Android Lollipop rumors Updated All the info on Android Lollipop, Google's latest OS iteration

Update: Google announced on October 15 Android L is officially called Android Lollipop.

Android L, or its official title, Android Lollipop, is here, and it's brought a raft of new changes, with Sundar Pichai, head of Android, proclaiming it to be one of the biggest upgrades to Android yet.

It's got radical new design, 5000 new APIs, has been available as a developer preview for a while, and it's going beyond the mobile form factor. Android 5.0 will be contextually aware of its surroundings, plus voice is going to me a major input source.

Android Lollipop continues the legacy of Google's sweet naming system.

The experience will also be seamless across devices - phones, TVs, and tablets - so making Android Lollipop devices communicate properly is at the top of the feature list. That said, don't think your handset will get left in the dust. Pichai was at pains to point out the mobile phone will always be the priority.

If you've got a sweet tooth for all the information about Android Lollipop, then you've come to the right place. Here's everything you need to know about Google's new mobile platform.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The next major upgrade for Android
• When is it out? 'In the coming weeks'
• What will it cost? Nothing, it'll be free, but some handsets will take longer to get it than others.

Android Lollipop release date

Here's what most of you will be wanting to know: when can I get it on my phone? Well, developers with a Nexus 5 or Nexus 7 have had access to early builds since June 26.

• The 10 things you really, really should know about Android Lollipop

For the rest of the folk in the world Google has said it will be available for the Nexus 4, 5, 7, 10 and Google Play edition devices 'in the coming weeks' - so some users should be seeing it show up come November, if not before.

HTC has already been in contact, giving the following statement about its forthcoming upgrade to Android Lollipop (formerly known as Android L):

"HTC is excited about the new features in Android L and we can't wait to share them with our customers. We are committed to updating our flagship HTC One family as fast as possible.

"We will begin rolling out updates to the HTC One (M8) and HTC One (M7) in regions worldwide within 90 days of receiving final software from Google, followed shortly thereafter by other One family members and select devices."

Motorola has also confirmed that Android Lollipop will be hitting the Moto X at some point and OnePlus has committed to bringing it to the OnePlus One within three months of Google releasing a final build.

Of course, what would a new Android OS launch be without new hardware from the Silicon Valley-company itself? To satiate our sweet tooth Google has announced a new Nexus 6 phone built in collaboration with Motorola and Nexus 9 tablet designed with HTC to accompany Android L's release.

Head on over to our Android 5.0 Lollipop release date article for full and up to date information on each manufacturers Android Lollipop release schedules.

If you're wondering about how much this update will cost the good news is Android 5.0, like all previous updates, is free.

Android Lollipop Material Design

The big news for Android Lollipop is the change to the way it looks - and it's going well beyond the mobile phone to the tablet, TV screen, watch and even the car.

The new Material Design is strange in that it bucks a trend at the moment - yes, it's flat, but it's heavily based on making every animation, every ripple, every shadow look real, which is something that most brands are shying away from.

It's meant to look both flat and 3D

Google tells us that this feels more intuitive, which means that there will be shadow gradients, 3D tiles that slide over one another and most importantly: access for developers to use this for themselves on their apps.

The idea is obvious: remove the fragmented way Android looks and bring consistency to the app world no matter what device you're on. Google intends to create an expansive ecosystem that will allow you to start a song on one device, move to another room, pick up a separate Android device and continue right where you left off.

The Roboto font has been updated too, so everything from watch to TV to mobile looks the same.

The whole interface is updated and improved

Every animation on screen will be allowed to connect to one another - so there's no 'teleportation between apps'. The home, back and multi-tasking window buttons on Android 5.0 have been refined too, and overall, this is a massive step forward for a cleaner, more intuitive-looking version of Google's mobile platform.

To get a taste of Material Design now just head on over to the Play Store on an Android device, as the material design update is currently rolling out for it and the Google Chrome app.

Notifications and lock screen

Notifications on Android Lollipop are getting an overhaul, so only the more relevant information about your apps is being presented.

You can even adjust the OS to display notifications from the most important people and apps during the evening hours or an important meeting. The notification panel is being merged with the lockscreen so you can see what's going on as you pick up the phone, and a simple swipe up takes you into the phone.

Imagine that the lockscreen is similar to the notifications panel now, and you're pretty much there.

Android Lollipop will also learn from you, working out what you look at and interact with more often to prioritise that notification.

Another big change is that notifications will flow over the screen at the top - get a call when you're playing a game and it will pop up at the top, asking if you want to take it. This will likely be the same with messages etc too, meaning less intrusion at the wrong times.

The improved lock screen

The lockscreen on Android 5.0 is getting smarter as well - if you've got a specific location set up, or are wearing a Bluetooth device, the phone will recognise you and unlock without a PIN.

Move away or take your watch off and you'll need to tap or swipe in a code when you unlock - or you can even use your voice. 

