The latest version of the Android operating system was announced during Google I/O on May 28, it’s currently known as Android M and while we don’t know what dessert will make it to the final name of the update, users who installed the preview versions of the OS have been discovering some of the changes included in the new version. A second version of the Developer Preview was recently released and more refinements have been found. The app drawer, which now scrolls vertically, has been improved so that not so much space is wasted. The screen is now able to rotate to be used in landscape position just like the interface for tablets. Screenshots can now be deleted from the notifications and the icons in the Status Bar can now be hidden. The Dark theme has been removed and the RAM manager is more accessible as it is now located on the Settings menu.
Now, a new feature has been discovered, it is a visual voicemail and it seems to be far more convenient than talking to some machine voice waiting for instructions and pressing some buttons here and there. It was discovered in a ticket in the Android issue tracker and apparently it can be used, even in the preview version, if carriers allow it. So far, only T-Mobile and the French carrier Orange support it, but possibly more carriers will give their permission to this new feature when the update finally launches sometime in the Fall. A Google employee has apparently confirmed that this feature will be present in the final build of Android M.
It can be found in the Dialer as one of the tabs, which let you manage the voicemails, each of them having their own card so that the user can listen to them, call back the person who left the message or delete them among other options. Even if no other carriers support this, as they can make a profit with their own services, Google needed such an option for their Project Fi initiative. Another feature of the integrated voicemail that is subject to the approval of carriers is the transcription of the voice messages. For the ones already on Project Fi or Google Voice users, voicemails are handled directly in their Google account, but there’s a voicemail section in the Settings menu of the Dialer, so there’s where users could make adjustments to take advantage of this new feature.
