Android nougat

Android "Nougat" ( code name Android N during development) is the seventh major version of the Android operating system . First released as an alpha trial on March 9, 2016, it was officially released on August 22, 2016, with Nexus devices being the first to receive the update . The LG V20 was the first smartphone to be released with Nougat.

Nougat brings notable changes to the operating system and its development platform, including the ability to display multiple applications simultaneously on the screen in a split-screen view, support for inline responses to notifications, and an advanced “Doze” power-saving mode that enhances device functionality as soon as the screen has been switched off for a certain period of time. In addition, the platform was converted to an OpenJDK -based Java environment and received support for the Vulkan graphics rendering API and thus "seamless" system updates on supported devices.

As of February 5, 2018, 28.5% of the devices that accessed Google Play were running on Nougat, 22.3% on Android 7.0 and 6.2% on Android 7.1.

history

The version was internally codenamed "New York Cheesecake". On March 9, 2016, in the run-up to the Google I / O developer conference , Google released the first alpha version of Android "N" as part of a new "Android Beta program" that is to be tested by developers and enthusiasts before the official release. The developer preview builds were only compatible with the current Google Nexus devices, the 5X, 6P, 6, 6, 9, Pixel C and the Nexus Player. The newly introduced "Android Beta Program" enables testers to opt for over-the-air updates to new beta versions as soon as they are released.

On April 13, 2016, the Android N Beta Version 2 was released. Google presented Android "N" during the I / O keynote on May 18, 2016 and at the same time presented its new virtual reality platform Daydream . Beta Preview 3, which was considered to be the first preview version suitable for broader public beta testing , was released at this time. Google also announced a competition to determine the official release name of the operating system.

Beta version 4 was released on June 15, 2016. On June 30, 2016, Google announced that the release name would be "Nougat"; it was also confirmed that Nougat was version 7.0 of Android.

The final beta version 5 was released on July 18, 2016.

Android 7.0 was officially released on August 22, 2016 with the Nexus 6 , 5X , 6P , 9 , Nexus Player, Pixel C and General Mobile 4G as the first devices.

Dave Burke, Android vice president of engineering, announced in August 2016 that updates for Nougat will be released quarterly as maintenance releases that focus on "continuous refinements and improvements." On September 6, 2016, LG announced the V20, the first smartphone to come with preinstalled nougat. During a hardware-based event on October 4th, 2016, Google unveiled the new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones that replaced the Nexus series.

The new version adds support for the Google Daydream VR platform, picture keyboards, expanded emoji support (including male and female versions), support for actions to be displayed in menus on the home screen, and other new features. A preview of 7.1 for existing Nexus devices was released via the Android Beta Program during the month and officially released as Android 7.1.1 on December 5, 2016.

Android 7.1.2 was released in April 2017 and offers various improvements and small functional improvements for devices of the Nexus and Pixel brands .

features

user friendliness

The updated notification shade on Nougat.

Nougat redesigned the notification hue to include a smaller row of icons for settings, replaced the notification cards with a new design, and enabled inline responses for notifications.

A split-screen display mode was introduced for telephones, in which two apps can each be displayed on half the screen. An experimental multi-window mode is also available as a hidden feature that allows multiple applications to appear on the screen at the same time in overlapping windows.

The "Doze" energy saving mechanism introduced in Android Marshmallow has been expanded to include a state that is activated when the device is running on battery power and the screen has been switched off for a while but does not stand still. In this state, network activity is restricted and apps are given "maintenance windows" in which they can access the network and perform background tasks. As with Marshmallow, the full Doze status is activated when the device is idle for a certain time with the screen switched off. A new "Data Saver" mode restricts the use of mobile data in the background and can trigger internal functions in applications that are designed to reduce bandwidth utilization, such as B. Limiting the quality of streaming media.

platform

In December 2015, Google announced that Android Nougat would switch its Java Runtime Environment from the old Apache Harmony to OpenJDK - the official open source implementation of the Java platform, which is maintained by the Oracle Corporation and the Java community.

Nougat is the first version with Unicode 9.0 support and comes with updated Emoji plus support for emoji skin tones.

Android 7.1 offers native API support for the implementation of picture keyboards, multi-endpoint telephony, context menus and rounded icon assets for apps on launchers, as well as support for the Google Daydream virtual reality platform . The Google Daydream function is a specific "VR mode" with advanced technology for reduced graphics latency, a "sustainable performance mode" to support developers in optimizing applications for the thermal profile of a device, a new head tracking algorithm , which combines the inputs of various device sensors, and the integration of system messages into the VR user interface.

safety

In response to the Stagefright family of bugs that were released and fixed in 2015, several changes were made to secure the media stack against future vulnerabilities. Runtime integer overflow detection was implemented to prevent most Stagefright-like programming errors from becoming vulnerable, and to help fix and prevent such errors. Android's monolithic MediaServer process has been redesigned to better reflect the principle of least privilege. The MediaServer is now divided into several separate processes, each of which runs in its own, unprivileged sandbox and only assigns the authorizations required for their task. So z. For example, only the AudioServer can access Bluetooth, and libstagefright now runs within the MediaCodecService sandbox, which is only granted GPU access. Further restrictions were imposed on the media stack by seccomp.

Various mechanisms have been enabled to reduce the possibility of malicious code being injected and / or executed into the Linux kernel, including dividing the kernel memory into logical segments for code and data, with page access privileges of read-only and non-executable. The kernel was also prevented from directly accessing the user's memory, and stronger stack protection was enabled in the GCC compiler to reduce stack smashing. To limit the kernel's exposure to potentially malicious code, perf has been disabled by default, ioctl commands have been restricted by SELinux, and seccomp-bpf has been enabled to allow processes to restrict system calls.

Devices that ship with Android Nougat must strictly follow the "Verified Boot" policy (which was partially introduced on KitKat and displays notifications on startup on Marshmallow). If system files are damaged or otherwise changed, the operating system only allows operation in a mode with restricted use or refuses to boot.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Android - Nougat. Accessed March 15, 2018 (German). 
2. ↑ Panagiotis Kolokythas, Dennis Steimels: Android 7.0 Nougat: All information about the innovations . In: PC WORLD . ( pcwelt.de [accessed on March 15, 2018]).