Google has just announced that the next version of Android is not Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie but Android 4.4 KitKat. And, Yes, this is a tie-in with the Nestle chocolate bar of the same name.
But what will the next version of Android offer? We don't know yet, but here is what we would like to see. Let us know your suggestions in the comments.
Multiple profiles for mobile phones
With Android 4.3 Jelly bean, Google introduced multiple user profiles for Android. However, the feature's only available on tablets, phones.
Would come almost as useful in an Android phone, though. You don't want to give your phone to your child only to find that they have deleted all your apps and spent £ 50 on Google Play store. Multiple profiles are not only protecting your data, either – can protect you too. Of, for example, by restricting your applications and web pages have access to.
Improvements to manage Android devices
In August 2013, Google unveiled its own version of find my iPhone, called Android Device Manager. This is designed to help you recover your Android device, should get affected.
It's been long overdue, but it is currently not good enough as longtime alternative to Apple's iPhone. You can make your Android fire off the ringtone, and you can also delete its contents. However, you cannot send a message to the device.
It is also a simple app downloads, meaning anyone nicks phone can easily get rid of it. To be truly effective, it must be built into the Android system.
Downloadable maps in Google Maps
One of the few bragging points Nokia phones Lumia have on Android phones is their ability to download an integer value of maps using the suite in fact Nokia Maps here. When you are abroad, this is an absolute godsend as it means that you don't have to search for the signal 3 g/Wi-Fi and you don't have to worry about roaming costs when trying to find out where the heck bloomin' six.
Google Maps does not currently lets you download maps for offline use, and is one of the few real sore spots on the roster otherwise rather great Google applications. It's a real shame when other aspects of Google Maps is still the best free mapping solution out there.
A native of Google TV app controller
High-end phones are starting to offer an IR Transmitter features more or less ' standard ' this year. This allows a telephone transmitter that mimic the signals sent by remote controls TV and those of any home entertainment gadget.
Is a great idea. The problem? None of the applications that let you do this are pretty, well still. For a universal remote control to be useful, it must be easy to install and easy to use. The app is made by HTC and Samsung for the Galaxy S4 and HTC One is none of these things.
If Google waded and produced its own app ' home automation ', people might actually start using this feature. We talked to IR-capable phones by most people don't even know they can do this stuff.
iMessage/Whatsapp equivalent built in messenger
We will be straight with you – iMessage to Apple is a bit rubbish. Gets confused, often leads to you missing out on posts and is a nightmare if you happen to go abroad. However, allow you to send images quickly and easily for free, which is missing from Android.
Of course, you can get this functionality with a 3rd party app like Whatsapp, but wouldn't it be nice to have everything integrated into Android? The obvious obstacle is that only this service would probably be compatible with devices running Android KitKat 4.4 or newer, there would be a large amount of use for the first few months at least.
Native support for app downloads direct-to-SD
One of the top annoyance of an ultra-cheap Android phone is that there is often just not enough internal memory to install some applications. And while many phones allow you to download apps on an SD card, the initial installation must be carried out in internal memory.
We found that this flat-out stops you from being able to install high-end games in some cheap phones. If Google enabled direct-to-download SD card, this problem would be solved. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely as Google Nexus devices show a tendency to ' SD-free ', being the ideal of Android.
Shared photo stream
One of the neatest features of iOS is Streaming photos shared. These allow you to share a virtual photo album with your friends without having to upload to Facebook.
Is one of the main advantages of a unified system as iOS, but it shouldn't be too difficult to implement both in Android. As with the feature of Whatsapp style ' we are dreaming, however, it is likely that this would work only between tablets and Android phones are updated.
Let us know what you want to see in Android 4.4 KitKat.
Next, read our 10 reasons why you should care about 4 K TV
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