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These are the best Android 7 Nougat features according to Google engineers

By Victor Hristov

Updated: Jul 20, 2016, 5:20 AM

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These are the best Android 7 Nougat features according to Google engineers

Just recently, our team here was brainstorming the best new features in Android 7 Nougat and the improvements that they will bring to the user experience.

Quite frankly, it was not an easy brainstorming session: Android Nougat features a new notification system and a slight change in multitasking capabilities, along with some other minor changes, but for the most part, the visual style of the Android system remains the same and there is hardly much to get excited about at first sight.

Android 7 Nougat, however, is far from mundane: you just need to look deeper to learn about the truly transformational features that come with this release. A recent Reddit AMA with the Android engineering team shows that there is much more than just minor superficial changes to Android N. Take a look at the most important and exciting Android 7 Nougat features from the engineers who have been working on them right below.

New Doze battery life improvements in Android N get the Android engineering team pumped up

AnwarGhuloum (Engineering Director for Android Core Platform): "I’m pretty excited about a bunch of the under the hood improvements we’ve made: JIT, OTA speed, and some big kernel scheduler changes. It’s something no user will see, but hopefully they’ll notice:) In general, I’d like to see us do more with upstream Linux to optimize for mobile."

DianneHackborn (Manager of the Android framework team): "Doze light in N, and the background restrictions coming in the future. Now that we have bitten the bullet with Doze in N to taking a firmer hand it what applications can do, there are a number of opportunities we have to improve the overall platform behavior."

ChetHaase (Lead/Manager of the UI Toolkit team): "I love some of the usability features we’ve added in the last few releases, from fingerprint (turning on and unlocking my phone as I take it out of my pocket) to Quick Settings (fast access to things I commonly need to toggle) to the recent apps double-tap (takes you to the previous activity, like Alt-Tab for Android). Under the hood, I love the continuous work we’re doing on performance, always working on making things faster and smoother."

Wale Ogunwale (Technical Lead Manager for ActivityManager & WindowManager): "Multi-Window obviously ;) This a feature the community has been asking for awhile now and I glad we finally made it happen!"

Paul Eastham (Engineering Director for systems software and battery life): "The new Doze work in N is looking like it will be a big win for batteries everywhere — early data from testers looks good, and that gets me excited! I think the “Seamless Updates” feature will have a lot of fans too."

source: Android engineering team AMA on Reddit

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Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.