Gadgetory

this episode of Android authorities brought to you by Atlassian build what's next so we suspect that Android n the newer version of Android that's just around the corner is going to try and tackle the age-old problem of Android fragmentation how by creating a front end and a back end now let's promo let talk about what is Android fragmentation and why does it matter to you well if you look at this chart right here these are the current nine versions of Android running across all Android devices there are still people using Ice Cream Sandwich from like four years ago that's not a big deal if you're a hardcore geek you're just missing out on the coolest newest features of Android but imagine for a moment if you are an Android developer who are trying to make your bread and butter on your app not only do you have to make sure that your app is compatible with those nine versions of Android but Android has an almost endless variety of Android devices check this chart out this is current from 2015 ouch can you imagine the nightmare that most Android developers have this is why most new developers when they're just starting out and had limited resources start with iOS this is iOS as fragmentation far far less that's the problem what Android n appears to do is to effectively break Android into two distinct pieces a back end and a front end the back end is Google crafted and would be the same across all devices but the front stage is totally customizable allowing different brands to deliver the kind of feel and experience their users are accustomed to receiving moto still gets to have moto display Samsung can still integrate blocking mode and Lenovo can still put whatever they want on their lockscreen that's all part of the front stage the experience that is on display to you the user now the back end of Android would control things like the nuts and bolts that actually make the operating system work things like security fall into this category meaning individual companies would no longer have to worry about keeping up with Google's monthly security updates Google just adds the patch to the back end and everything on the front end keeps on truckin now it should be noted that Android n is so alpha right now that it could intimidate the crap out of a pack of bodybuilders this could have massive ramifications for the overall fragmentation of the OS by making the appearance and app handling aspects of Android distinct from the core the inner workings Google could be making the operating system much much easier to update this would save man power money time and frustration right across the board now this all sounds very interesting but my question is if manufacturers are given greater control over the Android experience on the front end what's that going to mean for an already varied experience across Android devices let me know what you think in the comments below unleash your team's potential with Atlassian's collaboration software so you can work and communicate better together a sign track and manage tasks for any project no matter how complex that's the clarity of JIRA create and share content organize results and bring team members up to speed that's the flexibility of confluence now what I especially like about Atlassian is that it doesn't force you to communicate with your team in one way if it's too tedious to type at a conversation in a chat box you can do video chat that's a good thing that's Atlassian comm unleash the potential of your team build what's next