Android 5.0 Lollipop is still just beginning to debut on Androiddevices, but there’s a lot for you to look forward to as OEMs get other devices up to date. The UI is completely different, and there are new features in every nook and cranny. Let’s try to make sense of it all.
Screen Pinning
One of the coolest features in Android 5.0 isn’t even turned on by default, though. Screen pinning lets you secure your device to a single app so you can loan your phone to friends without fear of anyone snooping. You just need to make a visit to the system settings first.
In settings, go to the Security menu and scroll way down to the bottom. Why this feature is completely buried is beyond me. Tap on screen pinning and flip the toggle in the next screen. So that turns it on, but you won’t immediately notice anything different.
To test screen pinning, open the app switcher with the lower right system navigation button. Android 5.0 has screen previews displayed as a stack of cards, so go ahead and pull the front card all the way to the top of the screen. There should be a pin icon toward the lower right of the card. Tapping that icon will pin the app. You can check out the video above if you need a visual aid.
Enabling screen pinning locks your phone or tablet to a single app, which wasn’t possible in older versions of Android. However, a few OEMs had guest modes that could do similar things. Whatever the case, you need system-level support to make this happen. It would be dangerous for an app from the Play Store to be able to lock your phone down in this way.
Before initiating a screen lock, Lollipop will show a popup that explains the process. If you have a secure lock screen like a PIN or pattern, you can require that code to be entered before exiting pinned mode (exit by long-pressing the app switcher button). That’s the best way to make use of screen pinning as it prevents even determined acquaintances from snooping. Without a secure lock screen, it’s still fine for keeping younger kids from wandering around aimlessly through the OS if they start tapping stuff.Even if you don’t think you’ll use app pinning right away, it’s a good thing to have enabled for those times it comes up.
Android Beam
Android Beam was introduced in 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but initially it was only useful for a few things like sharing apps links and web pages. The problem was finding apps that understood the sharing intents correctly and actually had sharable content. Android 5.0 makes it far easier to get things figures out with an entry for Android Beam in the system-wide sharing menu.
So now you can share anything that can route a sharing intent through the system-level list. This is usually accessed with the three connected dot icon in your apps. All you need to do is tap Android Beam, and you device will be ready to push the file over.
You can send general files to any Android device with NFC, but you have to initiate from a device running Android 5.0. The previous sharing features continue to work going the other way, from older Android to Lollipop. The transfer isn’t actually happening over NFC–that’s just the technology that makes the connection. Bluetooth is used to send the files. It’s sluggish, so don’t attempt this with large videos, but it’s great for pictures, APKs, and anything else a few megabytes in size.
Priority Mode
It used to be you’d just press the volume down toggle and that was it, but Android 5.0 adds so much more to your audio profile. Notifications can now be set as priority, which controls whether or not you can hear them in the new priority mode. It’s a little confusing at first, but let’s see if we can shed some light on this potentially awesome feature.
When you hit the volume toggle in Android 5.0, the popup will have a volume slider, but also buttons for different notification modes–all, priority, and none. “All” is the default mode that permits all notifications to make noise and vibrate the phone according to your volume settings. Priority only allows priority content do to that, and none keeps the phone completely silent. Even alarms don’t work, which is weird.
Each of these modes can be turned on indefinitely until you change it, or you can set a timer right from the pop up. There are still more options for priority mode in the system settings under Sound and notification in the Interruptions sub-menu. Here you can choose what sort of notifications count as priority including events, calls, and messages. These can further be limited to only notifications coming from certain contacts. Down at the bottom of this screen is a section to setup recurring downtime where the phone goes into priority mode.
It’s worth getting acquainted with the new notification system as soon as you get your hands on Android 5.0. It’s a powerful system, but you can also accidentally leave “none” on and miss your alarm.
Device Setup
Android has had some form of app and data sync since 2.0 some five years ago, but it’s never been very reliable. As of 5.0, there’s a new startup experience that makes it a snap to get all your apps and account information on a new device. It starts with the option of using NFC. If you have your old phone or tablet on hand, you can tap it to the new one to automatically transfer the account information. At that point, the new phone begins pulling down the apps and setting you had on the old device.
If you bypass the NFC option, you get an even more powerful tool after logging in with your Google account. The setup UI will present a list of all the phones and tablets you’ve used recently so you can grab the apps and settings from any of them. You are even able to manually remove apps from the list you don’t want to sync. All of the downloading happens in the background so you can get other things set up to your liking.
However, there’s not nearly as much setup to be done on Android 5.0. If you use Google’s official Google Now launcher, the restore process includes the layout of all your apps and widgets. At items are still installing, the home screen has grayed-out placeholders until the app is finished installing. There’s even a progress bar (or ring, technically) for each icon. The entire process is worlds better than it was just one version ago.
Battery Saver
Android 5.0 marks the first time Google has built battery saving tech into the core of the OS. OEMs would often add their won low-power modes, but stock Android was left out. Now there’s a single toggle in the settings that can help you eke out a little more life.
The setting isn’t in the most logical place–the fastest way to access it is to tap the battery icon at the top of quick settings. From the battery stats screen, open the overflow menu at the top and there’s the link to battery saver. You can turn it on and off manually, or set it to come on automatically at 5 or 15%.
Activating battery saver will make the phone less enjoyable to use. The brightness goes down, background data is restricted, and all those pretty Lollipop animations go away. This is enough of a detriment to the overall experience that Google decided to make it really, really obvious when battery saver is on. The status and nav bars will turn bright orange as a reminder.
