Google today announced the Android L Preview, a sneak peek at the next major release of its mobile operating system.
The Android L update will bring with it a new “Material Design” look, which offers a refreshed design with cards, virtual light sources and more. The update brings with it more than 5000 new APIs, an updated version of Android’s Roboto font, new virtual navigation buttons and more.
Android L also includes updated notifications. The OS will better organize and prioritize notifications on its lock screen, and users will be able to interact with them by double tapping to launch the app, swiping the alert away or swiping down to see their full list of notifications.
Speaking of notifications, Google is adding Heads-Up Notifications to Android L as well. These alerts will pop up as a card at the top of a user’s display and will let a user to act on it or swipe it away to deal with it later.
Another major change in Android L is Personal Unlocking. This feature will be handy to those users that use a passcode with their device. With Personal Unlocking, Android L devices will recognize its owner using things like location data and Bluetooth to allow its user to bypass a lock screen passcode.
Google also announced Project Volta at I/O. Project Volta promises to increase the battery life of Android L devices. Google says that with Volta, Nexus 5 users will get up to 90 minutes of additionally battery life per day.
Google says that the Android L release will debut in the fall. If you just can’t wait that long to try out L, Google will release system images for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 tomorrow, June 26.
UPDATE: Google has highlighted some of Android L’s new features over on its official Android Developers Blog. They are:
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