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Google confirms Ice Cream will bring Android 3.0 UI to smartphones
Daniel Carey
Google has received a lot praise for its work on Android 3.0 aka Honeycomb. With several design elements translating better to larger touch based devices, the company has continued to turn heads at Mobile World Congress thanks to the vast amount of tablets running said software. While Honeycomb may be for tablets, what of the smartphone? A recent article published on Phone Scoop, confirms that Google is indeed bringing parts of Honeycomb to smartphones through its next iteration of Android aka Ice Cream.
In a sit down with Android Engineering Director, David Burke, it was revealed that the next version of Android for smartphones (after 2.4) will bring many design elements as seen in Android 3.0. According to David, Ice Cream should carry over Honeycomb’s overall holographic affect and the top ‘action’ bar — which brings with it many contextual based actions, replacing previous ‘long-press’ commands.
During his interview with Phone Scoop, it was also revealed that the bottom bar as seen on Honeycomb based slates, wouldn’t be coming to smartphones. While no reason has been given by Google directly, the folks over at Electronista are speculating it may have to do with “space constraints.” It is most likely a plausible scenario, scaling something down from a big 10-inches to the smartphone industry standard 4-inches would leave several features out. I am hoping the overall ‘button-less’ design carries across, it’s one of the most appealing features of Honeycomb based hardware. The same multitasking visual revamp is due to carry over to smartphones, reports Phone Scoop.
Ice Cream hasn’t been given an official timeline by the company, however it could possibly be shown off at Google’s upcoming developer conference I/O on May 10th.
Header image courtesy of Sweetpotatoe on Flickr.
