M Developer Preview — Milkshake iconography has been spotted — Now On Tap: Use Google Now within an app — iOS-like permissions — Doze device management — USB-C support — Nexus 5, 6, 9 and Nexus Player in Q3 2015.
Google Now On Tap — Allows contextual searches within an app, which can take you to another app — Doesn't really require a lot of work on the developer side once App Indexing is implemented.
App Indexing — Indexes app content onto Google like it was a website — Powers most of Google Now integration — Both Android AND iOS — Apple announced Deep Links a few weeks later, which is a very similar concept.
New Permissions Model — Users can grant, deny, or revoke individual permissions at will, like in iOS — App is NOT notified when a given permission is granted or revoked — Only in M - older devices permissions are still all or nothing
Apple Pay + Security — Pay will work back to KitKat — FingerprintDialog and ConfirmCredential classes to use some kind of device credential to confirm user before performing an action. — Hardware Standardization? ¯\_()_/¯ — Wallet is transitioning to P2P payments, not going away
Apple Android Pay + Security — Pay will work back to KitKat — FingerprintDialog and ConfirmCredential classes to use some kind of device credential to confirm user before performing an action. — Hardware Standardization? ¯\_()_/¯ — Wallet is transitioning to P2P payments, not going away
App Invites — SDK to allow users to send their google contacts invites to use your app — Easily create personalized onboarding for people who enter through an invite
Build Tools Updates — Improved Gradle build times in Android Studio — Allows for caching, parallelization, and incremental builds — New Memory Profiler — @WorkerThread annotation will have compiler check for code that should only be used on the main thread
Cloud Test Lab — Based on acquisition of Appurify — Can run either user-written tests or "robot app crawlers" to find defects — Will allow you to run tests on either real or virtual devices — Web or Command Line interface — "Coming later this summer."
Data Bindings — Add data nodes to your XML to tie UI elements to specific variables. — When variable updates, UI will update — Looks much more useful for displaying info than for making it editable. — Support library means this will work back to API 7
Design Support Library — Gives devs the tools to use Material Design everywhere — Collapsing Toolbars, Floating Action Buttons, Snackbars, Floating EditText Labels, and way more — Stick around for Josh's talk!
Project Brillo/Weave Protocol — Brillo: Operating system for the Internet of Things™ — Designed to run on wee tiny devices — Partnership between Android team and Nest team — Weave: Open protocol for compatibility across manufacturers. — Ex: Turn on your oven from any device conforming to protocol - phone from any manufacturer, your TV, etc.
Project Tango — Hardware prototype that allows hardware to "see how we see" — Combines VR, AR, and 3-D Mapping into a single model — Example applications include indoor wayfinding, helping blind people navigate new spaces, "window on a virtual world" apps — You can apply for a dev kit
Project Soli — Miniaturized radar to allow gesture-based control without touching a device — Takes signals from radar and then translates them into gestures — All in a chip smaller than your fingernail.
Other Assorted Updates — NDK: Now with complete C/C++ support (and debugging in Android Studio) — Android Wear: "Always On" mode for stuff like directions/maps — Cardboard: Up to 6" phones, works with iOS too(!) — GCM: Easily send push to all of a single user's devices — Partnered with Udacity to offer an Android Nanodegree™