Samsung has revealed
new details about the forthcoming Android M mobile operating system. In a blog post, the company details enhancements to app permissions, track memory, auto backup and power saving features, and fingerprint authentication.
Other than the improved energy efficiency of the OS’s battery management, most of the other enhancements revolve around apps – automatically backing up app data, tracking which apps use the most memory, and customizing permissions such as contacts access, location services, etc., for particular apps. The fingerprint authentication feature, perhaps the new OS’s most significant development, is also very much based on app interaction, allowing users to go a step beyond merely unlocking their smartphones via fingerprint scanning but also to access apps and online platforms like the Google Play Store via the same means.
Samsung says users will also be able to authorize Google Play Store purchases via fingerprint scan as well, which could be a strong hint that the same means will be used to authorize transactions on Google’s Android Pay mPayment platform when it launches later this year. If Samsung users opt to use that mobile wallet over the company’s own Samsung Pay, however, is another question all together. Fingerprint authentication for mPayments has by now become standard via the pioneering work of Apple Pay, and Samsung is no stranger to the concept, having allowed for PayPal authentication via fingerprint sensor since its Galaxy S5 smartphone.
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