As the users thought Android Jelly Bean was the ultimate version Google introduced the Android 4.4 Kitkat. This means users have new features to look forward to and mobile developers have a new toolset to learn.
The most amazing feature is that it works on a wide spread of devices even with less RAM up to 512 MB. Memory utilization is the biggest change.
Ten new features in Android 4.4 Kitkat:
- Full-screen immersive mode: All apps can now take the advantage of using each and every pixel of the screen of the smart phone. Users can hide menu and navigation bars, buttons and other panels to give the full-screen to be used by the app. Thus the entire interface can be hid while the user is using an app.This feature is best suited for e-readers and other media apps (games, newspapers). Kitkat has a new gesture where while using an app if u swipe from top or bottom it will reveal the menu, navigation and buttons.
- Scene transitions: Users can now animate different scenes, pages, events in an app through a set of transitions in Kitkat 4.4. This allows you to resize, rescale, etc depending on the set transitions. If you don’t want to manually manage animations, scenes by setting the specific scenes this function called the Transaction Manager will do it automatically.
- Screen recording: This is an awesome update in the Kitkat. You can create a video of your app directly of an Android device.The recording can be done with any device supported resolution and then can be shared directly from the device to a computer. This screen recording function can be found through Android Debug Bridge (ADB) tool in the Android SDK or through the Android Studio integrated developer environment.
- Storage screen framework: This new feature allows you to browse and open documents in an app from a variety of cloud storage providers. If you want to open a file from Box, Google Drive, local storage device, etc, this feature Storage Access Framework will handle this for you.
- Priority contacts: This new feature priorities the contacts on your phone automatically. This is done on the basis of who you talk to more often than the others.
- Extended search: On Kitkat people can search for nearby places and businesses or people in their Google app domain. Improved caller Id for calls not saved on the contact list of the phone, Kitkat will search for a match from business with a local listing on Google Maps.
- SMS, MMS integrated into Hangouts: This new feature in Kitkat displays all the SMS and MMSs in the hangout tab. This makes it much more convenient for users to see all the conversation with a person at one place.
- Emoji on Google keyboard: As we all know how popular and interesting are the emojis, now in the Kitkat this has been integrated in the keyboard. This brings a new dimension to our conversations especially with the youth of today.
- Printing: Kitkat has made the impossible possible by allowing users to print pictures, documents and web pages from their phone or tablet. This can be done by connecting to any printer which is connected to the Google cloud print, to HP ePrint, or other printers that have apps in the Google play store.
- Ok Google: This feature was first seen in the Motorola Moto X and finally was introduced in the Kitkat. This feature allows you to unlock your phone without even touching it. All you need to do is say “Ok Google” and the phone gets activated without touching it. Users also launch a voice search, send s text message, get driving directions or even play a song with the voice command.
There are more new and exciting features to the all new Android 4.4 Kitkat which you need to go out and get, which not only interest you but also make life much simpler.
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