Interlocking apps on Android Lollipop

Google wants your apps to be able to talk to one another on Android 5.0 - it used the example of searching for a place, only to have it served up in Google Earth, which is where it originally was being looked at.
The idea goes much deeper than that though - Chrome browsing has an API that other apps can take advantage of, so if you click a link to book a table in the browser you'll be taken to something like OpenTable directly, rather than the mobile site.
This feature depends a lot on app developers taking advantage of the new tools, but all the onboard Google apps will be much more dependent on one another.

Faster, better looking and more efficient

Whilst Android 5.0 comes with some nifty new features that make an immediate visual impact, Google has put a lot of work in behind the scenes to ensure that Android Lollipop is the fastest yet.
If you're not big on codespeak, then this is the upshot: a new way of putting the platform together when you're using the phone makes everything slicker, faster and more efficient.
If you're interested, here are the finer details: ART, an optional runtime in Android KitKat, has now been made the standard for Android Lollipop and works with ARM, x86 and MIPS platforms and runs twice as fast as the Dalvik runtime that is found on previous Android iterations.

Mega fast compared

The biggest benefit is that all apps will benefit from ART right away, without the need for them to be updated. ART is also more memory efficient than Dalvik, meaning that apps that are running in the background will benefit from megabytes of saved data.
ART is also 64-bit compatible allowing Android Lollipop to benefit from the larger number registers, cross platform support and the increased RAM support that 64-bit architecture allows for. That 64-bit support is being kicked in to gear now too, as the latest developer build is 64-bit.
Android Lollipop also allows mobile devices to further close the gap not only between mobile and console-quality gaming, but also between mobile and PC graphics.
Working with Nvidia, Qualcomm, ARM and Imagination Technologies, Google has designed the Android Extension Pack with the sole task of closing the gap between mobile and desktop-class graphics, which will result in "more realistic environments, more realistic characters and vastly improved lighting".

Android Lollipop battery life

Batteries on phones running Android Lollipop are going to become more efficient with Project Volta, Google's new way of showing why and how a phone's power pack is juicing down.
It opens up the battery use to developers so they can see what's ruining the experience, which should in turn help plug the gaps in power leakage.
Battery Saver mode is integrated by default too, which can lengthen your use during the day by up to 90 minutes. It's not extreme power saving like on Samsung or HTC phones, but it's still useful to have baked in, even if all and sundry already have a likely more efficient version on board.
Even without Battery Saver mode Android 5.0 could do wonders for battery life. ArsTechnica put the new OS version to the test and found that a Nexus 5 running Android Lollipop had around 36% more battery life than one on Android 4.4 KitKat.

Android TV now baked right in too

Android Lollipop is also going to support TV. It's called Android TV, unsurprisingly, and despite the failure of Google TV the brand is having another go, such was the popularity of the Chromecast and the newly announced Nexus Player.
This means you've got content (games, films, TV shows etc) straight on your big screen and have a home button to get you back to the main display whenever you want.
Search is well-integrated too (through the mobile phone... or even an Android Wear watch), with Android TV very much powered by voice. So say you search for something like 'Breaking Bad' on the phone (when connected to the Android TV) it will show you the option to watch it on Google Play or any other compatible app installed.
The demo showed that Netflix was installed, but didn't appear in the search options - perhaps it was just a dummy app for now, but certainly that would be where the info would show.
And here's the great news: Android TV has been signed up to by some big names - the likes of Sony, Philips and Sharp have whole 4K ranges based on Android TV. Asus and Razer promise to have set top boxes to achieve the same thing too... although surely Google will update Chromecast to achieve the same thing.
Either way this could really ramp up the smart TV game.
Android TV is looking to snap up the mobile gamer too as you can take the games to the bigger screen in the house, though it looks like you need a separate gamepad, and you can even play multiplayer games.

Floating windows?

A curious feature that's popped up in a developer build is floating windowed apps which can be placed on top of another screen, sort of allowing you to multi task, except that seemingly the windows can't be repositioned or resized which makes us wonder if they're a bug rather than a feature. Only time will tell.

Interlocking apps on Android Lollipop

Google wants your apps to be able to talk to one another on Android 5.0 - it used the example of searching for a place, only to have it served up in Google Earth, which is where it originally was being looked at.
The idea goes much deeper than that though - Chrome browsing has an API that other apps can take advantage of, so if you click a link to book a table in the browser you'll be taken to something like OpenTable directly, rather than the mobile site.
This feature depends a lot on app developers taking advantage of the new tools, but all the onboard Google apps will be much more dependent on one another.

