Android Nougat 7.0 Features: Everything You Want To Know At One Place

Google today made the eleventh release of Android, Android Nougat 7.0, public through a blog post. This release of Android is eminent not just for it's features but also the leaks that surrounded it. We will be guiding you through the course of this much awaited release of Android through a series of blog posts and videos.

In this post, we will be briefing you about the various features which Android Nougat has to offer. We will go in detail of each of them in the follow up posts.

Android Just Got More Personal !

The all new release of Android comes in excess of 1500 emojis. This makes expressing your thoughts and moods way easier than ever. Native support of these emojis means that apps which will run on Nougat would support all of these emojis, This includes all the popular chat platforms such as Facebook's Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat etc. Now, you no longer need to download a separate keyboard application from the Play Store just because it had more emojis. This short animation will help you have a quick look at the emojis Google has included:

The Improved Multi-Window Mode Makes Multi Tasking Hell Lot Easier!

The multi window mode was also present in Android Marshmallow under the Developer Options. The presence of multi window in Marshmallow clearly highlighted Google's intentions to improve multi tasking to meet the needs of the modern day smartphone user. The multi window mode in Marshmallow was lauded by the Android community for Google's efforts to improve multi tasking, but at the same time was at a barrage of criticism for it's poor user interface and inability to use both the apps efficiently at the same time.

Come Nougat, Google has polished the multi window mode to a great extent as the following animation highlights:

As the above animation highlights, you can quickly switch across through apps even when you are in multi window mode. Watching a YouTube video and want to view your Facebook or Twitter feed at the same time? No problems. Open the YouTube application and head over to the video you are interested in. Next up, open Facebook or the application which you wish to use along with YouTube. Now, long press the recents key till it turns to something like the icon shown below:

This will be the indication that your device is going to enter the multi window mode. And then BOOM! You would be using both YouTube and Facebook/Twitter simultaneously. As the above animation also highlights, you can switch across apps even when you are in multi window mode. Keep in mind that this can be done only for the app which was opened second. For example, in the example we have taken up here, YouTube was the first application and Facebook/Twitter was the second application. To change the second app in the multi window mode, just tap on the recents key which looks like this: 

After you tap on the recents key now, the recents panel (a space with all the apps in your device memory) will pop up. Now just single tap on the app you want to shift to. You will be good to go now!

You can even configure the size of each window by using the drag panel.

Virtual Reality (VR)

Android Nougat 7.0 supports VR natively. Android Nougat also comes bundled with the Vulkan™ API, a game changer with high-performance 3D graphics. Put it in simple words, game play just got more erotic. Combine that with a Full HD screen and a processor with a good graphics card (I am recalling the NVIDIA Tegra here!), you would be able to feel yourself pulled inside the black hole of virtual reality.

NFS fan? Have a look at this quick game play video with VR support then:

Battery Saver: Sorry, I Meant To Say "Life Saver" !

Doze made it's Android debut with the tenth release of Android, Android Marshmallow 6.0. As I have mentioned many times in my videos too, Doze puts your device in a low power state or "deep sleep" which prevents battery drainage when your phone is idle or at standby. In layman terms, if you go to bed with your phone at 80% battery, sleep for 8 hours, then the next time you pick up your phone, the battery level should be at 77% or more. There should not be a drain of more than 3%. After all, you were not using your phone. How on the earth is the battery supposed to drain then? Well, there are some battery hungry apps such as Facebook's Messenger, WhatsApp which keep checking for messages in the background. We call this "wakelocks". These "wakelocks" prevent your device from going to bed and these apps act as those annoying people who want to wake you up your when you want to go to bed. Doze aims at pacifying these people.

So, Doze sounds interesting, right? There is a catch though! Doze works only when your device is stationary for a minimum period of 30 minutes. If your device is on the move during this duration and even if you are not using it, your device will not go to deep sleep. As a result, the wakelocks will act as demons and kill the battery. 

Nougat's Doze On The Go awards more powers to the battery to fight those demons. This time when you are not using your device, it is at rest in your pocket and you are waling, that is, your device is not stationary, your battery won't drain at all. So, if you go for a walk with 80% of battery, you will return back with at least 77% of battery. Earlier to fix this issue in Marshmallow, people had to use means of rooting and apps such as Greenify & ForceDoze to prevent the battery drain.

Quick Settings

Now you can even edit the quick setting tiles using the "edit option" at the bottom right corner of the quick settings panel. This feature was present in Marshmallow too, by the name of "SystemUI Tuner". SystemUI Tuner natively only allowed the user to delete tiles and add a "broadcast" tile. The broadcast quick setting tile was meant for developers to make their own quick setting tiles. Apps such as Custom Quick Settings exploited this functionality and allowed users to add custom tiles. Again, this was either too advanced for the basic user or they were lazy enough to download a separate app just to setup a quick setting tile. 

Nougat improves all of this mess. A user friendly quick settings tiles editor allows you to quickly add and delete tiles just by long pressing at any one of them in the quick settings panel and then dropping them down in the bin. The following images show you how to add a quick setting tile:

We also get certain important quick setting tiles embedded directly into the notification panel as shown below:

And, of course you can configure the quick setting tiles being shown in the notification panel.

Direct Notification Reply

Next time you want to reply to a message, a WhatsApp text or even a Facebook message, all you need to do is tap on reply as shown below. You need not open the app just to reply to a message now. It can be done directly from the notification.

Then type in your message :

Bundled Notifications: Notifications In A Cluster

On the left hand side you can see how notifications in Marshmallow look like and just next to it is how the notifications look like in the latest Android. The notifications have been bundled together, the spacing between them has been removed and also the clear all "icon" has been replaced with "CLEAR ALL" text.

Data Saver

Worried about how much data your device uses in the background? You can now decide how much data your device uses with Data Saver. When Data Saver is turned on, apps in the background won't be able to access cell data. Unlike Marshmallow, you can now also configure when does the billing cycle start.

Miscellaneous Stuff

Nougat 7.0 also allows you change the LCD density of the device. Lesser the LCD density, more contents can be displayed on the screen. More the LCD density, lesser the contents you can see on the screen. You can understand this by considering large and small text sizes. Say you are reading a document, so smaller the font size you select, more text the screen can accommodate in a single frame.. Similarly, larger the text size, lesser the document contents the screen can display in a single frame. The image below summarises the above para:

So, small font size means the LCD density is less. Larger font size means the density is more.

Direct Boot makes starting your device faster and apps run securely even before you enter your password.

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.