Android Marshmallow

Android 6.0 "Marshmallow" is an upcoming update to the Android mobile operating system, most likely to be released in Q3 2015 ("tentatively slated for September"), with its third preview released on August 17, 2015. First unveiled at Google I/O on May 28, 2015, Marshmallow will primarily focus on incremental improvements and other feature additions.




The Android "M" developer preview was released on May 28, 2015, for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 phones, the Nexus 9 tablet, and the Nexus Player set-top box, under the build number MPZ44Q. The third developer preview was released on August 17, 2015 for the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player devices (MPA44G).

Features


Android Marshmallow introduces a redesigned permission model: there are now only eight permission categories, and applications are no longer automatically granted all of their specified permissions at installation time. An opt-in system is now used, in which users are prompted to grant or deny individual permissions (such as the ability to access the camera or microphone) to an application when they are needed. Applications remember their permission grants, and they can be adjusted by the user at any time. Only the applications compiled for Marshmallow using its software development kit (SDK) will use the new permission framework, and all other applications will continue to use the previous permissions model.Marshmallow has a new feature named Doze that detects when the device is inactive and reduces the level of background application activity, which Google claims to double the device's battery life.


Marshmallow provides native support for fingerprint recognition, allowing the use of fingerprints for unlocking devices and authenticating Play Store and Android Pay purchases; a standard API is also available for implementing fingerprint-based authentication in other applications. A new power management scheme known as "doze" reduces a device's background activity when the operating system detects that the device is not physically handled. Android Marshmallow supports USB Type-C, including the ability to instruct devices to charge another device over USB. Marshmallow also introduces "verified links" that can be configured to open directly in their specified application without further user prompts.


The Android Marshmallow developer tools are available in the SDK Manager under the API level "MNC".