Google Unleashes Android 4.4 KitKat

By Ken Brown October 31, 2013

After many months of speculation and guessing, Android users can now satisfy their sweet tooth with the birth of Googles newest operating system update, KitKat. Android 4.4, aka KitKat was announced today with some very interesting changes. Visually, KitKat moves the status bar from the very top of the screen to a more translucent one and hides the Favorites Tray. Now you have an indicator that shows you the panel you are viewing. Google will initially release Android 4.4, KitKat on the Nexus 5 platform, but will soon be available for the Nexus 4, 7, 10, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play edition devices in the next few weeks.

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Just in time for Halloween, we have two new treats for Android fans. First, we’re excited to unwrap our latest platform release, KitKat, which delivers a smarter, more immersive Android experience to even more people. And second, we’re introducing Nexus 5a new Nexus phone developed with LG.

The first thing youll notice about KitKat is weve made the experience much more engaging: the book you’re reading, the game you’re playing, or the movie you’re watchingnow all of these take center stage with the new immersive mode, which automatically hides everything except what you really want to see.

Bringing more Google smarts to Android
Behind the polish on the screen is the power under the hood. Take the Phone app, which for most people hasnt really changed since the days of flip phones. Now, were making calling easier than ever, by helping you search across your contacts, nearby places, or even Google Apps accounts (like your companys directory), directly from within the app. And with the new Hangouts app, all of your SMS and MMS messages are together in the same place, alongside your other conversations and video calls, so youll never miss a message no matter how your friends send it. This is just a small taste of KitKatlearn more on our site.

Google has always focused on helping users get immediate access to the information they need, and we want to bring this same convenience and power to users on Android. With the new Nexus 5 launcher, Google smarts are deeply integrated into the phone you carry around with you, so getting to the information you need is simple, easy and fast. Swipe once from the home screen to get Google Now literally at your fingertips. Put Google to work for you by saying OK, Google to launch voice search, send a text, get directions or even play a song you want to hear. And in the coming weeks, were enhancing Now with important new card types that bring you information about contextual topics that interest you such as updates from a favorite website or blog.

Reaching the next 1 billion users
Building a platform that makes mobile phones accessible for everyone has always been at the heart of Android. Until now, some lower-end Android phones couldn’t benefit from more recent Android releases due to memory constraints. With KitKat, we’ve slimmed down Androids memory footprint by doing things like removing unnecessary background services and reducing the memory consumption of features that you use all the time. We did this not only within Android but across Google services like Chrome and YouTube. RAM (or memory) is one of the most expensive parts of a phone, and now Android can run comfortably on the 512MB of RAM devices that are popular in much of the world, bringing the latest goodies in Android 4.4 within reach for the next billion smartphone users.

Introducing Nexus 5
Along with our sweet naming tradition, we also introduce a new device with each platform release to showcase the latest Android innovations. For KitKat, we partnered with LG to develop Nexus 5 — the slimmest and fastest Nexus phone ever made. Its design is simple and refined to showcase the 5 Full HD display. Nexus 5 also keeps you connected at blazing speeds with 4G/LTE and ultra fast wifi. The advanced new lens on Nexus 5 captures more light for brighter night and sharper action shots. And with optical image stabilization, you no longer have to worry about shaky hands and blurry pictures. A new HDR+ mode automatically snaps a rapid burst of photos and combines them to give you the best possible single shot. Learn more on our site.