Android 6.0.1 Released; Includes New Emoji, Security Patches and More!

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Just when people were starting to get settled into Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Google has added on a point release to the fray.

The Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow update comes in the form of the MMB29M build which is available to download for Nexus devices. Devices for which the factory images are live at the time of writing are:

The update should be rolling out via OTA to the aforementioned devices in a phased manner. If, however, you cannot wait to be on the latest version of Android as soon as it comes out (which is most likely the case for XDA users), you can grab the factory image and flash it manually.

So, what does this update contain? For starters, the newest build adds support for around 200 Unicode 8 emojis to Android. This brings Android’s emoji game at par with Apple’s iOS 9.1, much to the rejoice of people who were frustrated at being sent what appeared at blank boxes on their devices. Ars Technica created a full gallery of the added emojis, so head on over there if you want to see all the newest additions.

Apart from the new emoji, the 6.0.1 update improves upon the navigation bar on tablets. The “back” and “home” buttons have been shifted towards the left, while the “overview” multitasking button has been moved to the right. The change makes it easier to hit the buttons with your thumbs when you are holding the tablet. Also included is the “until next time” option for Do Not Disturb, a feature that was introduced in Android 5.1 but was missing on Android 6.0.

Along with all the visual and functionality changes, the MMB29M build also includes security patches. It bumps up the Security Patch Level of supported Nexus devices to December 1 2015, meaning that it incorporates all fixes up till this date. OEM’s should have been informed of this security update one month prior to public disclosure, so we can expect these making their way through to other non-Nexus flagship devices, hopefully. For a detailed list of all CVE’s addressed in this update, please refer the security bulletin page.

Even if you are not overly excited about the new emoji support 😀 , the new update is worth it from a security standpoint as it fixes upon a few issues which have had a severity status of “Critical”. You can either download the image and flash it manually, or you can wait for the OTA to hit if you wish to avoid a data wipe on locked bootloaders.

What do you think about the newest release? Are the changes worth bumping the release version to 6.0.1? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Source: Nexus Google+, Android Factory Images, Android Security Bulletin, Ars Technica

Image credit: Ars Technica