Android brings a lot of substantial changes in every release. As far as I’ve seen Android 5 was one of the biggest and significant changes in the Android version history. After that many visible and invisible changes have come gradually in later versions. Here, I am presenting some of the visible and widely discussed features that come from Android 6 to Android 11.
Android 6:
1. Fingerprint Authentication
Authenticate users by scanning fingerprint is one of the biggest milestones for Android devices introduced in Android 6.
2. App Linking
Developers can set up Android App Links to take users to a link’s specific content directly in your app.
3. Auto Backup for Application Data
The android platform takes care of full application data backup and restoration for apps.
4. Direct Sharing
It’s an intuitive and quick feature for users to define direct share targets that launch a specific activity in the app.
5. Voice Interactions API
It is a voice interaction API that allows developers to build conversational voice experiences into their apps with the help of Voice Actions.
6. Assist API
From Android 6 users can launch the assistant within any app, by long-pressing on the Home button.
Android 7:
7. Multi-Window Support
It’s a multitasking feature for the android platform. From Android 7.0, users can run two apps side-by-side or one above the other in split-screen mode. Users can resize the apps by dragging the divider between them.
8. Notification Enhancements
In Android 7.0 notifications are redesigned to make them easier and faster to use. Some of the changes include Template updates, Messaging style customization, Bundled notifications, Direct reply, Custom views.
9. Vulkan API
Android 7.0 integrates Vulkan™, a new 3D rendering API, into the platform. Like OpenGL™ ES, Vulkan is an open standard for 3D graphics and rendering maintained by the Khronos Group.
10. Call Screening
Android 7.0 allows the default phone app to screen incoming calls. It allows the phone app to perform several actions based on an incoming call’s details, such as rejecting the incoming call.
11. Chrome + WebView, Together
From Chrome 51 and Android 7.0, the Chrome APK on your device is used to provide and render Android System WebViews.
12. Android TV Recording
Android 7.0 adds the ability to record and playback content from Android TV input services via new recording APIs.
13. App Shortcuts
Users can use this feature from the launcher directly to key actions within your app. Users simply long-press their app’s launcher icon to reveal the app’s shortcuts, then tap on a shortcut to jump to the associated action.
Android 8:
14. Picture-in-Picture mode
Picture-in-picture (PIP) is a special type of multi-window mode mostly used for video playback. From Android 8.0 this feature is available on the Android device which was only available for Android TV previously.
15. Neural Networks API
Android 8.1 Neural Networks API is open for developers that provide accelerated computation and inference for on-device machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow.
Android 9:
16. Indoor Positioning with Wi-Fi RTT
On devices running Android 9 with hardware support, a developer can use the RTT APIs to measure the distance to nearby RTT-capable Wi-Fi access points (APs).
17. Multi-Camera Support And Camera Updates
On devices running Android 9, a developer can access streams simultaneously from two or more physical cameras.
18. Animated Image
Android 9 introduces new APIs for drawing and displaying GIF and WebP animated images.
Android 10:
19. Foldables
Android 10 brings robust multi-window support which extends multitasking across app windows and provides screen continuity to maintain your app state as the device folds or unfolds.
20. 5G Networks
Android 10 introduces 5G to deliver consistently faster speeds and lower latency. 5G gives users an immersive experience with high bandwidth.
21. Smart Reply in Notifications
Android 10 provided smart replies and actions are inserted directly into notifications by default.
22. Dark Theme
Android 10 brings a system-wide dark theme that is helpful for low light and increase battery life. This feature can create a dark theme for the app dynamically with Force Dark.
23. Gesture Navigation
Android 10 introduces a fully gestural navigation mode that eliminates the navigation bar area and allows apps to use the full screen to deliver richer, more immersive experiences.
24. Privacy for Users
Android 10 brings extensive changes to protect privacy and give users more control, with improved system UI, stricter permissions, and restrictions on which type of data apps can use.
Android 11:
25. Device Controls
Android 11 introduces Control Provider Service API that you can use to expose controls for connected, external devices.
26. Media Controls
Android 11 brings Media controls that appear near quick settings. Multiple apps sessions are arranged in a swipeable carousel. Users can resume previous sessions from the carousel without having to start the app.
27. Better Support for Waterfall Displays
Android 11 supports waterfall displays, displays that wrap around the edge of the device.
Conclusion
Android introduces a lot of user-centric, security, privacy and performance-related feature that makes different from the old ones and most of them are not much visible to the normal users. If you are a regular user, you don’t have to know the insight, but you must know them a bit deeper if you are a developer.
Have a wonderful day. 😊
Reference [1]. https://developer.android.com/about/versions