in nearby cinema halls, or ratings from IMDB.

3) Fingerprint support

While we've seen Android phones with fingerprint scanners, the implementation was done by vendors themselves. Android Marshmallow will support fingerprint scanners on phones negatively now. The new feature will allow the scanners to be used to not only unlock your device, but also use it authorize payments using Android Pay in the offline world or within Play Store apps.

This is important because it will help standardize the implementation of fingerprint scanners in different Android devices, so app developers can take advantage of this new hardware as well. This will also encourage more phone makers to include fingerprint scanners in their devices.

4) App links

App links, also known as Intents, is a feature where if you click on a link in your email or a text message, it asks you what app you would like to open it with. The same thing happens when you click on - for example - a video file or a Facebook link; you are shown all the app that can open the link and asked to choose the one you want to use.

This feature always allowed Android users to set their own default apps, but it was also annoying at times with frequent dialogue boxes asking which app you want to use. App links are now being updated in Marshmallow to show greater awareness of what you're clicking on, instead of routinely stopping you to pop up dialogue boxes.

So, in Marshmallow, if you get an email with twitter link, it will launch the Twitter app instead of asking you to choose between that and the Chrome browser.