Faster, better looking and more efficient

Whilst Android 5.0 comes with some nifty new features that make an immediate visual impact, Google has put a lot of work in behind the scenes to ensure that Android Lollipop is the fastest yet.
If you're not big on codespeak, then this is the upshot: a new way of putting the platform together when you're using the phone makes everything slicker, faster and more efficient.
If you're interested, here are the finer details: ART, an optional runtime in Android KitKat, has now been made the standard for Android Lollipop and works with ARM, x86 and MIPS platforms and runs twice as fast as the Dalvik runtime that is found on previous Android iterations.

Mega fast compared

The biggest benefit is that all apps will benefit from ART right away, without the need for them to be updated. ART is also more memory efficient than Dalvik, meaning that apps that are running in the background will benefit from megabytes of saved data.
ART is also 64-bit compatible allowing Android Lollipop to benefit from the larger number registers, cross platform support and the increased RAM support that 64-bit architecture allows for. That 64-bit support is being kicked in to gear now too, as the latest developer build is 64-bit.
Android Lollipop also allows mobile devices to further close the gap not only between mobile and console-quality gaming, but also between mobile and PC graphics.
Working with Nvidia, Qualcomm, ARM and Imagination Technologies, Google has designed the Android Extension Pack with the sole task of closing the gap between mobile and desktop-class graphics, which will result in "more realistic environments, more realistic characters and vastly improved lighting".

Android Lollipop battery life

Batteries on phones running Android Lollipop are going to become more efficient with Project Volta, Google's new way of showing why and how a phone's power pack is juicing down.
It opens up the battery use to developers so they can see what's ruining the experience, which should in turn help plug the gaps in power leakage.
Battery Saver mode is integrated by default too, which can lengthen your use during the day by up to 90 minutes. It's not extreme power saving like on Samsung or HTC phones, but it's still useful to have baked in, even if all and sundry already have a likely more efficient version on board.
Even without Battery Saver mode Android 5.0 could do wonders for battery life. ArsTechnica put the new OS version to the test and found that a Nexus 5 running Android Lollipop had around 36% more battery life than one on Android 4.4 KitKat.

Android TV now baked right in too

Android Lollipop is also going to support TV. It's called Android TV, unsurprisingly, and despite the failure of Google TV the brand is having another go, such was the popularity of the Chromecast and the newly announced Nexus Player.
This means you've got content (games, films, TV shows etc) straight on your big screen and have a home button to get you back to the main display whenever you want.
Search is well-integrated too (through the mobile phone... or even an Android Wear watch), with Android TV very much powered by voice. So say you search for something like 'Breaking Bad' on the phone (when connected to the Android TV) it will show you the option to watch it on Google Play or any other compatible app installed.
The demo showed that Netflix was installed, but didn't appear in the search options - perhaps it was just a dummy app for now, but certainly that would be where the info would show.
And here's the great news: Android TV has been signed up to by some big names - the likes of Sony, Philips and Sharp have whole 4K ranges based on Android TV. Asus and Razer promise to have set top boxes to achieve the same thing too... although surely Google will update Chromecast to achieve the same thing.
Either way this could really ramp up the smart TV game.
Android TV is looking to snap up the mobile gamer too as you can take the games to the bigger screen in the house, though it looks like you need a separate gamepad, and you can even play multiplayer games.

Floating windows?

A curious feature that's popped up in a developer build is floating windowed apps which can be placed on top of another screen, sort of allowing you to multi task, except that seemingly the windows can't be repositioned or resized which makes us wonder if they're a bug rather than a feature. Only time will tell.

The rumors from before the event:
Android 5 is going to be exciting, there's no doubt about that. Google saves the change to a new number for the big things, and it seems Android L is now on its way, ready to be debuted at Google IO on June 25.
We thought it would have been Key Lime Pie that showed off the next level, but on 31 October 2013, Google officially revealed its next minor update, Android 4.4 KitKat, which now clears the road for Android 5.
The dessert-themed code name that we assume will begin with L is anyone's guess at this stage. Android 5.0 Lemon Cheesecake or Android 5.0 Lemon Meringue Pie, anyone? Though there's talk that it might be called Android Lollipop or even Android Moonshine, as it's apparently internally known.
However, the latest leaks point simply to Android L - given Android head honcho Sundar Pichai said the conference would give the world an early look at the new OS, chances are the name will be held back until closer to launch, which may be later in the year.
Then again, a new screengrab of the KitKat Easter egg shows a new pudding - is that a hark to the possible Key Lime Pie that was usurped by KitKat, or are we looking at Lemon Meringue Pie?

Which pudding is that?

It may not be called Android 5 though, with some rumors suggesting the next major iteration from Google's wheel house could arrive as Android 4.5. That would make sense as we've had 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 in recent years.
That said, it appears Google may have just dropped a hint as to the version number of the next iteration of Android. 5.0 is currently looking favorable after the time of "5.00" appeared on screenshots posted on Twitter by the search giant - a signal Google has used before.

