What to expect from Google’s new Android M operating system?

With Google officially kicking off the I/O event tomorrow, Android users have multiple reasons to be excited about. The company has already teased the arrival of Android M operating system, and is likely to be shown off tomorrow. This is something Google did during last year’s I/O developer conference as well, where Android L was first shown off, which later went onto become Android 5.0 Lollipop.

So what can we expect from Android M this year? While it’s impossible to predict what Google has in mind, there are a few things that have been rumored over the past few months.

1. Fingerprint scanning built into stock Android: It was said that Google originally wanted to use a fingerprint scanner with the Nexus 6 smartphone (located beneath the Motorola logo on the back), but backtracked at the last minute due to unknown reasons. But with Android M (or Android 6.0), Google could officially announce support for fingerprint scanning by default, making it easier for manufacturers to use the technology on their devices.

2. Android payment system (Android Pay?): With Apple and Samsung taking it on themselves to bring wireless payment services to their customers, it is expected of Google to bring this by default with stock Android. We’ve seen hints of this so far with Google shutting down its Wallet service recently. While this might decrease profit sharing for the likes of Samsung, it makes sense in the long run keeping Android users in mind.

3. Improvements to the general Android UI: It is expected that Google will make some changes and additions to the Material Design UI from Android 5.0 Lollipop. We don’t expect any radical design changes here though as Google went through an entire system revamp less than a year ago. But it goes without saying that there will be some distinctive changes to make it stand apart from Android 5.0.

It’s still early days to fully understand what’s going to be different with Android M, but we expect Google to give us a rough idea tomorrow. We also expect more features to be added onto Android M over the coming months.

Of course, there will be a range of other changes on board as well, including a bundle of security related updates, which is standard with every major Android release.

Preview builds of the OS should be available for download to certain Nexus device owners, so if all goes according to plan, users will probably be able to run the OS on their beloved Nexus device starting later this week.

Are there any features that you would like to see with Android M?

(Image credit: Indiatimes)