Android KitKat 4.4: Five Features We Want To See in Google's New Operating System

Google is slated to unveil its new Nexus 5 smartphone and accompanying Android 4.4 KitKat operating system any day now. While its too late for the Mountain View giant to take suggestions, here's what we'd like to see in the new Google Nexus/Android flagship combination.

"Okay Google..."

One feature that would be nice is already available - albeit exclusively on the Motorola Moto X so far. That's the touch-free Google search and Google Now feature, meaning your phone is always listening for your command.

Just like the experimental Google Glass, your phone would immediately respond to "Okay Google..." and search or otherwise bring up whatever content you're looking for.

It's true, other Android phones have a similar capability built in, such as Samsung's S Voice, but having to locate and tap the home button twice while driving to reliably have your phone respond is awkward and still dangerous.

The good news is that Android 4.4 is rumored to include this feature, according to a report from CNET. Here's hoping it's true.

More Control Over Screen Rotation

Android has slowly built up more custom screen rotation features over the last few updates, including the ability to rotate your home screen and enable/disable screen auto-rotation in quick settings.

And there are apps that you can download (or buy) that can force rotation or lock your screen's orientation depending on apps, like "Ultimate Rotation Control."

But third-party apps have issues with universality and can't support all models of Android phones or all iterations of Android. For some handsets, they'll slow you're phone down.

It's time for a customizable option to orient the screen exactly how you want it for exactly any app you want to set it for. It could be in the apps settings, next to "Move to SD Card": "Launch in landscape."

While there are murmurs that Android 4.4 KitKat will include a notifications bar that changes color schemes depending on the app that's open, there's no word on custom rotation orientation settings for apps.

Multipath TCP

A lot of hoopla was made over the iPhone 5s's new fingerprint scanner - arguably for good reason - but one new feature of iOS 7 didn't get as much press, but it should.

Called multipath TCP (MPTCP), this new technology allows the iPhone 5s to support multiple connections at once, like LTE, WiFi, and Bluetooth. This allows the phone to maintain one data connection if the other one drops out.

The long and short of it is that currently Android phones often maintain a frustrating connection to WiFi when you're essentially out of range - like in your backyard - forcing you to go into settings and turn your device's WiFi off in order to use your cellular data instead.

There are downsides to MPTCP, like people using way more cellular data than they intended to, but you can also drain your data plan by forgetting to turn the WiFi back on and watching a Netflix movie in your own bedroom using your data plan instead of WiFi.

In any case, having the option to use MPTCP would be nice in a new Android OS.

Hangouts Like iMessage - And Bring Back the Status Option!

In a French tech blog's walkthrough with a leaked Nexus 5, the lack of a messaging app was noted by CNET. This has led to rumors that Google might be allowing third party defaults for messaging apps, or something bigger: Hangouts might become the all-around SMS, MMS, and online messaging app.

That's great news, as converging all chat communications into one app like how iMessage or BBM does it would make keeping track of everything easier. But Google has to revise the way its Hangouts app works, after its most recent, lackluster, update, which took away Google Talk.

First, the contact list is far too cumbersome to access and is only immediately available by the recent hangouts category.

But on top of that, the ever-so-useful status menu has been phased out. A lot of people are signed into Google hangouts throughout the day, and having a quick way to tell business associates or friends that you're in the middle of something and unavailable is a necessity.

Multitasking and Multiple Profiles 

Right now, if you want multiple profiles on Android, you've either got to have a tablet. That's useful, so useful that phones must get the same capability. Other multitasking perks like Samsung's Multi Window mode would be nice for other Android users to get standard. Better syncing with PCs would be nice too, and Google looks to be providing some of that with more native cloud support, Google Dive, Keep, and Quickoffice preloaded, and possible native printing. Whether KitKat is setting Google up for 64-bit processor support remains to be seen.