Skip to main content

Android 6.0 Marshmallow

See All Stories

Android Marshmallow is the 6.0 release of Google’s mobile operating system.

Features |

Granular App Permissions

Following yesterday’s rumors of more granular app permissions, we received confirmation of exactly that. The new app permissions will make it faster for developers to get new users up and running in their apps by only requesting permissions as the app needs them. For users, permissions are now being simplified into several easy to understand categories like Location, Camera, Microphone, and more. Users will also be able to go into the Settings menu of their phone at any time and revoke all or specific permissions as they please.

Chrome Custom Tabs

Google is bringing the features and capabilities that users have come to love from the Chrome browser to in-app webviews. Available in the Chrome Dev Channel today and rolling out to users in Q3 this year, Chrome Custom Tabs gives users looking at a webpage through an in-app webview sign-in and caching of web services, saved passwords, autofill, and multi-process security (i.e. two-factor authentication). Developers will be able to customize the webview to their liking with buttons as well as options in an overflow menu, and also pre-fetch any links before the user clicks on them so they’ll load quickly. The company shared how Chrome Custom Tabs will work with a Pinterest integration showing off a “Pin It” button in the menu bar at the top of the webview as well as a “See related Pins” button in the overflow menu.

App Links

Following up on yesterday’s rollout of App Indexing of iOS apps in Google’s native Search and Chrome applications, Google is revamping its intents system to provide a more powerful cross-app linking capability. App developers can now add an “autoVerify” attribute to their application manifest to indicate to Android that the links they claim they support should be verified by the platform at the time of the app’s installation. Android will then make a request to the servers associated with the links and look for a file containing the name and signature of the application, and if it successfully verifies that the app owns the links it claims to, when a user with the application installed clicks on a link owned by the app, it’ll push the user to the app without opening an intents menu.

Android Pay

Following that Android Pay logo we saw this morning, Google detailed its Android Pay mobile payment service coming to Android M.

Android Pay includes the ability to pay for goods in retail stores using Android phones and NFC while users can also make payments within apps for buying digital goods. Users will be able to plug in existing debit and credit cards from supported banks, and Android Pay has carrier support to ensure Android Pay is setup on new devices sold through vendors.

Android Pay will be available through Google’s own app, and banking apps will be able to integrate the service in their own apps. Google says over 700,000 stores across the United States will be Android Pay ready in addition to many Google Play apps as well.

Fingerprint Support

Android M will include standardized fingerprint recognition support as well to leverage the fingerprint sensors that have been shipping on Android phones for years. Android Pay will use this sensor as a payment approval method as part of the mobile payment process.

Google says that at launch any app developer will be able to make use of the new fingerprint APIs in Android M to add support for fingerprint authentication to their own apps. One example the company provided of how fingerprint support might work in a third-party app was the Target app. Users will be able to, when they install the app, associate their login credentials and payment information with their fingerprint so that when they go to complete a purchase all they’ll have to do to confirm the order is place their fingerprint on the sensor.

Power & Charging

Through a new feature called “Doze,” Google is making Android smarter about managing power. Doze will use “significant motion detection” to learn when a device is being left unattended for an extended period of time, and exponentially back off background activity to go into a deeper state of sleep for longer battery life. While the device is dozing it will still be possible to trigger alarms or respond to incoming chat requests from high-priority messages.

Google says they took two Nexus 9’s, putting Lollipop on one and M on the other with all the same apps installed and processes running, and found that devices on M tend to last up to 2x longer on standby.

In terms of power and charging, the company also announced that they’ve been working closely with device manufacturers to bring new devices to the market which take advantage of USB Type-C for charging. Since Type-C USB cables are bidirectional, meaning you can send data or power in either direction, Android M will provide more control over what you can do with the cable plugged into your device. Instead of just charging your phone through the cable, for example, you could choose to instead send power from your phone to the charger it’s connected to.

Google “Now on Tap”

Last but most definitely not least, Google Now is getting a bit smarter at figuring out what you want more information on based on your context within the phone experience.

Coming soon to over 100 third-party apps, Google Now will proactively surface specific actions from within apps on your phone as it thinks you’ll need them. Examples they provided in the keynote include surfacing the ability to request an Uber from Now once you land at the airport or surfacing your favorite Pandora station when Now knows you’re at a public transit station.

But the company is going even further than that, and will allow you to take advantage of Google Now from wherever you are on your phone and without having to be super specific with your request. So if your friend texts you a restaurant suggestion for dinner, by tapping and holding the home button Now will figure out what you’re wanting to get more info about, in this case a certain restaurant you were texted about, and deliver a card to you from the bottom of the screen with more information on the place. The company also demonstrated this from within Spotify, with a user listening to a song from Skrillex able to ask Now “what’s the real name of this artist” and have it pull up that information without the user even needing to indicate which artist they’re even referring to, because they asked from within the app with the artist already playing. This new feature of Google Now is called “Now on Tap” and will be rolled out with Android M.

How to download |

Device compatibility |

 

9to5Toys Last Call: Samsung Galaxy Note 9 BOGO, Note 9 Case $1, Jaybird Bluetooth Headphones $50, more

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: TwitterRSS FeedFacebookGoogle+ and Safari push notifications.

Listen to the new 9to5Toys Daily Podcast:


Expand
Expanding
Close

The $50 NOOK tablet features Android’s adoptable storage, here’s how to set it up

Site default logo image

nook_tablet_4

Earlier today we showed you the Barnes and Noble NOOK 7″, a new competitor to Amazon’s popular $50 Fire Tablet. So far, we’re pretty impressed with what we’re seeing, but as we dig in further, we’re finding more and more about this tablet that continues to make us ask the question: how is this only $50?


