Google released Android 6.0 Marshmallow more than six months ago and while all of the company’s Nexus devices have been updated with this OS, the same is not true for other smartphone manufacturers.
Samsung is the world’s leader when it comes to smartphone sales. The company’s devices fall into Google’s Android niche, however, it is only a handful of compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphones that have been updated with the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
This year’s Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge made their debut with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow on board. However, the company has been busy with pushing monthly Android security updates to the device since its first release on March 11. Current owners of last year’s Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and S6 Edge+ have already received the Marshmallow update on their devices.
The phablet Galaxy Note 5 has also been updated with the latest Android OS, however, the update has not reached all Note 5 units across the globe thanks to delays by carriers and such stuff. Those on the older Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Samsung Galaxy S5 have also started seeing the new Android 6.0 Marshmallow update. The Note 4’s Marshmallow update has also been spotted in India, which means a global rollout is imminent.
Models that are well into their third year will not be receiving this update, for instance, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3. However, tech-savvy users can look around for Android 6.0 Marshmallow Custom ROMs to flash their phones, but this might lead to a damaged or poor-performing Samsung Galaxy phone.
What Android 6.0 Marshmallow brings to Samsung Galaxy phones
As usual, a new software upgrade brings a lot of new features and improvements from the previous version. Android 5.0 Lollipop had some cool stuff, but Marshmallow is far much better than the 2014 version.
Once the update is on your Samsung Galaxy phone, you will see things like better apps permissions. Here, it means that you will be in control of what permissions your apps are granted contrary to Lollipop’s case where all permissions that apps demand upon installation must be given, otherwise, the installation won’t be possible. Android M also adds a feature known as Track Memory. This tool helps users know the amount of memory used by each app.
Android Marshmallow is the first Android OS to bake fingerprint APIs into the platform. With this ability, it means that the fingerprint scanner on your Samsung Galaxy phone will now get more functions, including signing in to apps. The new OS also ensures that all of your apps’ data and settings are automatically backed up on Google Drive. However, there is only 25MB for each app on the cloud storage platform.
Google wants you to use your Samsung Galaxy phone for longer hours. To do this, the company has baked a feature known as Doze into the new Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS. With this feature, your phone will be able to minimize the amount of battery power it uses by reducing the amount of activity in the background when the phone is not in any use.