Google wants Android everywhere – at Google I/O earlier today the company announced three new SDKs for Android, alongside Android L, the new version of Google’s mobile OS, bringing an end to the food related version updates.
The biggest change on Google L is aesthetically, Google is bringing a new feature called Material Design. Instead of flat design, Material Design uses objects, shadow, depth and level to create different interfaces that work beautifully across any sized screen.
Material Design brings enhancements to animations, instead of having lifeless animation, on Android L animations will be quick, snappy, fluid and vivid, allowing developers to really show off their imagination. Animations will even be able to switch from activity to activity, instead of a loading screen.
Android L is not just created for the mobile, Google announced Android Wear, Android Auto and Android TV. All three of these new SDKs will run a similar version of Android L, taking the new Material Design and seamless integration between devices.
Google doesn’t stop there, the Material Design will work on Chrome OS and the Web. Google wants Material Design to become a universal standard for Web and mobile development, giving developers a set of rules and guidelines to follow when building a service.
It is interesting how deep the changes go, Google has obviously put a lot of thought into the new design language. Google has also updated things like Notifications, Recents and even single application on Android will be updated to reflect Material Design.
Google I/O was a huge press conference, but lacked the blitz 2013 did, with Larry Page getting up to do a Q&A and the different guys from Maps and other services showing all of their new creations. This conference was focused solely on developers and the capabilities Google will offer in the future.