Is Android 5.0 next in line? (credit: @Google)

As we wait on official news of that name, we're constantly combing the web to see what's going to be happening with this L-powered update, so check back to see what we've uncovered and the level of likelihood each rumor brings.

Multiple user accounts

Multiple user accounts have been available on Android tablets since 2013, but so far phones have gone without the feature, which allows you to limit what things children, co-workers or anyone else who isn't you can access on your device.
Android L will achieve this by allowing you to setup multiple accounts on your phone and comes with a default "guest" profile that allows someone to use the device without seeing any of your personal data.

Android 5.0 release date

Given Android 4.4 KitKat appeared on 31 October, we're looking forward to finally seeing a big step forward for Android. The good news is we're going to get our first taste at Google IO, the search firm's annual two-day developer conference in San Francisco.
That's a year on from when we had originally expected to see Android 5.0, which was at Google IO 2013, but Google has been keeping things within the '4.x' family for a while now.
Sundar Pichai, Google's new head of Android told Wired that 2013's IO was "not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system"," which makes us wonder when the new software will be coming.
Our take: Android updates are still appeating too slowly for our liking, as while each 0.1-numbered upgrade is good, it's not enough to make us want the native experience.
We're expecting Google to make Android 5 rather special indeed, which means it can only wait a maximum of 6-7 months after KitKat was announced to show it off - so it's a relief to hear it's appearing, in some form at least, at the conference.
More recent reports of Android 4.5 being next in line may mean the update is more iterative than sprawling overhaul, so we're not getting too carried away just yet.
In any case Google I/O is set for June 25-26, so with any luck we should know lots, lots more about what Android Lollipop will be bringing to the table soon.

Android 5.0 phones

The first handset to run Android 5 will either be a Nexus phone or tablet, and given the timing of the announcement we think it might be the latter. The Google Nexus 5 launched Android 4.4 at the tail end of next year, and while we've been waiting for the update to the big-screen tablet, the Nexus 10 (2014) doesn't look like it's appearing any time soon.
HTC looks like the front runner to bring this tablet to the market (if it does exist), but the rumors aren't pointing to an unveil any time soon.
We're also hearing a lot of rumblings about a Nexus 8, a slate which will supposedly launch with Android 4.5, so maybe that's the device that Android Lollipop will make its debut on.
Will it be known as a Nexus though? The scheme is under threat from Android Silver, but it doesn't look like that's launching yet, so we reckon the Nexus name will be kept for at least the next round of devices.

Androids out in force at Google IO 2012

Android Wear

A more recent idea is that Google's next version of Android will have more fitness smarts built in - and this is an idea we think has legs, if you'll pardon the sort-of pun.
Apple is set to launch the iWatch and iOS 8 with fitness very much at the heart - Cupertino looks very likely to be bringing something that's able to track your heart rate, blood glucose and other vital medical info before shooting it over to your doctor.
It seems Google wants to do the same thing - it's recently-launched Android Wear platform already has companies like LG and Motorola signed up, and Samsung is rumored to be joining the party too.
The idea is future versions of Android (ie Android 5) will allow the software to harness "fitness data from sensors on your Android device."
Pichai has essentially confirmed this is going to be baked into the hardware and software side of things, telling Bloomberg that it made no sense to have to go to the doctor to measure a variety of health elements when technology can do it daily.
"You obviously need to be able to measure these things so many more times and then apply more intelligence to it," he said.
It also looks like Android 5 may add support for 64-bit processors, as the Nexus 8 is rumored to have one and to be running the new version of Android (if it turns out to be a real device - chances are it won't appear just yet).
That in turn would allow for more than 4GB of RAM in devices, opening the floodgates to enormous increases in power.
Some have speculated that Android 5.0 will be actually Chrome OS, Google's high power operating system for its Chromebooks - that it would use Android for low- to mid-level handsets and put Chrome on the high end.
However, this makes little sense given the effort that would be needed for app integration, so like Microsoft and Windows Phone the mobile OS will very likely continue as is.

A recent image of 'Android L' (which is presumably Android 4.5 / 5) appears to show the browser floating in the middle of the screen, which may mean we'll be getting split screen apps. That would certainly be a useful feature, particularly on larger devices.
Samsung, LG and Sony already do this but if the functionality is baked into Android then all devices potentially could.

Android 5.0 interface

While little is known about the potential interface changes for the next iteration of Google's mobile platform, be it Android 5.0 or Android 4.5, a screenshot has appeared online claiming to reveal the upcoming version.

The screenshot shows new icons apparently destined for Android 4.5

There's a clear visual overhaul present in the screenshot, and according to the leak the new design is being referred to as "Moonshine" internally at Google.

We've also caught a glimpse of how the dialer might look in Android 4.5 / Android 5, courtesy of an image leaked by Google itself. It's not in for a radical redesign but if the image is to be believed then it will be going blue, rather than sticking with the current light gray colour.