Day one of Google I/O 2015 is well underway, and so far we’ve seen a new version of Android announced for a release this fall, as well as key new features like Android Pay and some new tools for developers. It’s that new version of Android, Android M as it’s known right now, that holds some of the more exciting things for the future of Android. Android Pay will come alive on Android M with fingerprint support baked into the new version, and the preview is available for Nexus owners to download right now. Just as we saw with last year’s Android L Developer Preview, there’s a preview SDK of the new API Level, and this holds some interesting notes in it.
As PhoneArena have noticed, the M Developer Preview supports automatic app data backups. App Data has supposedly been a feature of Google backups, but it hasn’t really worked very well, and Android M could be the turning point. The information from the Android Developers site states that the data backed up by apps won’t count towards their Drive limit and that “during the M Preview period, users can store up to 25MB per Android app”. Now, whether or not this means that starting from Android M all devices will back up App Data automatically and restore it from a chosen device as was introduced with Lollipop is unclear.
Still, this seems like an awful lot of effort to go to for just a feature in a Developer Preview and the post does go on to say that “automatic backups occur every 24 hours, when the device is idle, charging, and connected to a Wi-Fi network” and that “when the user transitions to a new device, or uninstalls and reinstalls the backed up app, a restore operation copies the backed up data into the newly installed app’s data directory.” This sounds like a fantastic addition to Android, and one that builds on the streamlined backup options included in Lollipop from last year.
Those planning on installing the M Developer Preview will no doubt be interested in learning more, and the source link has all the relevant commands and information on how it all works.