Android 5.0 Lollipop

Android 5.0 Lollipop is the largest Android release to date, introducing Material Design, the ART runtime for significantly improved performance, and thousands of new APIs. Major additions include enhanced notifications, Android TV support, advanced camera and audio capabilities, and expanded connectivity options including BLE, multi-networking, and NFC. The release extends Android across phones, tablets, wearables, TVs, and cars with a focus on visual polish, performance optimization, and enterprise features.

Highlights

• Material Design UI toolkit with 3D views, real-time shadows, and activity transitions
• ART runtime replaces Dalvik with improved garbage collection and 64-bit architecture support
• Enhanced notifications with lock screen display, heads-up alerts, and new metadata
• Android TV platform with leanback UI framework and TV Input Framework for live content
• Advanced camera APIs enabling raw format capture, per-frame control, and H.265 HEVC support
• Bluetooth Low Energy concurrent operations, multi-networking APIs, and NFC dynamic AID registration
• OpenGL ES 3.1 and Android Extension Pack for high-performance 2D/3D graphics