Android 4.4 KitKat Release Starts November: Nexus First

Last night, a long bit of details on Android 4.4 KitKat appeared online via a confidential document that has leaked, and a few hours later on this fine Halloween Google rolled out the red carpet for the Nexus 5 running the next OS iteration. We'll be seeing the Nexus 5 on November 1, and not too long after, those with certain devices will be seeing Android 4.4 rolling their way, followed by a larger wave in due time.

Today in a blog post on the Android Developers Blogspot, Google let it be known when we'll see KitKat rolling out to devices other than the Nexus 5, and not surprisingly, it is other Nexus devices that will be seeing it first. According to Android Platform Engineering Director Dave Burke, Android 4.4 will be heading out to all Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10 devices "in the next few weeks", meaning we'll likely be seeing it arriving throughout November.

Said Burke, HTC One and Samsung GALAXY S 4 Google Play Edition owners will also be seeing Android KitKat arriving in the same time frame. Unfortunately, he didn't narrow it down to more precise timelines, though it would seem that the HTC and Samsung updates will be rolling out at the same time as the Nexus update, not after the Nexus devices have already been updated.

With Android 4.4 will come a load of changes to the Google mobile operating system, not the least of which is a transparent skin, the ability to be functional on low-end devices straight away, NFC payments via Host Card Emulation, hardware sensor batching, and more. You can check out the full rundown in our SlashGear 101 guide.

SOURCE: Android Developers Blogspot