Android M detailed: The little things

Yesterday, we talked about the six tentpole features in the new Android M release. But there's a lot more that Google didn't go into during the keynote, which we'll talk about now. Direct Share It was already easy to share content between apps on Android but with Direct Share, Android can now learn which apps you share content to frequently and place that at the top of the list, so if you share photos to the Facebook app a lot, it will be at the top. Direct Share also lets you share content to specific people that you contact you the most, so they are placed directly in the share sheet instead of having to hunt them in the contacts list. Improved text selection and floating toolbar The text selection in Android hasn't changed much in several years. You still get the same confusing, nondescript icons at the top when you select the text in an app. With M, you now get a floating toolbar with clear cut, copy, and paste buttons, with overflow menu for additional options such as search or translate. The selection now also moves forward word by word instead of letters to make it easier to mark text but you can go back to select letter by letter. This feature is not present in the current developer preview for some reason. There will also be undo/redo keyboard shortcut buttons. App Standby We talked about Doze, which puts the device in a deep sleep state when not used for long periods of time to save power. App Standby does this for individual apps. When the OS detects an app hasn't been used in a long period of time then it automatically puts it on standby, which disables its network access and suspends its syncs and jobs. When you plug in your device for charging, these apps can resume syncing in the background as usual. Improved volume control A lot of people were upset by the lack of a traditional Silent mode in Lollipop. With M, the silent mode is back, accessed by holding down the volume button and then once again to exit the vibrate mode. Only alarms work in the Silent mode, as they used to. Google also brought back the extended volume control options, which let you control the media and alarm volumes by a drop down next to the ringtone volume level. The Interruptions feature has been removed from the volume bar and now is a separate feature listed below. Do not disturb quick setting M has a new Do not disturb button in the notifications, which is essentially the previous Interruptions feature. You can choose between Total silence mode, Alarms only mode, or Priority only mode. You can customize these options from the notifications or the Settings app. Adoptable storage devices Users can now add an SD card, which will then be adopted by the system to behave like internal storage. The memory card will be formatted and encrypted and will be seen like internal memory. You can then install apps and other private data easily onto the memory card. Auto backup for apps Google will now perform full automatic data backup and restore for apps designed for M. The data will be in your Google account and will be synced across devices. Bluetooth stylus support The OS now includes improved support for Bluetooth stylus devices. Improved Bluetooth Low Energy Scanning A new approach to scanning method cuts down on the power required to perform the scan, provided the developer of the app implements the feature. Hotspot 2.0 Release 1 support Support for Hotspot 2.0 in devices like Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 to automatically connect to Hotspot 2.0 networks when you enter the area. 4K Display Mode Android M now supports display resolutions up to 4K. Improved Android for Work Includes features such as enhanced controls for Corporate-Owned, Single-Use devices, silent install and uninstall of apps by Device Owner, silent enterprise certificate access, auto-acceptance of system updates, delegated certificate installation, enterprise factory reset protection, data usage tracking, runtime permission management, VPN in Settings, and work status notification. Improved USB On-The-Go support Previously connecting a USB OTG drive in stock Android made it accessible in apps but the OS itself behaved as if nothing was connected. In M, you now get a notification that lets you explore the contents of the drive in a file explorer like...