Like some kind of magical Christmas in October, Android 4.4 KitKat is finally released to the masses (sort of). Many of you may already have had the chance to try out the latest, greatest, and most corporate-branded version of Android yet, but you still might not know a number of things about KitKat. While none of the changes in KitKat will blow your mind, the OS update is full of new features and functions that make Android better.
Small but significant
Not only has the entire OS undergone a face-lift—albeit one not quite as dramatic as iOS 7’s—but several lesser-known additions will affect how we use Android phones and tablets for years to come. We’ve spent the past two weeks poking and prodding our way through the update and have returned from our adventure to bring you the ten most significant changes to Google’s mobile operating system, as listed in the links below.
Some of these changes may appear small and insignificant at first glance, but you’ll quickly learn why it’s important that Google included them in this version of Android. KitKat is available only on the Nexus 5 right now, but its expected to roll out to other devices in the coming weeks, so now might be a good time to familiarize yourself with everything that’s new before having your whole mobile world turned upside down.
Even if your phone or tablet isn’t scheduled to be updated, there’s a high chance that your next device will come with KitKat. As you eagerly await your next upgrade, read on to find out more about what exciting new features you can expect on your next Android device.
Getting to know the Android KitKat home screen
Android 4.4 KitKat represents a dramatic shift in Google’s mobile OS. Android is no stranger to change—Google has dramatically reinvented it several times now—but many aspects of this particular update warrant a closer look. The new Android home screen, for example, may not look much different from the home screens in Jelly Bean or even Ice Cream Sandwich, but it gives us a better understanding of what Google may want Android to look like in the future.
Flat is in
Following in the footsteps of Windows Phone and iOS 7, the new Android home screen is flatter and displays larger icons that almost demand to be poked. The dock at the bottom of the screen has gone translucent and seems to flow into the software navigation buttons on the Nexus 5.
The Google search bar at the top of the screen is a permanent fixture: It shows up on all of your home screens and takes a page out of the Moto X’s book by allowing you to dictate commands. The feature is similar to the Touchless Controls found in Motorola’s latest batch of smartphones, but you can activate it only by saying “Okay Google” when the device is on and set to the home screen.
Liberated from the depths of Google’s Search app, Google Now occupies the leftmost home-screen pane, though you can still access it at any time by swiping up from the home button. Google Now behaves just as it does on other Android phones and tablets, though KitKat includes an updated version that lets you customize your experience more effectively by establishing a few parameters. As you set up Google Now, the software asks how you prefer to get around, which sports teams you follow, and which locations it should keep track of.
Just for apps
Though technically not part of the home screen, the app drawer has received a facelift and now deals exclusively with apps. If you want to reach your widgets, you can find them by long-pressing the home screen and tapping the widget button that appears on the screen. Android no longer limits you to five or six home screens, and you can drag a widget or app to the far right edge to spawn a new pane. If there is a limit to how many panes you can have open at once, I didn’t reach it (I lost count at around 29). I did my testing on a rather beefy Nexus 5 phone; it’s possible that lower-end Android devices will have a stricter limit, based on their available memory.
Moving the widgets out of the app drawer seems like a missed opportunity: The widgets interface looks exactly the way it did when it was in the app drawer, and I would have liked to be able to sort widgets by size as well as alphabetically. Relocating widgets to their own hidden corner of the OS makes me worry that Google is planning to nix widgets in a future release, as they are no longer quite as in-your-face as they were in Android 4.0–4.3.
The new home screen provides a welcome visual refresh to Android—but it mainly shuffles things around, without really introducing new features or functionality. The heavy emphasis on search makes Google appear paranoid that people won’t use its services to access the Web, but it makes sense considering that search is still the company’s bread and butter. It’s only a matter of time before Android becomes a straight portal to the Google homepage.
Get to know Hangouts in Android 4.4 KitKat
How many apps can Google stuff into one? Earlier this year, it rolled Google Talk into Hangouts. Now its stuffing SMS/MMS in there, and soon, Google Voice too.
With the new Hangouts, youll have the convenience of getting most of your communications in a single app, but it still feels lacks refinement. Let’s walk through the latest update and take a look at how Google is building Hangouts into an all-encompassing message center.
All-in-one portal
As mentioned, Hangouts can now facilitate all of your messaging needs, whether you want to text a friend, video chat with family across the country, or instant-message a Google contact.
