Although this year’s Nexus smartphone had been heavily leaked for months leading up to its official release — the Play Store even gave us a brief look at what to expect in mid-October — it was hard to pin down the actual release date. As such, some were taken aback when Google released the Nexus 5, along with the latest version of Android, on Halloween with little fanfare. Still, it should have been more obvious. When else would an OS dubbed ‘Kitkat’ launch?
Putting the devices itself aside, though, as it has already been scrutinized from every angle by dozens of tech websites, let’s take a look at what the latest version of Android has in store for the world.
Starting with the most superficial change, it seems that Google has trimmed down the basic user interface of Kitkat a bit compared to previous releases. In particular, the status and menu bars are now completely transparent on the home screen. Meanwhile, both of these bars can disappear completely when an app transitions to full screen mode. This offers certain apps, like ebook readers, to offer a more immersive experience.
Meanwhile, Google’s own apps have received some interesting updates with Android 4.4 — most notably Google Now and Hangouts. In the case of the former, it is now ‘always on,’ meaning users can access Google voice search from anywhere on the home screen by saying “OK Google.” In the case of the latter, Hangouts instant messaging and SMS are now integrated for an iMessage-like experience.
Other enhancements introduced with Kitkat include: support for low-power sensors thanks to a process called ‘hardware sensor batching’ that queues up all sensor updates to occur at once; enhanced NFC payment capabilities thanks to ‘Host Card Emulation,’ which facilitates connectivity between apps and NFC hardware; and much better support for lower-end devices.
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