After Lollipop, will Google's Android M be a sweeter surprise?
India is an Android country. Over 90 per cent of smartphones sold here are powered by Google's operating system. Indians love Android so much - and not only because Android phones are cheaper than iPhones - that in the past some even sent Google letters and petitions, asking it to name its Android versions Laddu and Kaju Katli (each new Android version of Android is named after a dessert).
No wonder when Google recently announced the latest version of Android - for now titled Android M as it will get a sweeter name later - phone enthusiasts in the country were all excited. For now, available in preview form for app developers, Android M is the successor of Android Lollipop.
As far as updates go, Android M is an evolutionary version of the software. Android Lollipop was a more radical release and like all radical releases, it was full of some nasty bugs. With Android M, Google is hoping to squash these bugs and make the whole smartphone experience smoother and trouble free.
That doesn't mean there are no cool new features. The coolest feature of the Android M is going to be how it improves the battery life of a phone. It will fundamentally change what apps do with the phone hardware, something that will improve the battery life of the phone, especially in the standby mode when you are not using the phone, significantly. The other top features are support for fingerprint scanners, better audio controls, better security because users will be able to deny apps permission to use phone hardware and support for the next version of the USB.
More significantly, Google is making Android smarter in the next version. It is making Google Now, which is the virtual assistant residing in your phone, more intelligent. Currently this virtual assistant can show you a Google search when you ask it "Who is Miley Cyrus?" But in the Android you will be able to ask "Who is this singer?" while listening to a Miley Cyrus song. You wouldn't have to specify the name of the singer. This is a big deal because it pushes the boundaries of machine learning and artificial intelligence. It shows that Google can now figure out the context without being told and that all this artificial intelligence prowess will be available to even those who use a five-thousand-rupees smartphone.
So far so good.
The problem, however, with the Android M is that all its goodness, cool features, won't come to most of the existing Android users. At a time when Google has announced the Android M, barely ten per cent users are using Android Lollipop, which was announced in the summer of 2014.
People want the latest version of Android on their phones because the latest is always better, especially when it comes to software. It has fewer critical bugs, better security and in most instances cooler features. But the way the world of Android works, the latest version never reaches most consumers. Even when it reaches some lucky few, there is a delay.
The fault is with both Google and the companies that use its Android software. Unlike Apple, which pushes out updated software to all iPhone users with weeks, Google's update process works differently. The updated Android doesn't come to users unless you are using a Google phone like the Nexus 5. Instead, it goes to companies like Samsung that make Android phones. Except Motorola, all these companies using Android heavily modify the software to suit their needs and requirements. This takes time. These also sell tens of different Android phones and they neither have the inclination and resources to update all these models. So they update the handful of high-end phones and move on.
The Android update process is a mess and while Google has tried to fix it in the last couple of years, the efforts have been unsuccessful. The Android M is the latest and greatest Android and it would be coming to phones around November this year. But don't hold your breath for it. It wouldn't be a surprise if your phone doesn't get it. Ever.