A peek at what's to come after Android KitKat

By Quinten Plummer, Tech Times | June 30, 12:40 PM

Google has been expected to break away from KitKat and announce the release date for an OS refresh to the "L" version, a possibility that has been especially intriguing as a pair of screenshots emerged and quickly disappeared from the Chromium issue tracker.

The announcement of Android KitKat 4.5 at Google I/O 2014 would have surprised few, but disappointed many. However, Google has been indicating it intends to move Android forward with a refresh rather a version update.

Android Chief Sundar Pichai stated in January that he wanted to provide a bit more transparency with Google's mobile OS to help developers plan releases for the platform more effectively. But, if they were legitimate, the pair of screenshots that evaporated from Google's developer's website may have been a bit too much transparency, especially on the eve of the company's largest event.

An "L" appearing on the left side of the status bar in each screenshot discovered by Reddit user Doopl, led consumers and tech analysts to conclude the images are evidence of the rumored "Lollipop" or "Licorice" version of the Android OS.

The "L" in the screenshot hints that the device on which the OS was being run was plugged in with USB debugging enabled, which harks back to the reveal of KitKat in which a "K" appeared in early screenshots. The OS' developers considered naming the OS "Key Lime Pie" at one point and an icon resembling a slice of pie appeared in the status bar in leaked images of one of the early builds of what's now KitKat.

The absence of an explanation for the images and their abrupt removal only fueled speculation that news of an "L" version of Android was just around the corner.

The notification bell with the strikethrough was also of note in the ephemeral images of what has been captured from the "L" version of Android. The bell icon has been used for the desktop version of Chrome and its implementation in the Android OS could indicate a new feature that allows users of the OS to mute or limit incoming notifications. Who wouldn't want to limit being lured to their phone only to find that a friend has invited them to play Candy Crush Saga on Facebook?

I/O 2014, Google's two-day developer's conference, starts at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 25, in San Francisco. All things Google will be revealed. Individuals not able to attend the conference can view live streams of Google's presentations here, though there will be no official streams of the "sandbox" slots that will be held by third-party developers.