When Google announced Android 5.0 earlier this month, it gave us the broad strokes of what’s new in Lollipop. Now that Google’s announcement dust has settled, it’s diving into more of the nitty gritty details of the Android 5.0 update.
First up, Google has posted a checklist for developers that want to update their apps with Lollipop's Material Design. The list includes tangible surfaces that cast shadows so that you can tell which surfaces are front of others, a bold aesthetic with a primary color and accent color, authentic motion with UI pieces animating into place and adaptive design that works to have a consistent look and feel across any screen. That includes phones, tablets, laptops, TVs, wearables and cars.
Google also focused on Android 5.0 Lollipop’s security features today. The first big feature is Smart Lock, which lets your phone easily unlock using Bluetooth, NFC or your face. You can also access select notifications from your lock screen, without unlocking your phone.
Another big security feature of Lollipop is default device encryption. Google says that your Android 5.0 hardware will automatically encrypt your data right when you turn it on using a special key that never leaves the device.
Finally, Google is using Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) at the base of Android. This allows El Goog to monitor for malicious apps and prevent attacks.
We’ve known for a couple of weeks now that Lollipop is a big upgrade for Android, but now it’s starting to look even more important than first anticipated. Android 5.0 includes a number of major under-the-hood tweaks to go along with its Material Design facelift, and it’s great to see Google continue to build out Android’s security features, especially since that’s an aspect of the OS that’s frequently targeted by critics.
What’s your favorite Android 5.0 feature so far?