Android 4.4 Kit Kat software update has begun to roll out for Google Play editions of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.
The Galaxy S4 Google Play edition is sold exclusively on the Google Play Store and the new software update is currently available over-the-air (OTA).
HTC One Google Play edition owners can also begin to download the new 4.4 Kit Kat over-the-air.
Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4 phones on all networks have nearly finished receiving the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update this week, with S3 owners on T-Mobile finally receiving the update today.
Now that Samsung has cleared the 4.3 Jelly Bean update for Galaxy S3 and S4 devices, the Korean company is expected to announce the upgrade schedule for Android 4.4 Kit Kat software.
However, despite its Google Play Edition being among the first Samsung devices to receive the Kit Kat update, the company has remained silent on when the rollout will begin for Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, Note 2, and Note 3 devices across all major U.S. networks.
Last week, Google's Nexus 4, 7 and 10 have all received the Android 4.4 Kit Kat update. Moto X owners also were among the first to receive the upgrade.
HTC has announced that its HTC One flagship phone will begin to receive updates by the end of January next year.
The new features of Android 4.4 Kit Kat are as follows:
- · Refreshed interface with translucent status and navigation bars on home screen and white status bar icons/text, ability for apps to trigger the translucent appearance.
- Optimizations for performance on devices with lower specifications, Low RAM device API
- Printing framework
- NFC Host Card Emulation for emulating smart cards
- WebViews based off Chromium (feature parity with Chrome 30)
- Expanded functionality for Notification listener services
- Public API for developing and managing text messaging clients, ability to specify a default SMS app.
- New framework for UI transitions
- Storage access framework for retrieving content and documents from other sources
- Sensor batching, Step Detector and Counter APIs
- "Immersive" full screen mode, software buttons and status bar accessed with an edge swipe gesture
- Audio tunneling, audio monitoring, loudness enhancer
- Built-in screen recording
- Native infrared blaster API
- Expanded accessibility APIs, system-level closed captioning settings
- New experimental runtime virtual machine, ART
The 53-page Android Quick Start Guide for Android 4.4 KitKat has been launched on the Google Play store.
