Earlier today, Google officially announced the name and a version number for the next version of Android operating system. Android M, which was previewed during Google I/O 2015, is now officially called Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Google's new mascot for Android 6.0 Marshmallow was unveiled near the Android HQ building in California.
The final developer preview of Android 6.0 Marshmallow is now available for three Nexus devices – LG Nexus 5, Motorola Nexus 6, and HTC Nexus 9 – and for the ASUS Android Player. This will be the last preview build before the RTM version is provided to OEMs and brands.
Android Marshmallow follows the same Material brings for the UI with very little changes upfront. However, it brings improved performance, thanks to better RAM management, improving standby as well as battery endurance using Doze feature. It also brings features like native support for fingerprint sensors and USB Type-C connectors, an app permission manager, and an ability to reverse charge other devices.
With Android 6.0, users can format external memory cards as internal storage partition, so all the apps can take advantage of the increased storage size of the device. Low-end devices like Android One smartphones that have limited internal storage space can take full advantage of this feature.
Developers can upload their Android 6.0 compatible apps to the Google Play Store as the official SDK is live as well. The final version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow should be available for Nexus devices this fall, which could be anytime in the next three months. Google might launch two new Nexus devices later this year – LG Nexus 5 (2015) and Huawei Nexus 6 – that come preinstalled with Android 6.0.
