Google launches the second preview version of android n

Millions of users are looking forward to the launch of Android N, the new version of Google's mobile operating system. Until the final version appears in the coming months, the company is releasing several previous versions in order to test various features and minimize potential problems.

Today, Google has released for download the second preview version of Android N for developers (also called Android N Developer Preview 2), which brings new features aimed at both users and developers.

Those who were lucky enough to have one of the Nexus devices compatible with the Android N Developer Preview, will be happy to know that Google has integrated Vulkan, the new API for rendering 3D content, in its new operating system.

Thanks to the use of Vulkan, which considerably reduces CPU overhead, Google promises synthetic benchmarks with up to 10 times greater performance in a single core, unlike OpenGL ES.

New shortcuts in the Launcher and new emojis

Also, Google confirmed that the second previous version of Android N adds shortcuts to the Launcher, so that users can choose those applications that they want to access more quickly from the Launcher.

As Google has said in a blog post, these shortcuts can be added to specific sections of an application, such as to send a message to a certain person, to go Home in a navigation app or to play a certain file in a multimedia application.

The company also added support for Emoji Unicode 9, which brings new emoji designs "with a more human look."

Finally, this new update includes a multitude of API changes, as Google continues to polish the most important functions of the operating system, such as support for multiple windows, notifications, and others.

Google stated that its engineers fixed many issues on the platform, most of which were reported by testers through the Public Bug Reporter.