Samsung published a release note for its MultiWindow feature software development kit, and in that note it appears the company may have accidentally shared the version number of the forthcoming Android N.
The note states in the change history that the latest SDK version has been released with “Android N(7.0) compatibility.”
This is notable because in the past, versions have not always moved ahead by a full figure. Between 2011 and 2013 the Android versions stayed within version 4. Ice Cream Sandwich spanned 4.0-4.0.4, Jelly Bean 4.1-4.3.1 and Kit Kat 4.4-4.4.4. It then proceeded to Lollipop 5.0-5.1.1 but rather than iterating further under the 5th version, Google moved to 6.0 with Marshmallow, signaling a more pronounced change. Now the company appears to have done it again with Android N.
There is no word yet on what dessert the new version will be named after, but we won’t have to wait long for the news. It will be announced at the Google I/O conference next month. Currently, Android N is in the developer preview stage.
Google surprised the public by releasing the preview in early March, well ahead of the conference. In the accompanying blog post, it highlighted several of the most exciting new features. Among those are split-screen multitasking, a new notification system that will allow you to directly reply without leaving the notification shade and an improvement to the power-saving Doze mode that was introduced with Marshmallow, the current version of Android.
Marshmallow was released as 6.0 and has since iterated to 6.0.1, which is still rolling out availability to all Canadian devices across carriers. It was released in October 2015.
Related reading: Android N Hands-on: Everything you need to know [Video]
[source]Samsung[/source]
