Android M Preview Released at Google I/O 2015

As expected, Google has revealed Android M and released a preview version to developers.

Today at Google I/O 2015, Google announced as already rumored a developer preview of the next version of Android: Android M. Last year Android L developer preview was a first for Android and Google received great feedback. This is why Google is continuing this early release of new Android versions to developers. This time with the M Developer Preview, Google will provide a clear timeline for testing and feedback plus more updates to the preview build. 

Android M is about improving the core user experience of Android, from fixing thousands of bugs to some big changes to the fundamentals of the platform. The new features include the rumored native Fingerprint support, Apple Pay, Google Now app integration, new permissions, battery management improvements and a new Android developer studio version 1.3.

The M Developer Preview includes an updated SDK with tools, system images for testing on the official Android emulator, and system images for testing on Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player devices. 

All in all the new Android M does not mark a major update of Android L. It is making it more mature and introduce features that Apple iOS already has like Fingerprint and payment. Android M will be released later this year. Google has not yet revealed what M stands for. Android 6.0 will be again named after candy, but which one? Marshmellow?

Developers can download the Android M preview from the Android M Developer Preview site for downloads and documentation.