New Features in Android 4.4 KitKat

Google announced it's new android version Android 4.4 KitKat along with new Nexus 5. Already many features are leaked heavily in the web before the release. The new Android 4.4 KitKat comes with some new features.

Good support for low-end phones

Android 4.4 KitKat Supports low-end smartphones without any doubt, the biggest feature in Android 4.4 KitKat. A new API developed in KitKat will allow even the earliest Android devices that have at least 512MB of memory available.

New and improved dialer

Android 4.4 KitKat comes with new dialer, improving contacts search. You can enter the name of the local Starbucks shop and the dialer app will fetch its number automatically for you from the same database that powers Google Maps. Local data is incorporated and the phone will also provide caller ID information for incoming calls. A new auto-populating feature has appeared, adding to your favorites menu the most frequent dialed numbers.

New Lock Screen and Home Screen

A number of new features have made their way to the lock and home screen, such as the album art now being displayed full screen behind the lockscreen when music is playing, a new launcher which is Nexus-specific initially. A long-press anywhere on the homescreen will zoom out to let you re-arrange the apps.

Faster Multitasking

Android 4.4 KitKat comes with multiple smaller improvement that taken as a whole contribute to seriously optimizing memory and improving the touchscreen responsiveness. This is indeed a much needed feature as recent reports have shown that the touchscreens used on iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s have had much better response times.

New Updated Hangouts App

Google wants “all your messages in a single place” and that’s why it has updated the Hangouts app to replace the default messaging app and include all of your SMS and MMS messages together in the same app, as well as other conversations and video calls. It also lets you share your location with the Places button and send animated GIFs to your contacts. The true rival to iMessage has finally landed.

New Camera HDR

Currently limited to the Nexus 5 only, the HDR+ photography automatically snaps a rapid burst of photos and lets you choose the best possible single shot. You can do it even during the night, as the pictures are going to have a sharp quality and much less noise than before. I imagine this being highly useful at birthday parties.

Wireless Printing

Android 4.4 KitKat developers will have the option to add printing to individual apps. At the momeny, any HP wireless printer works with the system, but more manufacturers are expected to join this. But any other printer that supports Google Cloud Print will be able to be used for the improved wireless printing straight from within the apps in Android KitKat.

Improved voice search

Android 4.4 KitKat brings the search function be default on every homescreen. It comes with hotwording, so by saying “Okay, Google” just like you’d don on Google Glass, the search functionality will immediately start. The Google Now service thus receive a much needed update. Voice recognition has been improved and added new features such as tapping a word and selecting from a list of alternatives to select from. Natural language and more clarifying questions have also been added.

TV Control

Google wants to make it easier for developers to create third-party TV controller apps and has included in Android 4.4 KitKat new APIs to help devs with that. This feature will work on KitKat device that come with an infrared blaster. Soon, your Android smartphone or tablet will become a TV remote without having to rely on other third-party apps.

NFC improvements

The new feature called Host Card Emulation (HCE) in Android 4.4 KitKat is the one that actually lets any device with a NFC chip inside to pair nfc android kitkatup with NFC apps for payment. This is a much expected and very simple feature that is definitely going to give a serious boost to NFC contactless paments. A new Reader Mode has also been included in Android 4.4 KitKat, letting apps to be used as readers for HCE cards.

Supports cloud storage services

Ability to work with QuickOffice and  to save files to cloud apps such as Google Drive has been added in Android 4.4 KitKat. You also get quick access to recently used files from different cloud storage services. This is also great as developers will be able to create a client app that manages files or documents and integrate it with the storage access framework.

Emoji characters

Emoji characters are part of the Hangouts app update that we’ve talked above but for messaging lovers, this is an important feature that deserve to be talked about separately. Emoji support is finally built-in to your software keyboard with Android 4.4 KitKat. The colorful Japanese characters are now available and I’m positive they’re going to spice up your conversations.

Audio enhancements

Android 4.4 KitKat brings multiple enhancements in the audio segment, like the device-specific Audio Tunneling to DSP that will decrease the amount of power used, which means it will save your battery life. It thus adds 50 percent more playback time (which meansup to 60 hours on Nexus 5). New music visualizers have been included as well as a compressor to increase loudness on speech that is also helping in voice recognition.