Google announces Android M, with simple permissions control and more polish

By on Email @exolete

Google IO 2015 Android M Developer Preview

Google today kicked-off I/O 2015 with the launch of Android M. Its an evolutionary release adding more polish and quality to Android Lollipop. At present we don't know what's it going to be called, so for now we will just refer to it as Android M.


Android M adds granular control over permissions, so instead of just telling you all the permissions an app uses or letting you enable/disable each of them, Android M will prompt you to allow a permission to an app when it uses a phone feature. So, you are more in control and know what exactly an app is doing on your phone.

Google Io 2015 Android M

Google will now allow developers to insert webviews directly in their apps, giving them complete functionality of Chrome without having to switch apps. Automatic sign-in, saved passwords and other features will be available to developers in their apps.


Android M will also make your phone's battery-life better, with a feature called Doze which essentially lets Android manage background processes better. It relies on motion detection to find if the phone is in use, if not then it starts to smartly shut-down processes which haven't been used over a long duration.


Dave Burke, VP of Engineering at Google said that this is the most polished version of Android till date and they have fixed quite a few usability concerns with Volume Control, Copy/Paste and more. But its now finished yet. Android M will first be available as a Developer Preview on the Nexus 5, 6, 9 and the Nexus Player. The full-release will arrive later this year.