Gadgetory

hi I'm Sara metropolis ena and I'm gonna walk you through Google's newest mobile operating system Android KitKat 4.4 arguably one of the most important features of KitKat is something you can't even see Google shrunk the size of the operating system to run on devices with 512 megabytes of RAM that means that low-end budget devices can run KitKat instead of the now outdated 2.3 Gingerbread or Furtado Ice Cream Sandwich that's a huge step forward from Google and helping create a universal Android experience no matter what phone you buy onto the features that you can see there's a redesigned home screen with larger icons and condensed text the top satisfier is now transparent and blends with your wallpaper there's a new home screen menu where you can change the wallpaper add widgets and access your Google search settings the app drawer is also transparent and as you can see there's no longer a section for widgets the lockscreen gets a new music widget in KitKat which shows album art full screen and places playback controls at the top if you're watching a video on a chromecast from your phone you can also pause and play it from the lockscreen there's a new immersive experience in the OS which shows books movies and games full screen and fades away the controls and satisfier Google built a special launcher for the Nexus 5 that makes Google now even easier to access if you unlock your phone you can say ok Google to activate voice search without needing to tap anywhere on the screen also when you turn on Google now you can swipe all the way to the left to pull it up those two features are exclusive to the Nexus 5 at least until further notice KitKat includes a brand new dialer which remembers who you call the most and keep those people front and center you can now also search for businesses by keyword or name in the dialer and start a call by tapping the result there's no longer a dedicated SMS app instead you send and receive messages from hangouts Google's instant messaging and video chatting app the app separates your text messaging conversations and google chat conversations into individual threads on the main screen even if you're communicating with the same contact you can switch between i.m and SMS conversations when you're in the message thread by tapping the person's name at the top emoji has been available in earlier versions of an but they make their official debut in KitKat those tiny pictures are now part of the stock keyboard and can be used almost anywhere you can input text you can now print photos documents and web pages from your phone with Google Cloud Print you'll need to set up your printer on Google's cloud print service but once you do just tap the print button in the gallery app Quick Office or Chrome there are many more changes that Google included in this version of Android for a full list check out my in-depth look at KitKat on cnet.com I'm Sarah Mitchell thanks for watching