When you launch the app, you’ll see an archive of your most recent conversations. Swipe to left to get to the contacts list. Google prominently displays the six contacts you most frequently talk to with tiles of their respective avatars. Below it, you’ll see a list of people you often hang out with, and at the very top you can type in a name, email, or phone number to begin a new Hangout with anyone. You can also venture into your Google+ circles to get a group conversation going, either by text or video. Video will be limited by your device’s bandwidth, however, and even then you’re only limited to ten individuals in one Hangout.
Annoyingly, Hangouts will not combine both SMS and IM conversations under a single contact, since theyre utilizing two different services. Unless you’re often archiving old conversations (which you can do so by swiping away each individual message) your Hangouts list will get crowded.
Those of you who arent on KitKat will get the added benefits of the SMS integration as long as you’re running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and above. If youre not on KitKat, youll get your text messages to both the Hangouts and Messages apps, though.
Send a GIF
Hangouts may have felt a bit utilitarian before, but now they’re a bit more fun with embedded images and animated GIFs.
To send a photo, simply tap the image icon in the bottom right-hand corner to attach a photo from your Google+ account or your devices photo gallery. Bear in mind that if you send the photo to a contact using the web-based Hangouts on their computer, they’ll get a link to Google Photos where the image is stored. You can then access that link to see all the photos that you and that person has shared in conversations past.
Let people know how you feel
Feeling blue? Let your friends know by changing your mood from the Settings menu. If youre feeling like muting everyone for a while, you can even snooze notifications up to 72 hours.
Also, make sure to select "Share your status" from the Settings panel if you want your contacts list to let you know how youre feeling and where youre messaging from, whether it be your browser or on your phone or tablet. You can also share your location with various people if you need to pinpoint where you are.
Ready to Hangout?
We were hoping that Hangouts would follow in the footsteps of iOS’s Messages, but it still has a ways to go. Its interface is easy to navigate, but having so many conversations across different mediums in one window gets exhausting. Youll eventually feel tasked from having to consistently archive messages. Google is pushing to have Android users rely on Google+ to stay in touch with friends, but it should have figured out a less discordant way of doing so.
You also can’t send SMS or MMS messages over Wi-Fi, so you’ll have to go with a third-party application if you’re trying to avoid paying your carrier any messaging fees. With the price of cellular data packages these days, we dont blame you. Google still owes us Voice integration, too, which it said it would bring to Hangouts a while back. We expect that to arrive in the coming months.
Overall, Hangouts gets better with every incremental update, and by the time Google ties up all the loose ends it should prove to be a worthy messaging portal for Android users.
How many apps can Google stuff into one? Earlier this year, it rolled Google Talk into Hangouts. Now its stuffing SMS/MMS in there, and soon, Google Voice too.
With the new Hangouts, youll have the convenience of getting most of your communications in a single app, but it still feels lacks refinement. Let’s walk through the latest update and take a look at how Google is building Hangouts into an all-encompassing message center.
All-in-one portal
As mentioned, Hangouts can now facilitate all of your messaging needs, whether you want to text a friend, video chat with family across the country, or instant-message a Google contact.
When you launch the app, you’ll see an archive of your most recent conversations. Swipe to left to get to the contacts list. Google prominently displays the six contacts you most frequently talk to with tiles of their respective avatars. Below it, you’ll see a list of people you often hang out with, and at the very top you can type in a name, email, or phone number to begin a new Hangout with anyone. You can also venture into your Google+ circles to get a group conversation going, either by text or video. Video will be limited by your device’s bandwidth, however, and even then you’re only limited to ten individuals in one Hangout.
Annoyingly, Hangouts will not combine both SMS and IM conversations under a single contact, since theyre utilizing two different services. Unless you’re often archiving old conversations (which you can do so by swiping away each individual message) your Hangouts list will get crowded.
Those of you who arent on KitKat will get the added benefits of the SMS integration as long as you’re running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and above. If youre not on KitKat, youll get your text messages to both the Hangouts and Messages apps, though.
Send a GIF
Hangouts may have felt a bit utilitarian before, but now they’re a bit more fun with embedded images and animated GIFs.
