Google has jumped the gun and rolled out Android N Developer Preview yesterday. The Mountain View giant was expected to introduce Android N during Google I/O which will take place in May, but the company has changed the rules and released Android N Developer Preview early, and along with it, a ton of Android N info. We’ve talked about Android N at length already, there’s plenty of coverage on the site, but new info just keeps popping up, read on.
Android N brings tons of improvements all around, not only stability improvements, but a number of features as well. We’ve already talked about the multi-window feature, the all-new Doze functionality, the notification shade changes… and many more. Well, Google has also updated the built-in file manager which is not capable of doing so much more. This File Manager was actually introduced in Android 6.0 Marshmallow last year, and Google just added some extra functionality on top of it this time around. Now, keep in mind that you won’t be able to locate this browser in your app drawer, it was accessible through Settings -> Storage -> Explore, and it still is. Once you open it up, you’ll see a familiarly looking file manager, but this time around you get plenty of new features. Google has introduced the side menu which actually brings up the system file picker which we’re all familiar with at this point. This gives you an easy access to your images, audio, video, documents… and pretty much every other file you have on your device. You can also access your Google Drive cloud storage if that’s what you want, so you’re not limited to your device’s memory.
If you open up a specific directory, you’ll get to see a very familiar option to switch between grid or list view, sort your files or search. There’s also an overflow menu which contains a couple of features like adding a new folder, and opening a new window (as in throw a separate window in the multitasking menu). Now, in Marshmallow, the additional options within this file browser were limited. Truth be told, you had access to copy and paste functions and what not, but you did not have additional options such as ‘rename’. Well, you’ll be glad to hear those options are now available as part of Android N, you can not only rename but move files to different folders as well. Oh, and there’s also a nice image which shows up as part of the background if your folder is empty, which is a nice touch for sure. Google’s all-new File Manager finally looks like an actual file manager, and a somewhat finished product. Users had to rely on third-party file managers thus far, and many of them still will, but Google’s native Andriod N file manager is far more usable than it was before.
