Another year, another version of Google's Android operating system. This time it's version 4.4, better known as Android KitKat. Yup, the Nestle four-finger chocolate wafer bar will have its name aligned with tech as much as it does with casual confectionery. But is the Android version as sweet?
The Android landscape is changing - and changing fast - and the lines between versions perhaps aren't as distinct as we'd all like them to be. The last really big change to Android, we feel, was with the introduction of Jelly Bean with Android 4.1 in July 2012. In the interim, Android has moved many of its applications out to Google Play, meaning more updates on more devices more frequently, and a gradual levelling of the Android version playing field. This deals with some criticism of "fragmentation", in that you can be enjoying many of Android's latest core features without needing your device manufacturer or network to test, approve and issue an update.
With that in mind, what has really changed in Android 4.4 KitKat and what difference will the mobile OS bump make to your daily experience?
Under the hood
Some of the changes that Google has brought about with Android 4.4 KitKat are performance related, but important. They're the changes you don't necessarily see, but will stand Android in good stead moving forward.One of the boasts is that the touch response is faster and more accurate, although that’s difficult to judge, as KitKat is currently limited to the Nexus 5, which is a powerful handset, so we won't see if it brings an improvement to other devices until updates roll out.
In a quick comparison of Android 4.4 KitKat on the Nexus 5 alongside Android 4.3 Jelly Bean on the Nexus 4, we can't detect a real different in the touch response. We're not saying it isn't there, but the Nexus 4 is nice and responsive as it is. We suspect this new upgrade will only become apparent on lower-spec devices. But for now, we just have to wait.
Elsewhere, Android 4.4 KitKat has been designed to run on entry-level devices with 512MB RAM. Importantly, it's the management of memory that's been targeted, so Android should run more efficiently, on all devices.
Google tells us that this makes multi-tasking better. Doing multiple things at once - the given example is listen to music while browsing the web - is possible, and we can't say that we notice a difference in day-to-day use, and background music has been around for a long time already.
Full screen looks
Set the Nexus 5 and the Nexus 4 side-by-side and there's an instant difference in look between KitKat and the latest version of Jelly Bean. There's a new level of transparency on the home page of KitKat that gives things a lift. The notification bar and the launcher icons now have the wallpaper running behind them.It means that the display appears to be larger, because you have the spread of colour across the whole screen. It's a nice effect, as you don't feel like you're sacrificing space to a couple of black bars. Swipe down the notifications tray and there's a touch of transparency, just as there is in the apps tray.
This runs over into Google Now which is a much slicker and more integrated experience than it was before, but that's where this new look more or less stops. Open up core Google apps like Gmail or People and you're back to a solid black bottom bar and the solid notifications bar in the majority of cases.
We like the look of the KitKat home screen, but can't help thinking apps like Google Maps and Chrome would particularly benefit from jumping to this style too. We just want KitKat to go a little further, reach into some of Google's core apps, as it does with Google Now.
Google details that the translucent system UI is available to developers, so we're sure there will be wider use of it in the future, both in Google apps and in third-party apps.
The new Play Books app is one that features it - rolling over the navigation buttons at the bottom so you get more words on the display, in the same way that Play Movies has done for a while. We'd love this to come to other apps, like the Kindle app for example, where the new immersive mode makes perfect sense.
One area where KitKat again gives you a big screen experience is on the lock screen, where music now gets a full background take over. The album art is pulled in and takes over everything and it looks great.
Best of all, it's not restricted to Play Music, as when we fired up Amazon MP3 it worked in exactly the same way. Play Music does have a small advantage: you can quickly scan the track you're playing from the lock screen controls.
Visually there's been a change to the colours for the status icons used across the top of the home screen too, dropping to white. It's a brilliant white that fills grey outlines, the same as the Google search bar of Android Jelly Bean.
However, these fade to grey when you open apps that revert to the black notifications bar. So, as above, in the Android 4.4 KitKat launcher and Google Now, they're white, but open Maps or Gmail and they fade to grey. Install a third-party launcher and they'll then stay grey as they're on the black bar, rather than the translucent bar of KitKat.
They're not hugely informative icons, especially as there's no native option for including the battery percentage, or indicating whether you're actually getting the data connection that the full bars are suggesting, as is offered in many manufacturer re-skins of Android.
Open the quick settings menu with the handy two-finger downward swipe and here you'll find that the network and Wi-Fi icons do give you that data traffic information. There's an added locations tile here to toggle on and off, which is most welcome.
Head into the settings menu, and the top bar has been tweaked, giving you a simpler cog settings icon in a grey bar and dropping the blue line, a design update that runs throughout the menus. Otherwise it's pretty much the same, a minor tweaking rather than anything too dramatic.
Anyone getting a phone from Samsung, HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola or anyone else, will probably never see these aspects, as it's one of the most common areas of manufacturer customisation.
Google Now
Sticking with the visuals for a second, Google Now on KitKat behaves slightly differently from its Jelly Bean equivalent. Although Google Now's content comes from the same place and you get the same features through the latest Google Search update on Android, it's the animation we're intrigued by, as it shows that Android is moving the launcher and Google Now much closer together.Google Now can be accessed through the old swipe up of the home icon as before, but now lives to the left of the default home page. That means you can swipe across to it, rather than using the upwards gesture.
What we really like about it is how the Google search box from your home page switches text colour as the Google Now page moves in. Someone has thought about how these pages will interact and the result is rather good.
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