Well well well, looks like TELUS was right, yet again. Google has now officially released Android 7.0 Nougat to AOSP and has begun seeding the update to Nexus phones around the world.
Device support has changed for this release so the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2024) will no longer receive any non-security updates. As of now, the only officially supported devices are Nexus 6, Nexus 9, Nexus Player, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and Pixel C.
So what’s new? Here’s a list of what’s new in this build:
- Multi-window support
- Quick switch
- Unicode 9.0 (new Emoji)
- Vulkan API for low-level fast graphics
- VR (Virtual Reality) support built-in
- Improved “Doze” support
- New notification shade design with customizable quick settings (easily toggle Wifi, etc)
- 1st class/party quick-reply/direct-reply notification support
- Automatic notification bundling (No more rows and rows of Facebook notifications)
- “Data saver” toggling, which disables backgrounded apps from using cell data while still allowing foreground apps to use it
- Notification controls via long-press
- Customizable display “density” and font-size controls, so you can fit more on your screen or alternatively make it easier to see/read
- Unified software security updates on “select new devices”
- File-based encryption (in addition to the previous storage device encryption), for better security with multi-user support
- “Direct Boot” starts your critical apps (alarm, etc) even when you haven’t unlocked your device
LG’s upcoming V20 smartphone was also confirmed to be the first phone shipping with Android 7.0 out of the box.
Now we wait for the new Nexus.
[Android / Reddit]