To send a photo, simply tap the image icon in the bottom right-hand corner to attach a photo from your Google+ account or your devices photo gallery. Bear in mind that if you send the photo to a contact using the web-based Hangouts on their computer, they’ll get a link to Google Photos where the image is stored. You can then access that link to see all the photos that you and that person has shared in conversations past.
Let people know how you feel
Feeling blue? Let your friends know by changing your mood from the Settings menu. If youre feeling like muting everyone for a while, you can even snooze notifications up to 72 hours.
Also, make sure to select "Share your status" from the Settings panel if you want your contacts list to let you know how youre feeling and where youre messaging from, whether it be your browser or on your phone or tablet. You can also share your location with various people if you need to pinpoint where you are.
Ready to Hangout?
We were hoping that Hangouts would follow in the footsteps of iOS’s Messages, but it still has a ways to go. Its interface is easy to navigate, but having so many conversations across different mediums in one window gets exhausting. Youll eventually feel tasked from having to consistently archive messages. Google is pushing to have Android users rely on Google+ to stay in touch with friends, but it should have figured out a less discordant way of doing so.
You also can’t send SMS or MMS messages over Wi-Fi, so you’ll have to go with a third-party application if you’re trying to avoid paying your carrier any messaging fees. With the price of cellular data packages these days, we dont blame you. Google still owes us Voice integration, too, which it said it would bring to Hangouts a while back. We expect that to arrive in the coming months.
Overall, Hangouts gets better with every incremental update, and by the time Google ties up all the loose ends it should prove to be a worthy messaging portal for Android users.
Express yourself with the new, colorful Emoji in Android KitKat
Android users, your days of missing out on half the context of text messages from 14 year old girls is over. Google finally added real, honest-to-god support for the colorful little icons known as emoji, making them a built-in part of the official Google keyboard app.
In Android versions past, getting to the emoji was like navigating a rainforest in the dark. In Android 4.1, you typed words like "smile" and picked a picture from the word suggestion list, but you had to memorize all of the "command" words. In Android 4.2 and 4.3, you had to long press the spacebar to select the input method, but not until you first installed the proper language pack, and even the faux-mojis didnt look like everyone elses. Now in KitKat, theyre easier to get to and they look like the colorful icons mobile users have come to expect.
Hidden in the keyboard
The latest version of the Google Keyboard rolled out last week with emoji support, but you actually need KitKat to use them in their entirety. Those not on Android 4.4 will see a severely limited list of characters, as exhibited in the screenshot below.
To enable emoji, you’ll have to install a specific keyboard pack. Head into theLanguage and Input panel in Settings. Tap on the settings for the Google Keyboard and scroll to the bottom to select Add-on dictionaries. Tap on Emoji for English words and Android will begin to install the language pack on your system. If you dont see the option, go back into the Language and Input settings and disable "Use system language" under Input languages.
Hidden ‘mojis
Android’s emoji support is pretty well hidden. It took a few rounds of tap-and-hold to figure out how to get to them.
In any text entry field, hold down on the Return key and select the Smiley Face icon. The Google Keyboard will then display the emoji in all of their glory. You can tap through the varying categories to choose what you need, or select the clock icon to see the one you most recently used.
Not like iOS’s
The emoji your friends see on iOS only slightly resemble the ones that Android uses. Here’s a quick comparison of emoji across both platforms.
Regardless, it’s relieving to know that now Android users won’t be left out from dressing up their texts and emails with cute characters and icons.
Android 4.4 KitKats new fullscreen mode minimizes distractions
Google wants you to feel more connected to your content. Android 4.4 KitKat includes native support for fullscreen apps, hiding the status bar and navigation buttons in apps that have the feature enabled.
Select apps may already support fullscreen mode, but many more will have to be updated in order to make use of the feature. You can see fullscreen mode in action with apps like Google Books, but you’ll probably notice and appreciate it more for games. With the navigation buttons hidden, you don’t have to worry about accidentally hitting “Home” during a particularly intense Candy Crush session.
Before you panic that you’ll be trapped in an app forever, know that you can easily access the status bar by swiping down from the top edge of the screen and the navigation buttons by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. You can still accidentally exit out of an app, but it’ll be a lot harder than when these parts of the OS were left exposed at all times.
It’ll be a while before more apps take advantage of fullscreen mode, especially since such a small portion of the population has access to Android KitKat right now. You can expect it to become more common over the coming year, as more phones update to the latest version of Android.