Expand
Expanding
Close

ASUS announces US availability for ZenFone 3 and ZenWatch 3

Site default logo image

zenwatch 3

ASUS first launched the ZenFone 3 lineup quite a while ago, and first mentioned its new ZenWatch 3 at IFA last month. But it wasn’t until now that we had any information on when any of these devices would launch in the US. It looks like all of the ZenFone 3 variants are now up for pre-order on ASUS’ website (watch assumably coming soon), and should be shipping within the month…


Expand
Expanding
Close

Site default logo image

Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow now rolling out to the OnePlus X

oneplus3_001

Starting today, the OnePlus X will begin to receive an over the air update to OxygenOS 3.1.3 which brings with it Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Although the company released a community build that brought the updated firmware to the OnePlus X about a month ago, this is this first stable build to roll-out to customers…


Expand
Expanding
Close

Site default logo image

Android 6.0 Marshmallow is making its way to the Asus ZenFone 2

ZenFone 2

Asus announced in a blog post today that Android 6.0 Marshmallow will finally be rolling out to the ZenFone 2. Although this update comes almost a year after Marshmallow was released, this update will bring familiar features such as Google Now on Tap, application permissions, and Doze to one of the best budget phones of 2015.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Review: Sony Xperia X Performance is a more expensive version of a too-expensive phone

Site default logo image

xperia x perf

I’m already late to the game on this one, but now seemed just as good a time as ever to share some of my thoughts on Sony’s mid-2016 flagship performer. Basically, this is the Xperia X with a Snapdragon 820. We already gave you our full review of the Xperia X, and most of what we said there rings true with this phone. It’s a nice handset with a high-quality build and all the features you would expect from a smartphone. Here’s what stands out to me about this version of the device, though…


Expand
Expanding
Close

XDA developer working on porting Android to the Windows Phone-powered Lumia 520 & 525 [Video]

lumia520_marshmallow

Microsoft’s efforts to get Windows Phone off the ground have never been very successful, but there’s one thing it was very good at, cheap phones. When an Android phone costs $100 we are all impressed, but back in 2013 Microsoft and Nokia turned heads with the insanely cheap Lumia 520. That little phone later proved to be one of the most popular Windows Phone devices ever, and now a developer over on XDA has hacked Android onto it and its successor.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Huawei’s glass-backed, dual-camera, & well-specced Honor 8 is officially coming to the US

Site default logo image

honor 8

Huawei-owned Honor has today announced that the phone it announced for China last month  — the Honor 8 — is coming to the United States. Following up on the budget Honor 5X that marked the company’s first phone for the US earlier this year, Honor is now introducing a glass-backed phone at a middle-of-the-road price and specs that are definitely on the higher end…


Expand
Expanding
Close

BlackBerry to make its Hub available to all Android Marshmallow-powered devices

blackberry-priv-wp

We live in an era of information overload, there’s no doubt about that, and with all the apps and services we use constantly asking for our attention it has become easier than ever to feel as if we were drowning in way too many communication services.

BlackBerry has been working on a solution to this problem for Android users, which it is officially announcing today


Expand
Expanding
Close

August security patch for Nexus devices rolling out, factory images and OTAs now available

android_m_hero_1200

Several leaks over the weekend suggested that the Android Security Bulletin would be released on August 5th this month. While the patch date may be set to this Friday, the Nexus factory images and OTAs are already rolling out. Like in July, there are two sets of security bugs as part of the August security bulletin.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Comment: With a single update, Huawei just re-established Honor 5X as a great budget option

honor5x_marshmallow_1

The Huawei-made Honor 5X has topped our picks for a budget smartphone for quite some time, however there have always been some caveats. The heavy software skin atop Android on this device has never been great, but just last week Huawei rolled out a major update to the Honor 5X with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and EMUI 4.0 in tow. While there isn’t a lot on the surface that has changed, this one update has made the Honor 5X a much better budget smartphone.


Expand
Expanding
Close

July security patch for Nexus devices rolling out, factory images and OTAs now available

android_m_hero_1200

Update 7/11: July’s security patch for the Pixel C is now available. Download the factory image and OTA now.

The Android Security Bulletin is usually released the first Monday of every month. With July 4th being a holiday, it was assumed that the patches would be available next week. However, Nexus factory images and OTAs with patches for a large number of vulnerabilities are actually available today.


Expand
Expanding
Close

The best Android phones you can buy [July 2016]

oneplus-3-hands-ondfa

It’s already July, and with an ever-increasing number of notable Android OEMs reaching maturity, we’ve seen more new handsets than usual launch this summer. We had the Huawei Mate 8 and Honor 5X at CES in January, followed later by Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 edge and others around the time of Mobile World Congress, and last month saw the new OnePlus 3 and Moto Z. But which ones are the best buys?…


Expand
Expanding
Close

Android 6.0 Marshmallow is finally available on the AT&T Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+

galaxy-note-5

If you need another reason why Google should release its internal OEM and carrier rankings, look at AT&T’s rollout of Android Marshmallow for the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+. The update is only now hitting customer devices after it’s been available on Verizon and Sprint for three months.


Expand
Expanding
Close

NVIDIA Shield Tablet K1 update brings professional audio and split navigation button

nvidia-shield-tablet-k1

Android has long had issues with audio latency that resulted in a lack of audio editing apps. To remedy this, Marshmallow introduced a professional audio requirement last year. Now, NVIDIA’s Shield Tablet K1 meets those requirements thanks to a software update currently rolling out.


Expand
Expanding
Close