Lately, the tech world is abuzz
with plethora of rumors and speculations regarding Google’s future plans for
its services and applications. The search engine giant is rumored to be
prepping some notable UI changes in the next iteration of Android OS along with
some enormous revamp in interface and in the functionality. If the rumors
are to be believed, the upcoming changes could be the biggest change in the
history of Android UI since Google opted for the software buttons with the
Android 3.0 Honeycomb and Google Now with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.
As per an Android Police report
citing inside sources, Google is planning to add the ‘Ok Google’ command and
the voice based actions all over the Android platform. The report refers this
concept as ‘Ok Google Everywhere’ and it is believed that this feature will let
the users control various Google applications and third party ones as well
using voice commands.
Presumably, this voice
recognition feature would be something that is similar to always-on in the MotoX or could be some feature that will function only when it recognizes the
user’s voice. Google is also speculated to add specific tasks for various apps
such as replying to an email, sharing a snap from the gallery or anything using
voice commands with the ‘Ok Google’ hotword.
Besides implementing enhanced
voice control, Google is also said to be coming up with new navigation buttons such as the traditional home button will be replaced by a Google button. Also,
it is tipped to completely modify the way users access the home screen with its
new navigation bar. Note that this interface will likely be part of the Google experience, and as such may not appear on non-Nexus/GPE devices.
Whatever the new changes are, the
upcoming iteration of Android OS, which could be the L update that will be coming later this year with the next Nexus phone/tablet will be a dramatic shift.
To be updated...