Adroid L Feature Spotlight: Lock Screen

Earlier this summer, during their annual I/O conference, the folks at Google officially introduced Android L. Even though the Mountain View-based giant didn’t reveal the release date of the new Android iteration, they demoed most of its new features at I/O and made it available for download as Developer Preview.

Android L is the biggest update Google’s mobile operating system has seen since its launch back in 2008. It arrives with tons of new features, but this app concentrates on the Lock Screen changes and improvements.

As you may know, in KitKat and previous Android version, the Lock Screen did nothing else except for showing you the time, how many notifications you have, or allow you to secure your smartphone or tablet. Well, the Android L Lock Screen has learned a couple of new tricks.

The new Lock Screen is now capable of displaying your notifications and it even allows you to interact with them. Furthermore, Google has found a clever way to prioritize the notifications based on the frequency you interact with them.

Now, instead of grabbing that small lock and moving it around, you will need to swipe up in order to unlock your screen. Furthermore, you can swipe left to get to the Camera (was previously available in KitKat) or swipe right to get to the Phone app.

The Android L Lock Screen allows you to swipe away notifications to dismiss them, or tap to open a specific notification. You can also swipe down on a notification to see all notifications from the respective app.

All these Lock Screen changes will be available in the final version of Android L. It’s yet a mystery when Android L will be released to the public, but most reports say that we will get to see it in flesh late September or early October.