Google announces Android M with granular permissions, Android Pay and more

Google announced a new version of Android today. Android M, as it is currently being called, comes with a bunch of features and enhancements that improve upon the Lollipop update.

Android M features a lot of new, major features. Google is finally granting its users the ability to control the permissions, allowing apps to talk better to each other, providing Chrome features to apps for web content, improving the battery management during standby and giving a big boost to its payments service now called Android Pay.

App permissions

Android users have been asking Google to return that permissions control system that it introduced by accident in Android 4.4 KitKat. Called AppOps at the time, Google has finally brought it back in a different avatar that resembles the iOS permissions management system. Instead of asking you to grant all the permissions during the installation, Google will now ask you whenever an app tries to access a permission for the first time. This is how it works in iOS as well.

App links

Third party apps communication between each other has always been strong in Android. Today, Google is bolstering it with Android M today by making it so that apps can verify any communication received from another third party app in a secure manner. The OS will verify it cryptographically with the web server, which will thwart malicious apps.

Android Pay

After having tried for years so far, Google has failed to gain much traction with its Wallet wireless payments service. While Apple Pay has seen considerable success, today Google is introducing Android Pay to leverage NFC chips found in modern devices. Merchants/sellers will not know your card information either, which stay behind with Android Pay. It will work with most of the major US carriers and stores like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and McDonald’s, Subway, Best Buy, Coca Cola, Pepsi etc.

Android Doze and USB Type C support

Google had hyped up battery savings features in Lollipop called Project Volta. While that may not have worked well, Google is today introducing Doze in Android M. Compared to Lollipop, Doze will ensure your device stands by twice as longer on Android M.

Google is also introducing support for USB Type C reversible connectors in Android M today. This will make sure your phone charges at least 3 to 5 times faster. Since it is reversible, you will also always plug it in correctly now.

Google Now on Tap

Google Now is seeing a big improvement today with the new ‘on Tap’ feature. The app will now be aware of where you are in the UI, and if you ask it a question, it will understand the context and return you with accurate answers.

Fingerprint sensors support

Google is bringing fingerprint sensors support to stock Android, encouraging companies to launch phones with fingerprint sensors. This should also help the company with Android Pay for secure payments.

Custom Chrome tabs

Or web apps. Google has also announced the launch of custom Chrome tabs today, which are basically web apps with apps’ branding, but with Chrome’s security features. This should ease the headache for a lot of app developers with regards to security and feature parity.