There is no doubt Google is working hard on their next release of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich. What we do know is that Ice Cream Sandwich will probably be version 4.0, and it will end the need to have different versions of Android for tablets (Honeycomb) and phones (Gingerbread and below). Google execs said this would be Google’s “everywhere” OS for mobile phones, tablets, and other connected devices. The only other rumor we have heard is that phones will no longer need physical hardware buttons.
Is this all that we can expect? If the answer is yes, then it is going to be a boring release because Honeycomb is cool, but simply bringing that to the phone is not enough. I am pretty sure there is going to be a lot more UI enhancements and features.
There are two things I would like to see with the next version of Android, and that is the ability to log in with different accounts on each device and more cloud syncing.
With devices being shared by more people in the household, it becomes necessary to have different logins or profiles. This need is more apparent with tablets because they are more likely to be shared with more than one person in the house. If your spouse or child picks up the tablet, they should be able to login under their name (Gmail and password), which will give them their profile, apps, and homescreen settings. They will have their own contacts, calendar, app settings, and app data available to them as if it were their own device, but when I pick it up, I should be able to log into my account the same way, and have access to my information.
If more than one person wants to play Angry Birds, but the house has one tablet, each person should have their own progress saved. The same goes for other types of apps like newsreaders. Each user may want to follow different news feeds. Then there is Facebook, Twitter, and of course, the ever important Google+. I know that the device manufacturers would rather sell me three tablets for my house, but we are not at that stage yet.
The other important item I would like to see is cloud backups and syncing for app data. For some apps there is the option to back up your data to the SD card, but that is not efficient if you have a lot of apps. It also is not going to work well if you use multiple devices, like a phone and a tablet.
If I just played Angry Birds on my phone, I should be able to go to my tablet and be able to have my game data synced with Google’s servers. This would, of course, be tied to my Gmail address. Going back to my 1st request of user log ins; when I log into the “family” tablet, I will be able to continue Angry Birds from where I left off on my phone. This should work with all apps, but go beyond the data, and backup settings as well. This will also make it much easier when purchasing a new phone or doing a factory reset.
We did a story yesterday about an app called SyncIt which attempts to backup app data with Dropbox. This is a really nice app, but we need something more efficient that all developers can easily add to their apps. Apple announced this type of syncing with iOS 5. We can agree, that Apple copied a lot from Android with iOS 5, but we can also agree that there are elements like this that weren’t. It will be a very useful feature for Apple users, but we need it on Android as well.
I would like to hear from you. These two additions would be nice, but there has to be more. What changes or additions would you like to see with the release of Ice Cream Sandwich? This might be our last chance to tell Google before they put the finishing touches on what might be the biggest Android update ever.