MOBILE SPECIAL..... WITH ANDROID
LOLLIPOP, MOBILE MULTITASKING
TAKES A GREAT LEAP FORWARD
THE
LATEST VERSION OF ANDROID IS GETTING GOOD REVIEWS, BUT NOBODY'S
TALKING ABOUT ONE OF ITS BIGGEST NEW FEATURES.
If
you've ever tried to sit down for some serious emailing on a phone or
tablet, you know it can get ugly in a hurry—and not just because of
the on-screen keyboard.
What
happens if you need to reference another message? You need to save
your message as a draft and return to your inbox to find what you
need. Then, you must go back to your list of drafts to re-open your
unfinished email. Should you need to go back to that reference
message or dig up a different one, you've got to start the whole
process over again.
With Android 5.0
Lollipop, Google has
come up with a solution—not only for email, but for any mobile app
where you might juggle multiple tasks. It's called "concurrent
activities," and it's sort of a mobile spin on how
desktop software allows
for multiple windows of the same program. When you look at your
recent apps in Lollipop's newly renovated task switcher, you may see
more than one card from any given app. These can include separate
cards for your inbox and compose windows in Gmail, or multiple
documents in Google Docs.
Strangely,
there hasn't been much discussion of concurrent activities outside
ofGoogle's
own documentation and
the occasional passing remark on tech blogs. But in terms of setting
up a mobile operating
system for
serious productivity, this is the biggest step anyone's taken in
years.]
SPLITTING HEADACHES
The
word “multitasking” can mean a lot of things, but let's define it
broadly as moving more efficiently between tasks on a computer. This
is easy enough on desktop machines, which can lean on keyboard
shortcuts, trackpad gestures, and screens large enough for taskbars
and windowing. But none of those ideas translate well to phones and
tablets, so software companies have been on a Holy Grail-like hunt
for decent mobile multitasking since the launch of the original
iPhone.
If
you've ever tried to sit down for some serious emailing on a phone or
tablet, you know it can get ugly in a hurry—and not just because of
the on-screen keyboard.
What
happens if you need to reference another message? You need to save
your message as a draft and return to your inbox to find what you
need. Then, you must go back to your list of drafts to re-open your
unfinished email. Should you need to go back to that reference
message or dig up a different one, you've got to start the whole
process over again.
With Android 5.0
Lollipop, Google has
come up with a solution—not only for email, but for any mobile app
where you might juggle multiple tasks. It's called "concurrent
activities," and it's sort of a mobile spin on how
desktop software allows
for multiple windows of the same program. When you look at your
recent apps in Lollipop's newly renovated task switcher, you may see
more than one card from any given app. These can include separate
cards for your inbox and compose windows in Gmail, or multiple
documents in Google Docs.
Strangely,
there hasn't been much discussion of concurrent activities outside
ofGoogle's
own documentation and
the occasional passing remark on tech blogs. But in terms of setting
up a mobile operating
system for
serious productivity, this is the biggest step anyone's taken in
years.]
SPLITTING HEADACHES
The
word “multitasking” can mean a lot of things, but let's define it
broadly as moving more efficiently between tasks on a computer. This
is easy enough on desktop machines, which can lean on keyboard
shortcuts, trackpad gestures, and screens large enough for taskbars
and windowing. But none of those ideas translate well to phones and
tablets, so software companies have been on a Holy Grail-like hunt
for decent mobile multitasking since the launch of the original
iPhone.
The
obvious path is to take the side-by-side window concept of desktop
computers and adapt it to phones and tablets. That's exactly what
Microsoft has tried to do with Windows 8, and what Samsung has
attempted with its Android devices. In both cases, you can drag a
second (or third, or fourth) app onto the screen, splitting it up
into two smaller windows for each app.
While
split-screen multitasking is useful in some cases, it also causes its
own problems, says Raluca
Budiu,
a senior researcher for Nielsen Norman Group. Split-screen “makes
an already small screen even smaller” and gives users even less
space to work.
As
a result, users must spend more time scrolling to get the same
information, and have to remember more since they can't keep as much
information on the screen, Budiu says. A study by Nielsen Norman
proved this idea when it found that comprehension on mobile
devicesis
twice as bad as it is on desktops. “So the smaller the effective
screen space, the poorer the experience,” Budiu says.
Split-screen
also poses significant design challenges, both for the operating
system and for third-party apps. Pinning two phone or tablet apps
next to each other may require complex gestures (as is the case with
Windows 8.1) and more work for developers, and some apps just don't
look right when they're confined to a smaller window.
It's
no surprise, then, that Budiu said she hasn't observed many Samsung
or Windows 8 tablet users taking advantage of split-screen features.
And while Apple is rumored to be working
on a split-screen mode for iPads,
the specifics of how it'll tackle these issues are unclear.
As 9to5Mac has
reported, Apple could just reserve the feature for a larger (and so
far unconfirmed) iPad or cancel it altogether.
SAME APP, DIFFERENT TASK
Google
is coming at the problem from a completely different angle. Instead
of trying to mash multiple apps together on the same screen, it's
making the existing app switcher—which many people do use,
according to Budiu—more efficient.
Prior
to Android 5.0 Lollipop, the app switcher was no help if you were
moving between two tasks in the same app. In terms of efficiency,
constantly going back to your inbox or document list is sort of like
going back to the home screen every time you want to switch apps.
Until now, no one's even tried to solve this issue.
The
way Android can handle concurrent activities is pretty slick. Hit the
compose button in Gmail, for instance, and the inbox fades into the
background while the composition window slides upward into view. This
is a subtle signal, telling the user that Gmail has created something
new instead of simply switching screens. Sure enough, when you go to
the task switcher, the inbox card is next in line behind the
composition window.
Granted,
concurrent activities aren't a complete solution. As Budiu pointed
out, they still requires a lot of switching back and forth, with the
“cognitive burden” of having to remember the information in each
window. Though they don't introduce the issues you get with
split-screen apps, they don't solve exactly the same problems.
Google's
implementation also isn't perfect. With Google Drive, for instance,
you don't get the same subtle animation signals
that exist within Gmail. And there just isn't much support for
concurrent activities yet beyond Gmail, Drive, and open tabs in
Chrome. When developers do get around to supporting the feature,
there's a risk that they'll abuse it by crowding the recent apps list
with a dozen of their own windows. (Google has set a hard limit of 50
concurrent tasks on all but low-end
devices,
which seems impractically high.)
Still,
it's hard not to be excited for the possibilities. I'd kill for a way
to swap back and forth between my two Yahoo Fantasy Football leagues
without hitting a half-dozen buttons each time, and wouldn't mind
being able to jump between different photo albums, notes in Google
Keep, and lists in Twitter.
And
maybe some day, Google can fold concurrent activities into a
split-screen multitasking system that actually makes sense. Rumors
have at least hinted
at the possibility.
In the meantime, it's building on a system that already works—and
at the very least making mobile email less of a disaster.
BYJARED
NEWMAN
http://www.fastcompany.com/3038213/app-economy/with-android-lollipop-mobile-multitasking-takes-a-great-leap-forward?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-manual-newsletter&position=anjali&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=11102014
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