Android Marshmallow 6.0 Launches Next Week

Google unveiled three new Android devices this week in time for the upcoming rollout of the next version of the operating system – 6.0 (Marshmallow). Google announced that Marshmallow, which it ...
Android Marshmallow 6.0 Launches Next Week
Written by Chris Crum
  • Google unveiled three new Android devices this week in time for the upcoming rollout of the next version of the operating system – 6.0 (Marshmallow).

    Google announced that Marshmallow, which it unveiled at Google I/O earlier this year, will start rolling out next week to supported Nexus devices around the world. These include: Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 7 (2013), Nexus 9, Nexus Player, and Android One. They’ll also be pushing the Android 6.0 source to the Android Open Source Project, which as the company notes, marks the official beginning of pubic availability.

    Google is telling developers to get their apps ready.

    “Take some time to make sure your apps and games are ready to give your users the best mobile experience on these devices,” says Android VP of Engineering Dave Burke. “Nexus 5X has a quantized density of 420 dpi, which falls in between the xhdpi and xxhdpi primary density buckets. Nexus 6P has a density of 560 dpi, which falls in between the xxhdpi and xxxhdpi buckets. The platform will scale down any assets from a higher resolution bucket, but if those aren’t available, then it will scale up the assets from a lower-density bucket.”

    “For best appearance in the launcher, we recommend that you provide at least an xxxhdpi app icon because devices can display large app icons on the launcher,” he adds. “For the rest of your assets, you can consider using vector assets or optionally add versions for the next-higher density bucket. This provides a sharper visual experience, but does increase apk size, so you should make an appropriate decision for your app.”

    He also notes that you need to make sure you aren’t filtered on Google Play and that now is the time for finishing up any testing and updating.

    Google said today that Android now has 1.4 billion 30-day active users.

    Image via Google

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