Google's next Android OS has been given a name: Nougat

Let the pronunciation arguments commence

(Google)

We’ve known it as Android N since March of this year, but Google has finally given its next Android OS an official name: Nougat.

The announcement comes just over a month after Google set up a website for users to submit their own suggestions for the name. Considering the popularity of idea that the next OS be named Nutella, we wonder just how closely Google tied itself to using the suggestion site when it settled on the final name. That said, Nutella could have been a licensing nightmare and Google wouldn't run the risk of its next OS being called Android Nandos.

Whatever your feelings on the name (or how it should be pronounced) it still follows the sweet theme of previous OS names and it’s set to launch later this summer so we’d best learn to embrace it.

The release, which is currently going through its second beta stage, will bring a host of new features to the Android OS, including split-screen multitasking, new emoji, and a Data Saver function that will allow users to limit the data some of their more hungry apps eat up.

Nougat will also have Android VR Mode built-in to support Google’s new virtual reality platform Daydream. Daydream is a more advanced alternative to the Google Cardboard headset, but where Google Cardboard worked with almost any smartphone, Daydream will only work with newer Android devices.

Later this summer is the most solid release date we have for the release of Android Nougat, after Google announced it at its I/O event in May. This suggests we’ll most likely see Nougat begin to roll out in late August or early September.

Once it’s released Nexus phones are likely to receive the update first, before other handset manufacturers begin to work it around their own versions of Android over a period of a few months.