Android M is not out of beta testing yet

Jul 20, 2015 13:20 GMT  ·  By

Almost two months after Google released the first Android M developer preview, the search giant finally managed to push out a second variant earlier in July.

We're still away from Android M getting officially rolled out to the public, but while we wait on that to happen, an Android issue tracker thread for developers dug out by the folks of Android Police reveals an interesting feature the new OS might embed.

According to the information uncovered, Android M will carry visual voicemail in its built-in dialer app, a feature similar to what we can currently find on the iPhone.

But even if this feature comes embedded by default in Android M, it will still be up to the carriers to give it the green light. For the time being, voice mail is only supported by Orange in France, but T-Mobile announced not so long ago that the feature would be offered in the US as well, after Android M makes an official debut this autumn.

Visual voicemail might finally be coming to Android

Since all major US carriers gave the green light to visual voicemail for the iPhone, the same is expected to happen for Android devices, once the new major build of the OS exits its beta stage.

On top of the visual voicemail function, Google is promising a whole host of improvements, including Android Pay which will enable contactless payments via fingerprint sensors for authentication, something similar to Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Google is also bound to improve battery life via new features such as Doze, which basically puts the device into a low-power sleep state when it is not in active use.

Another important feature to watch out for is improved control over what system feature apps can access, which is dubbed granular app permission.

As we already told you, Android M Developer Preview 2 is already available and owners of the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Nexus Player can access it via Google’s developer supper website.

The rest of the Android crowd will have to wait until this fall, when Google is poised to launch the official version of Android M.