Nokia Android users: Here are all new Android 7.0 Nougat features. Hands-on Video

Nokia Android Phones are going to see global launch on February 26 at MWC 2017. Nokia 6 has already been launched in China where it has seen very strong response from buyers. Nokia 6 and all other Nokia Android Phones are supposed to arrive running Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.

Now in this article we will let you know about the new features and changes that Android Nougat brings over Android Marshmallow.

⇒ You can read our full Android Nougat coverage by clicking here.

⇒ Read our Big Android Nougat 7.0 update List & Release Dates by clicking here

Android Nougat New Features & Hands-on

Hands-on Video Demo of new features & changes

Multi-Windows Support:

Android Nougat brings support for displaying more than one app at the same time. On handheld devices, two apps can run side-by-side or one-above-the-other in split-screen mode. On TV devices, apps can use picture-in-picture mode to continue video playback while users are interacting with another app.

• Handheld devices running Android N offer split-screen mode. In this mode, the system fills the screen with two apps, showing them either side-by-side or one-above-the-other. The user can drag the dividing line separating the two to make one app larger and the other smaller.
• On Nexus Player running Android N, apps can put themselves in picture-in-picture mode, allowing them to continue showing content while the user browses or interacts with other apps.
• Manufacturers of larger devices can choose to enable freeform mode, in which the user can freely resize each activity. If the manufacturer enables this feature, the device offers freeform mode in addition to split-screen mode.

Read our tutorial to know how to activate and use Multi-Windows feature.

Direct Reply:

• Android Nougat enables Direct Reply feature in notifications.
• Users can quickly respond to text messages or update task lists directly within the notification interface. On a smartphone, the inline reply action appears as an additional button attached to the notification.
• When a user replies via keyboard, the system attaches the text response to the intent you had specified for the notification action and sends the intent to your handheld app.

Bundled Notifications:

• Android N provides developers with a new way to represent a queue of notifications: bundled notifications. This is similar to the Notification Stacks feature in Android Wear.
• For example, if your app creates notifications for received messages, when more than one message is received, bundle the notifications together as a single group.
• Notification controls: When a notification pops up, just press and hold to toggle the settings. For instance, you can silence future alerts from an app in the notification itself.

Mobile Data Saver & Improved Doze:

• With Android Nougat, users can enable Data Saver on a device-wide basis in order to use less Mobile data, whether roaming, near the end of the billing cycle, or on a small prepaid data pack.
• When a user enables Data Saver in Settings and the device is on a metered network, the system blocks background data usage and signals apps to use less data in the foreground wherever possible.
• Users can whitelist specific apps to allow background metered data usage even when Data Saver is turned on.
• Doze: Doze is now dozier, with your device going into lower power usage when you’re on the move. That means your Android device will conserve battery even when it’s jostling around in your pocket.

In-Built DPI Settings & Wallpaper:

• Android Nougat brings in-built DPI settings that allows one to scale up or down the display and other items on it based on the settings you choose.
• Lockscreen wallpaper: You can now have different wallpapers on your device’s homescreen and lockscreen.

Night Mode:

• You can set Night Mode right from Notification Center where it can be added as a quick-action icon
• Toggling it on makes changes in color temp and brightness making device display more suitable for Night time reading

Improved Multitasking:

• Not only Android Nougat brings split-screen multitasking, it also makes the multitasking button even smarter.
• Now with Android N, when you double tap the home button, it will now switch back to the previous app that you were using. While multiple taps will take you to the apps in the order they were opened.

The built-In File Manager has been improved:

• With Android N,Google has improved the File manager app. The app was first made available in Android Marshmallow but that was not powerful & let you only copy files. But now with Android N, it lets you rename, copy,create new folder etc.

Call blocking & Do Not disturb:

• The do not disturb mode was already available in Android Marshmallow. But with Android N, the alarms can override DND. Along with deeper DND integration , there is a new feature called call blocking which is not new but now in Android N, it has system level call blocking feature.

Emergency contact on Home screen:

• With Android N, Google has made it’s OS more feature rich. Now the company has introduced a new feature that lets you add any custom number to your home screen which is quite helpful in emergency cases.

No More ‘Optimize Apps’ :

• Optimize apps was a task you have to do when you are updating your Android OS version. It was introduced with Android Kitkat. But now with Android N, the company has skipped the process of ‘Optimizing Apps’ and this results in faster update experience.

Settings & Quick settings revamp:

• Android Nougat Settings page a revamped new look
• Customizable Quick Settings: Rearrange your Quick Setting tiles so you can get to what you want faster.
• Quick Settings bar: Quick Settings has been redesigned so you can get faster access to top Quick Settings tiles directly in the notification shade.
• Improved Settings navigation: Find the right setting faster with an updated navigation menu in Settings.

Keyboard Themes:

• Android Nougat brings many Keyboard themes that allows one to change the look of the keyboard on Android Nougat

Clear All:

• Clear all Button in Recent apps list, though you need to scroll all the way to top to access it

A new look for App folders:

• App Folders on Android Nougat have a brand new look as can be seen in screenshot above

Emoji Unicode 9 support:

• Android Nougat brings a new emoji design for people emoji that moves away from generic look in favor of a more human-looking design.
• The update also introduces support for skin tone variations and Unicode 9 glyphs, like the bacon, selfie and face palm.

Android Instant Apps (For devs):

• Android Instant Apps as part of our effort to evolve the way we think about apps. Whether someone discovers your app from search, social media, messaging or other deep links, they’ll be able to experience a fast and powerful native Android app without needing to stop and install your app first or reauthenticate. Best of all, Android Instant Apps is compatible with all Android devices running Jellybean or higher (4.1+) with Google Play services. Android Instant Apps functionality is an upgrade to your existing Android app, not a new, separate app; you can sign-up to request early access to the documentation.

System Updates in Background:

• Android N also adds some important new features to help keep users safer and more secure. Inspired by how Chromebooks apply updates, we’re introducing seamless updates, so that new Android devices built on N can install system updates in the background.
• This means that the next time a user powers up their device, new devices can automatically and seamlessly switch into the new updated system image.

Camera Apps changes:

• The native camera app has seen many UI tweaks and some animations have also changed. As you can see in the screenshot above you can now set what the volume key does.
• Similarly there are changes in how the toggles appear.

Apps have their Installation source info:

• If you go to settings and check any of the apps, you will get information about its installation source (whether store or else) at the bottom. Check the screenshot above.

From the official Changelog:

Performance Boost: