Google Requires OEMs to Enable Doze Mode, Encryption in Android 6.0 Marshmallow

What does Google require from its OEM partners that plan to seed Android 6.0 Marshmallow update to their handsets? The company recently published a document titled "Compatibility Definition" that specifies all such requirements.

All Android OEMs need to keep "Doze mode," a feature Google offers in Android that makes it possible to put apps on sleep mode and keep them in that position when the device has been left in idle mode, as a result, saving a lot of battery.

The company further mentioned in the aforementioned document that all the apps that are exempted from "App Standby" or Doze mode must be made visible to the end user. Also, the companies can't make any changes to how Doze mode works.

Moving along, Google introduced built-in support for fingerprint sensors with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The manufacturers who wish to adopt this feature on their devices must declare support for android.hardware.fingerprint feature, the company notes. They are also required to fully implement the corresponding APIs.

Google has also made it mandatory for the manufacturers to must control the false acceptance rate from going above 0.002 percent. Similarly, the false rejection rate should also not go above 10 percent. The latter requirement is not mandatory but strongly recommended. Google also requires OEMs to ensure that no third-party app is able to distinguish between individual fingerprints.

The list goes on to reveal that Google also requires developers to limit the attempts rate to at least 30 seconds after 5 false trials for fingerprint verification. Among other requirements, Google also needs OEMs to have a hardware-backed keystore implementation and they must also perform the matching in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) or on a chip. This is important because the information of such nature cannot be stored in the cloud for security and privacy reasons.

Another interesting addition the company had made mandatory to all manufacturers is the requirement to fully encrypt the disk by default. "For device implementations supporting full-disk encryption and with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) crypto performance above 50MiB/sec, the full-disk encryption MUST be enabled by default at the time the user has completed the out-of-box setup experience," the company writes.

In the meanwhile, the platform lead devices for Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the Nexus 5X and the Nexus 6P, can be used to charge other devices. As reported by AndroidPolice, when the new Nexus smartphones are connected to each other, the devices prompt an option called "USB charging" that facilitates this feature.

The feature, unfortunately, doesn't work seamlessly on other Android smartphones that come equipped with USB Type-C port. The blog noted that the OnePlus 2 can only be charged and doesn't allow the other connected device to glean energy from it.