Pushbullet gets Android 6.0 Marshmallow optimization, more in latest update

Pushbullet, the popular multi-device notification and link-sharing tool has been updated today to take full advantage of Android 6.0 Marshmallow’s built-in improvements. The company announced that the new update uses Android 6.0‘s runtime permissions and Direct Share features to give you more fine-tuned control over which parts of your system it has access to, and give the option to share items more easily and quickly with compatible devices…

With runtime permissions enabled, Pushbullet now only asks for permission to access features when it needs them, not when you download it from the Play Store. That means you can fine-tune it so that — as an example — it can’t read your SMS messages, but can mirror notifications on your desktop, or vice-versa. Pushbullet will ask for a total of 4 individual permissions to access your SMS, contacts, phone and storage. What’s more, the developers and engineers have built the permission requests in to the initial app setup so that you know right from the beginning what it needs to have access to.

Full list of updated features:

– Optimized for Android 6.0 Marshmallow!

– Uses runtime permissions (Android 6.0+)

– Added Direct Share support, putting your recent devices right in the Share menu (Android 6.0+)

– Notification actions are mirrored now on Marshmallow

– Possible MMS fix for those affected on Marshmallow, please confirm via Send feedback

– Reduced apk size by 25%

– Many bugfixes and performance improvements

The Direct Share feature will let users easily and quickly share items with their registered recent devices. Now, when you access the Android share menu from within Pushbullet, you’ll notice a row of active devices on the top row. In future, Pushbullet says that it will improve these options further by training it to notice which devices you share to the most often.

As well as those pretty major updates, the app has been reduced by 25% in size and has been improved to use less power and to sync SMS messages much faster.

The update hit the Play Store today, and is available to download free right now. The app measures in a 4.1MB in size and is compatible with any device running Android 4.0.3 or later, although the newly announced features will require Android 6.0 to work properly.