Google announced Android 4.4 KitKat, internally known as Project Svelte, on 3 September 2013. The release had long been expected by technology bloggers to be numbered 5.0 and called "Key Lime Pie". KitKat debuted on Google's Nexus 5 on 31 October 2013, and has been optimised to run on a greater range of devices than earlier Android versions, having 512 MB of RAM as a recommended minimum.The required minimum amount of RAM available to Android is 340 MB, and all devices with less than 512 MB of RAM must report themselves as "low RAM" devices.
31 October 2013
- Refreshed interface with white elements instead of blue
- Ability for applications to trigger translucency in the navigation and status bars
- Ability for applications to use "immersive mode" to keep the navigation and status bars hidden while maintaining user interaction
- Action overflow menu buttons are always visible, even on devices with a hardware "Menu" key, which was officially deprecated by Android 4.0
- Optimizations for performance on devices with lower specifications, including zRAM support and "low RAM" device API
- Wireless printing capability
- NFC host card emulation, enabling a device to replace smart cards
- WebViews now based on Chromium engine (feature parity with Chrome for Android 30)
- Expanded functionality for notification listener services
- Public API for developing and managing text messaging clients
- New framework for UI transitions
- Storage access framework for retrieving content and documents from other sources
- Sensor batching, step detector and counter APIs
- Settings application now makes it possible to select default text messaging and home (launcher) application
- Audio tunneling, audio monitoring and loudness enhancer
- Built-in screen recording feature (primarily for developers, as usage of ADB is required)
- Native infrared blaster API
- Expanded accessibility APIs and system-level closed captioning settings
- New experimental runtime virtual machine, ART (not enabled by default)
- Bluetooth Message Access Profile (MAP) support
- Disabled access to battery statistics by third-party applications
- Settings application no longer uses a multi-pane layout on devices with larger screens
- Wi-Fi and mobile data activity (TX/RX) indicators are moved to quick settings
- Applications' access to secondary storage (memory cards on devices with internal primary storage) is restricted to their designated private directories only, while full access to internal primary storage is still allowed
Android 4.4.1 KitKat
5 December 2013
- Improvements to auto focus, white balance and HDR+ for the Nexus 5 camera
- Better application compatibility for the experimental ART runtime
- Camera application now loads Google+ Photos instead of Gallery when swiping away from the camera view
- Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes
Android 4.4.2 KitKat
9 December 2013
- Further security enhancements and bug fixes
- Removal of the "App Ops" application permissions control system, introduced in Android 4.3
