Software: Android 6.0 Marshmallow

1 of the big new features to be included with the Nexus 5X is Android 6.0 'Marshmallow', which is a major update to the operating system that brings with information technology a ton of new features. There are and then many features included with Android half dozen.0 that I'yard not going to discuss them all, and Ars Technica already has an splendid, in-depth review of the OS if y'all want more information. Nevertheless, I will exist providing some impressions of using Android 6.0 and some of its about interesting additions.

In that location are many reasons why stock Android, provided by Google, has a significant advantage over versions with OEM skins and other additions. Firstly, the OS is visually coherent throughout the operating organization, and first- and (nearly) tertiary-party apps. Simply put, stock Android looks the best, and without whatsoever additions clogging the operating system down, it's typically the smoothest to use besides.

Secondly, as this is a Nexus device, Google will evangelize the latest version of Android first over the side by side few years. This includes major operating system updates, such equally Android 6.1 or 7.0 or any else is next, and modest issues prepare or security revisions. Getting fast access to security updates is crucially important for Android these days, equally more and more vulnerabilities are discovered every day. With a Nexus device in your pocket, you're essentially getting the most secure Android feel.

And lastly, every bit Google has command over both the entire software ecosystem and the phone's hardware (to an extent), Nexus devices can have the most optimized experience. Google hasn't taken full advantage of this hardware-software matrimony simply yet, just with ultra-fast features such as Nexus Imprint, the visitor is clearly putting a stronger emphasis on ensuring a bang-up overall experience.

I of the major features to come in Android 6.0 is Now on Tap, which is an extension of Google Now that essentially scans your screen and attempts to find relevant information. Information technology's activated by holding down the dwelling button, and the scanning process usually takes a second or so. If Now on Tap finds the title of a picture show, for example, information technology will provide some basic info on that movie along with links to relevant apps. Similarly, if it finds an address or business organization proper name, it will prove you links to discover that place in Google Maps.

At this early stage, information technology tin can do a reasonable chore of finding useful info in some apps, particularly those like Gmail and Chrome that are developed by Google. Automatically linking to Maps when information technology finds an address saves you from copying and pasting that address into the app, and the same can be said for calendar events and movie titles.

However, there are a large chunk of third-political party apps where At present on Tap doesn't provide useful info when scanned, or where the service only doesn't work at all. Also, while Now on Tap does have its uses, I didn't find myself using the characteristic as often as I expected. Perchance this is merely because information technology's new, and I have get used to manually doing what At present on Tap does, just it could as well indicate the feature is more of a gimmick than a crucial side by side-gen phone feel.

Android 6.0 also includes a revamped permissions system. Rather than getting you lot to accept a long listing of app permissions when you install an app from the Play Store, Android 6.0 will instead present you with permission requests whenever an app needs to access something. If you lot're in Facebook, for instance, and it wants to know your location, a pop-up volition announced that allows you lot to accept or decline the app's location asking.

As and then many people, including myself, merely skim through the list of permissions upon an app'due south installation (or don't read them at all), this new organisation introduced with Marshmallow makes it far more obvious what an app is accessing. The power to decline or disable certain permissions, which you lot tin can do through the permissions manager hidden in the App section of the Android settings screen, gives you lot much greater control over what apps access, which tin can assistance improve privacy and security.

The system isn't perfect, though. At this stage, Android apps have to be updated to fully support Marshmallow-style permissions, otherwise you will still have to accept a giant list of permissions on install. On top of this, if you disable a certain permission for a legacy app, you won't be informed why some functionality is missing or non working (although the app itself shouldn't break as Android 6.0 provides spoofed or bare data when a permission is disabled for a legacy app). In dissimilarity, an updated app can provide feedback on what features won't work after you disable access to your contacts, for instance.

More often than not speaking, though, I was pretty happy with the new permissions system in Android, and it'southward a massive improvement over what was used in previous version. One suggestion I would make to Google is to make the permissions director more than visible and hands accessible, rather than a hidden feature for enthusiasts.

Google has included a range of battery improvements to Android vi.0 in Doze and App Standby, which attempt to reduce idle ability depict by disabling features and apps when they're not being used. Doze, for instance, disables groundwork processes and network access when a phone is existence left lonely (when the display is off and the telephone isn't moving). App Standby substantially disables an app, preventing information technology from running background services, when it isn't beingness used. The feature should kicking in when you oasis't opened an app for a while.

While these new features do sound great for bombardment life, Google does allow developers to bypass them by setting their push notifications as 'high priority', which leaves the system open up for abuse. Developers that desire their apps to simply run forever, sucking down ability and annoying you with notifications, volition simply set everything to 'loftier priority' and bypass the benefits of Doze and App Standby. Hopefully Google will shut down avenues for corruption, or give more than control to the user, in a time to come version of Android.

There are several other additions to Android vi.0 that I'll run through chop-chop:

  • For devices with microSD menu slots (the Nexus 5X isn't one of them), Android 6.0 now has the ability to treat removable storage like internal storage. This ways apps tin can exist properly installed on an SD card, and data placed there is more than easily accessible. If you lot remove an SD card set up in this way, expect it to break things.
  • There'due south a new fingerprint API, which should hopefully bring all Android devices with a fingerprint sensor into the one ecosystem, making information technology easier for developers to employ the feature.
  • Android 6.0'southward motorcar backup can now backup app data to the cloud, and so long as the app targets API 23 or newer.
  • Proper app linking should hateful you'll see fewer annoying dialogs asking you what app to open when you click on a link or epitome.
  • Both text selection and the volume menu accept been simplified.

All in all, it's a pretty impressive update, and hopefully we first to run into it on more than just Nexus devices in the nigh hereafter.