9 Lesser Known Features in Latest Android KitKat 4.4

Its been a week since the launch of the new Android KitKat 4.4 and we have already discussed about the new features in KitKat 4.4 and here are some other features that are not being highlighted by Google. These features may not be useful foe all the users or this may not be handy as well. Anyways we are her to help you with those features.

Advanced File Picker With Full Storage Access

Google has introduced a new file picker feature to KitKat and which is fully integrated to Google Drive and other third party cloud storage services too. But you can also acess files from internal memory and also from the external SD card.

In order to enable the full access, go to the file picker’s settings from its menu, and enable the option labeled ‘Display advanced devices’. You can also set file sizes to be displayed from here. After enabling the former option, you should see an entry for your Internal storage (as well as your external SD card, if your device supports it) in the Open from navigation drawer. Tap it, and you’ll be able to select any file from your device’s file system..

Easily Switch Default Launcher & SMS App

As you know that if you are installing a third part launcher, for sure you will see a new home option in the settings that basically allows you to choose the default one. AS you might have already known that the new Hangout app has now been integrated to SMS. Though that doesn't mean stock Messaging has been completely excluded from the OS; it’s still there as a part of AOSP, and there is also an easy way to choose your default SMS app among all stock and third-party options available. You can find this option under ‘Wireless & Networks’ in Settings. The option allows you to choose your default SMS app between Hangouts, Messaging and any third-party options that you may have installed.

Advance Alarm Notification With Option To Dismiss

Another feature is that the KitKat 4.4 is that in case you want to stop the alarm and you haven't done that because of your laziness and finally it rings. And latest Android notifies the alarm in the notification list before 1hr of the alarm and you can dismiss the alarm right away.

Toggle Lockscreen Widgets

As you know that Google has introduced the Lock screen widget support in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and the feature is quite common to all and the one that to notice in KitKat is that they have added a feature to enable or disable the lock screen widget and you can find it in the Security section in Settings.

View Text-To-Speech Support Status For Default Language

Text-to-Speech has long been a part of Android, but not all languages supported by the operating system itself were supported by this feature. KitKat adds a ‘Default language status’ section to the Text-to-speech subsection of Language & input settings that shows if your currently selected default system language is supported by the Text-to-speech system or not.

Mobile Plan Management

There is a new option named Mobile Plan and you can find it in the Wireless & Network Settings that give you a helping hand in managing your mobile pan from your device, but this will work only if your carrier has a known provisioning website for the purpose in order to offer you any options to configure.

Always Enabled Dial-Pad Autocomplete

Always Enabled Dial-Pad Auto completeDial-pad auto complete (also known as T9 dialing) is an extremely handy feature that lets users bring up contacts by typing the numbers representing the alphabetical characters of their names in the Dialer. This was probably the most requested feature in Android since Google decided to include it as an option in Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. In KitKat, the feature is no longer an option that you can toggle; it is instead always on. It’s really hard to think of a reason why anyone would want to have it disabled, so it only makes sense to have it always on, and removing the option to disable it.

New ART Runtime

ART (Android RunTime) is a replacement for 

Dalvik that uses AOT (ahead of time) compilation, meaning your apps are compiled to a ready-to-run state before you even launch them, making the process of launching and using them much faster and smoother. And since this would reduce their compilation frequency significantly, you can expect to start seeing better battery life.

Process Stats

Each and every user is really interested in seeing what's going on under their devices. And for the latest Android launch they have included Process Stats - a section under Developer Options that shows you performance and usage stats of all your background, foreground and cached processes.