Google released developer preview images for Android ‘N’, the next major Android release last month, ahead of Google I/O 2016 in May. The update brought Multi-window support, Notification enhancements, Data Saver, Background optimizations and more new features. Now it has released the Preview 2 for compatible Nexus devices. This update brings several new features, including Unicode 9 emojis and also fixes few bugs that were present in the first release.
Android N Developer Preview 2 includes:
- Vulkan: Vulkan is a new 3D rendering API which we’ve helped to develop as a member of Khronos, geared at providing explicit, low-overhead GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) control to developers and offers a significant boost in performance for draw-call heavy applications. Combined with a threading-friendly API design which allows multiple cores to be used in parallel with high efficiency, this offers a significant boost in performance for draw-call heavy applications.
- Launcher shortcuts: Now, apps can define shortcuts which users can expose in the launcher to help them perform actions quicker. These shortcuts contain an Intent into specific points within your app.
- Emoji Unicode 9 support: We are introducing a new emoji design for people emoji that moves away from our generic look in favor of a more human-looking design.
- API changes: This update includes API changes as we continue to refine features such as multi-window support (you can now specify a separate minimum height and minimum width for an activity), notifications, and others.
- Bug fixes
Android N Developer preview 2 is now available for Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Nexus 9, Pixel C and General Mobile 4G (Android One) devices on the Android developer website here. You can also get it through Android Beta Program. Stable Android N release will be available in Q3 2016.