Google I/O introduces Android "L" to the world: A brief overview

Google ends our wait and speculations about the latest version of its much loved open source Operating System, Android, with the Android L. Though the name is a bit ambiguous and we don't know whether this "L" will get a name in the near future or will end up just as "L", what we do know is that it looks as promising and impressive as it was expected to be. But let me remind you that this is not the finished product that you're seeing, this is the developer's preview of the Android L and is released to give developers an idea as to what they will be working on or to make themselves comfortable with the new design, layouts, etc, while the

Android L is expected to reach the device by fall this year

Material Design

Google introduced us to a new kind of designing called "Material Design" in which the elements behave as in real life, and like in real life the elements not only have length and width but also depth. Yes this new Google "design language" is going to take over all the Google products and will now be the key design feature in Android, Chrome OS and other services by Google. This design gives a great real life like response feeling to every interaction by the user with the device which includes ripple effect, shading, fading, pressed feel, etc. The transitions are smooth and happen at 60 fps and you can see things happening on the screen, things won't just teleport from here to there but there will be a subtle transition in states which gives a really cool look and feel. The UI elements can slide over each other but give the feeling of being on different levels with help of dynamic lighting and shadows.

Notification

The notification part has improved tremendously. Now they will appear in card forms on the lock screen itself and will give you the power to slide it away to discard or double tap it to read it, all this without the need to unlock your phone, thumbs up for this. Not only this, you also get to decide what you want to do while you are using an app and a notification pops up, like you're in the middle of Piano tiles game and about to set a high score and suddenly you get a call from someone then you have the power to either take the call or reject it and continue playing.

Authorization

"L" is making things a lot easier, now you don't have to enter the pin lock code every time you need to use your "own" mobile device, "L" is smart enough to detect a nearby object or a smartdevice which will authenticate you, like a smartwatch, and will relax you from entering the pin lock code.

Project Volta

Project Volta is an initiative to improve the battery life of the mobile device. This comes up with a Battery Historian which lets you to easily pinpoint as to what is using your battery and at what time from which you can set your priorities to use your battery efficiently. Project Volta also comes up with a Battery Saver mode which claims to

boost the battery by upto 90 minutes on a Nexus device

 as said by Sundar Pichai, the Big Daddy of Android.

Android L comes power-packed with 5000 new APIs which is a good news for developers. Along with the Android L preview, Google also showcased its Android Wear, Android TV and Android Auto, we'll be covering up all that and much more from the Google I/O 2014 so stay connected.