Android 7.0 "Nougat" is an upcoming release of the Android operating system. First released as an alpha build on March 9, 2016, it is expected to be officially released in the third quarter of 2016.
Android 7.0 introduces notable changes to the operating system and its development platform, including the ability to display multiple apps on-screen at once in a split-screen view, support for inline replies to notifications, as well as an OpenJDK-based Java environment and support for the Vulkan graphics rendering API, and "seamless" system updates on supported devices.
History
On March 9, 2016, ahead of Google I/O (where previous new versions of Android were formally unveiled), Google released the first "Android N Developer Preview" at alpha quality.On April 13, 2016, Android N Developer Preview 2 was announced.
Google further discussed Android "N" during the I/O keynote on May 18, 2016, and unveiled its new virtual reality platformDaydream. During the conference, Developer Preview 3—the first beta quality preview build of Android "N", was released.
Developer Preview 4 was released on June 15, 2016. After initially announced Android 7 simply as “N” and put out a call for suggestions of names starting with N for the public to decide, on June 30, 2016, Google announced that N's release name would be "Nougat"; it was also confirmed that Nougat would be version 7.0 of Android.The final Developer Preview, 5, was released on July 18, 2016.
Features
Android Nougat introduces a split-screen display mode, in which two apps can be snapped to occupy halves of the screen. An experimental multi-window mode is also available as a hidden feature, where multiple apps can appear simultaneously on the screen in overlapping windows.The notification shade was also redesigned, featuring a smaller row of icons for settings, replacing notification cards with a "sheet" design, and allowing inline replies to notifications (this feature is implemented via existing APIs that are used for similar functionality on Android Wear). Multiple notifications from a single app can also be "bundled".
The "Doze" power saving mechanism introduced in Marshmallow was expanded to include a state activated when the device is running on battery and the screen has been off for a period of time, but is not stationary. In this state, network activity is restricted, and apps are granted "maintenance windows" in which they can access the network and perform background tasks. As in Marshmallow, the full Doze state is activated if the device is stationary with its screen off for a period of time. A new "Data Saver" mode restricts background mobile data usage, and can trigger internal functions in apps that are designed to reduce bandwidth usage, such as capping the quality of streaming media.
On devices shipping with Android Nougat, the "Verified Boot" policy (introduced partially on KitKat, and displaying notifications on startup on Marshmallow) must be strictly enforced. If system files are corrupted, the operating system will only allow operation in a limited-use mode or refuse to boot at all.
Development platform
In December 2015, Google announced that Android Nougat would switch its Java Runtime Environment from the defunctApache Harmony to OpenJDK—the official open source implementation of the Java platform maintained by Oracle Corporation and the Java community. Google promoted that the shift was part of an effort to create a "common code base" between Java on Android and other platforms and allow use of popular Java 8 features in code, but it was actually to address then-ongoing litigation with Oracle surrounding its use of copyrighted Java APIs as part of the Android platform (OpenJDK is expressly licensed under the GNU General Public License). A U.S. federal court has since ruled that Google's use of the APIs was fair use.The Android Runtime (ART) now incorporates a profile-guided compilation system, utilizing a JIT compiler and profiling alongside its current ahead-of-time compiler to further optimize apps for a device's hardware and other conditions in the background.
Developer Preview 2 added platform support for Vulkan,the new low-level 3D rendering API to augment OpenGL ES but with higher graphics performance. A new set of human emoji was also included in this version of the preview, with support for skin tones.
Nougat introduces a system for enabling "seamless", automatic system updates, based upon and sharing some code with the implementation of similar functionality on Chrome OS. The system uses a pair of SquashFS partitions; the Android system executes from an "online" partition, while updates are applied in the background to a redundant "offline" partition. On the next boot following the installation of an update, the redundant partition is designated as active, and the device henceforth boots into the updated system. The previous system partition is kept as a backup in case of update failure, and to serve as the "offline" partition for the next update. This system removes the requirement for the device to reboot into the system recovery environment to apply the update (which prevents the device from being used until the update is complete), and also provides the ability for an update to be automatically rolled back in case of a failure. Due to the partitioning requirements of this system, existing devices will not support seamless updates. Additionally, due to the ART changes on Nougat, apps no longer need to be re-compiled upon the first boot after a system update.
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