Tuesday 13 October 2015

The Coolest Android Mashmallow Features That Google Didn't Announce

Android Marshmallow has finally arrived. First announced at Google I/O, the company already teased a bunch of cool features. Here are some of the sweet features Google didn’t announce.
Right now, Android Marshmallow is only available for certain Nexus devices. If you haven’t received an update yet, here’s how to skip the line and update manually. For everyone else, be sure to check out our list of devices that are expected to get Marshmallow at some point in the future.

Google has relied on the cloud to backup most of your data for forever. The one key exception, though, has always been app data. If you uninstall an app or move to a new device, you have to change all your settings all over again. While the company has allowed developers to optionally backup data to Google Drive for a while, the company has finally built a powerful new system.
What that means for you is that you shouldn’t need apps like Titanium Backup just to get your home screen back to normal. Of course, it comes with some limitations. For starters, only 25MB of data will be backed up. That should cover things like your settings, but it may not include the 5GB of music you downloaded. Developers can also choose to opt-out of including certain files, or disable the backup entirely. This is a good thing, as there are certain types of apps and data you don’t want backed up by default. However it does mean there may still be a few things you have to manually transfer.
The problem is that developers can still opt out, and most so far have. In order to use the new system, developers have to specifically target API level 23 (read: Android 6.0, for the layman). So any developer that hasn’t updated their apps won’t use the backup. Moreover, devs can choose to opt out of the backup system if it’s not working for them. While the backup system is great, don’t expect it to work in the short term. Then again, it will take a while for most people to get Marshmallow anyway, so you might see it the next time your phone gets an upgrade.

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