KitKats new dialer makes phone books even more useless
Our smartphones are capable of doing so many amazing things that it’s easy to forget that they are also phones. To that end, the phone dialer apps in our devices haven’t evolved much in the last five years, as people have slowly moved towards texting as their primary mode of communication. Android 4.4 KitKat makes the dialer exciting again by adding a feature that should have been in smartphones from day 1: It tells you who exactly is calling, even if theyre not in your contacts.
Built-in caller ID
Home caller ID systems have been around for roughly two decades now, but smartphones have been slow to adopt the same technology. Some carriers, like Verizon, have apps that show you who is calling and where the call is coming from but you usually have to pay extra for the service.
The dialer app in Android KitKat effectively makes such services obsolete, as it uses Google Maps and Google Plus to let you know who is trying to reach you. If, for whatever reason, your local Starbucks is giving you a ring, Google will cross reference the number with local businesses and give you a heads up that the coffee shop is calling.
The feature isn’t foolproof—it seems to work better with businesses that have Google+ profiles, as well as up-to-date information on Google Maps—so there will still be times where you’ll have no idea who’s on the other end.
A few drawbacks
Right now the feature only works with businesses, but Google plans to expand the functionality to include individuals with Google+ accounts who have a phone number listed. Getting a call from someone would display their Google+ profile photo, which means you might want to change your profile picture to something a little more professional if you use your number to call a lot of people for work. You can opt out of this functionality now by following this link and unchecking the phone numbers you have listed.
If you’re the one making the call, the dialer app lets you search for nearby places and will recommend results based on your location. The KitKat dialer app will also prioritize contacts based on how often you talk to them.
The success of this new dialer app will be predicated on more people adopting Google+, and the search giant keeping its business listings up-to-date. Maybe it’s time Google considered buying the YellowPages—if only to prevent the company from going completely extinct.
In KitKat, Google gives its stock email app the attention it deservesGoogles stock email application has long felt like a last-minute addition to the Android operating system—especially since the companys own proprietary client, Gmail has long been the superior mail client. But not everyone uses Gmail, and unless you download a third-party application, the built-in Android email app is your only choice for connecting POP3, IMAP, and Exchange accounts.
Fortunately, Google has finally paid some mind to its neglected email client in Android 4.4 KitKat. Its been dressed in Gmails new interface and now features the easier-to-navigate menu system thats become standard across many of Googles core apps.
Setting up your account
The process for setting up your email account in Androids stock email app is the same as its always been: you type in your email account from the main set up screen, but you may need to select Manual Setup to get anywhere further than that. From there, you can select whether or not you want to set up a POP3, IMAP, or Exchange account. Alternatively, you can also add the account from within the Settings panel, under Accounts.
Once youve entered your credenetials, your mail will begin to sync immediately. You can also set up your Gmail account to push through to this application if you utilize more than one email service and would rather keep all messages contained in one application.
A swanky inbox
As in the Gmail app, youll see the swanky bold-lettered design applied to the new email app. Bear in mind that this is only compatible with Exchange and IMAP accounts and you wont have access to the same thread view that Gmail utilizes. If you do set up the app to receive your Gmail messages, any filters you applied in the browser wont work here.
The little things have been overhauled, too: now the email menu resides at the top insead of messily at the bottom like it did in Android 4.3, and you can tug down to refresh your inbox any time you choose. Both the Gmail and Email apps now appear virtually identical.
Just slide and navigate
The new stock Android email app uses the "hamburger" menu, which slides in when you drag your finger in from the outer left bezel. Here youll be able to switch between accounts or select "combined view" to get all of your emails in one window. You can also switch between the folders in each email account, which you wont be able to do from the combined view.
Better, expanded settings
Lastly, be sure to check out the newly overhauled Settings menu. Now you can choose your syncing intervals directly from this menu rather than digging for it through the Settings panel, as was standard practice in Jelly Bean. You can also choose your name, set up your signature and Quick responses, and choose sync frequency and whether or not to automatically download attachements to avoid any data overages when youre not on Wi-Fi.
Theres a new Step Counter in Android KitKat, but its not widely supported yet
Even though it’s named after a candy, Android 4.4 KitKat includes the means to get you fit and healthy. Sort of. Much like the iPhone 5s keeps track of your movements, KitKat has an internal step counter that logs the number of steps you take. You won’t be able to access the step counter yourself, however; it’s meant for the developers of fitness and navigation apps.
The step counter not only logs how many steps you’ve taken, but it’ll also analyze stride and elevation to determine whether you’re walking, running, or climbing up stairs. This should lead to more accurate fitness apps, which up to now have relied on a combination of the GPS and accelerometer to track your movements. Having the step counter built into the OS will also have the benefit of using less energy, so you’ll be able to work out longer before your phone (or tablet?) needs to be juiced up again.
There’s just one snag: Although the step counter functionality is native to KitKat, it still needs the hardware to support it. Google says it’s working with its chipset partners to make the feature available across a wide variety of devices, but your current phone might not be able to take full advantage of the feature. Unless you have a Nexus 5 or Moto X—which already has special motion-tracking hardware—you’ll probably have to wait until you upgrade your phone to notice a difference.
Android KitKat may make it easier to ditch your wallet
With Android 4.4 KitKat, your phone might finally gain access to Google Wallet. Although Google launched the mobile payment service two years ago, carrier and hardware restrictions kept it from truly taking off. Thanks to some clever workarounds on Google’s part, Android KitKat might be the kick in the pants Google Wallet needs to go mainstream.
By incorporating a system known as Host Card Emulation (HCE), KitKat lets apps mimic NFC-enabled credit cards, loyalty cards, and even transit passes. With one of these apps installed, you can use your phone with compatible NFC readers just like you would a physical plastic card. Finding a working NFC card reader might prove to be a challenge, but there’s just something utterly futuristic about paying with your phone.
If you have an app that supports it, KitKat includes a Tap & Pay option that streamlines the payment process. Without having the app open, you can tap your phone against an NFC reader to initiate a transaction. You can have multiple apps enabled to take advantage of Tap & Pay, but things could get messy if you have 5 different payment apps all attempting to use different cards to pay for your groceries. In theory, KitKat is smart enough to recognize the type of reader youre trying to access and will serve up the appropriate card for the situation.
Google Wallet is one of the first Android apps to use HCE, allowing it to work on pretty much any smartphone or tablet with NFC hardware. By being part of the core Android OS, it’ll be much harder for carriers or device manufacturers to block the functionality—although carriers could continue to block access to Wallet as a means to encourage people to use their own mobile payment software.
Getting started with Cloud Print in Android KitKat
Remember how tasking it was to shuffle files between computers just to print something out? Printing documents from a mobile device has kind of been like that. It requires some convulted manuever where you email the document to yourself and then access it from a computer thats connected to a printer. When youre in a rush, thats the last thing you want to deal with.
Google tried its hand at simplifying this laborious task by introducing an app and service called Cloud Print. With Android 4.4, its baked right into the OS (though you can still download the application if youre using an older version of Android). Heres the quick run down on how to use it.
Setting it up
KitKats printing abilities live deep within the devices Settings panel. To get to them youll have to scroll all the way down to the System section, and select Printing.
From here, youll see two options for Print Services: Cloud Print and HP Print Service Plugin. If you have a Cloud Print-capable HP printer, you can use the second option to set up your device, otherwise select the Cloud Print option to set up other compatible printers (for a comprehensive list of those printers, check out Googles official FAQ page).
Cloud Print will display a list of Printers on the same Wi-Fi network as your device, as well as any that youve linked up with your Google account beforehand. Youll also notice that there is a Save to Google Drive option that will convert any compatible document or photo to a file that can be stored in your Drive account.
If youve got what Google calls a "Classic Printer," you can follow companysinstructions to set it up with your Google account. Just make sure that the Google account youre using on your Android device is the same one thats associated with your Cloud Print preferences. Hit the Settings button at the bottom of the Cloud Print devices panel to ensure youre logged in with the right Google account.
Printing a document
Now that your printing preferences are all set up, you can use an application like Quick Office to send a file to a nearby printer.
In Quick Office, grab a file from your Google Drive or from an integrated app like Box. Tap it to open it and then hit the Settings button in the upper right-hand corner. Select Print and Android will pop up a print dialogue window, similar to what your desktop computer does when its ready to print.
From here, you can select how many copies you want, the paper size, whether you want it to print in color or black and white, and the paper orientation. You can even select which pages to print. When youre ready, simply tap Print and watch the cloud magic begin.
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