Android 15: all the brand new options in Google’s subsequent OS Leave a comment

The annual refreshes of Android and iOS are at all times price looking for, and within the wake of Google I/O 2024, we now have the second beta launch of Android 15, so it’s alternative to spherical up all the pieces coming to the OS this yr.

If you wish to get entangled within the beta testing — making an allowance for that these betas could have bugs and points — head right here to see in case your system is eligible. Google Pixel homeowners can enroll, and a choose variety of telephones from third-party producers are included in this system, too, together with handsets from OnePlus and Nothing (although not Samsung as but).

Keep in mind that options might be added (and fairly probably eliminated) within the months to return as we head towards the complete launch of Android 15, which might be round October if Google follows the Android 14 schedule. However for now, right here’s what’s new and improved in Android 15 to this point.

Android 15 will enhance the multitasking expertise on tablets and large-screen shows by enabling you to pin the taskbar completely on the display for a extra desktop-like expertise. What’s extra, split-screen app combos — like Gmail and YouTube — will be saved to carry again later. These app pairs will be pinned to the taskbar, too.

Android 15 is including a brand new safe location in your cellphone — a non-public house — so you may lock away your most delicate apps and the information inside them. If you happen to use a Samsung cellphone, there’s already one thing related referred to as Safe Folder, however now it’s going to be baked into Android for all customers.

It really works by creating a brand new part within the app drawer that can want further verification (like a passcode or fingerprint) to entry. You possibly can set up any apps you want right here, together with separate situations of the Digicam, Google Pictures, and Google Chrome, for images, movies, and internet shopping that you just actually don’t need anybody else to see.

This oddly named characteristic means you see a fast preview of what you’re going again to once you use the common again gesture (a swipe in from the facet of the display). So, for instance, you may see an internet site you simply left or the homescreen — the thought being that customers know what they’re going again to earlier than they full the gesture.

New in Android 15 is the flexibility to file simply a part of the display slightly than all of it; that is helpful in the event you’re placing collectively a tutorial, troubleshooting an issue, or recording your display for another cause. It’s obtainable in Android’s personal display recorder software, and builders can add it to their very own apps as effectively.

Maybe not crucial change however one you’ll see so much: the panel that seems once you faucet the three dots on the underside of the amount slider now takes up extra room on-screen, making it simpler to regulate volumes for media, alarms, and calls. You’re additionally capable of entry linked Bluetooth gadgets from the identical display.

It appears as if Android telephones may lastly get satellite tv for pc messaging, similar to the iPhone. We are saying “may” as a result of whereas Android 15 will formally “lengthen platform help for satellite tv for pc connectivity” by way of software program options, this connectivity can be going to should be constructed into the {hardware} and presumably contain a satellite tv for pc community associate.

Widgets are nothing new in Android, after all, however often once you’re including new ones to the homescreen, you simply see generic examples of what the widgets appear to be. In Android 15, builders can add wealthy previews to widgets — so, for instance, once you add a contact widget, you’ll be capable of preview the way it appears utilizing certainly one of your precise contacts.

One thing for these of you who at all times have your telephones muted: Android apps have beforehand been capable of set their very own customized vibrations, however in Android 15, you’re going to have the ability to set these your self for particular notification channels. So you may have one buzz for an e-mail and two buzzes for a textual content, for instance.

You’ll have accounts you log in to which are despatched to one-time passwords (OTPs) to show you might be who you say you might be. In Android 15, notifications with these OTPs received’t present up on-screen, minimizing the chance of anybody stealing your passwords by trying over your shoulder or someway recording your display.

Google is including a bunch of options to Android to discourage thieves. Theft Detection Lock, for instance, will use AI to detect in case your cellphone is snatched at velocity after which robotically activate the lock display. This auto-lock can even kick in in case your cellphone is off the grid for an prolonged time period or if too many failed authentication makes an attempt are made.

You’ll additionally be capable of extra simply lock your system remotely. All of those options are heading to gadgets working Android 10 or later in some unspecified time in the future this yr, however one is unique to Android 15: your system can’t be reset (a standard tactic utilized by thieves) with out entry to your Google account credentials, which implies solely it is possible for you to to do it.

Android 15 can be bringing with it some helpful tweaks to passkey help in your cellphone — that’s the place you utilize a cellphone unlock technique (like a fingerprint scan) slightly than a password to get into your Google account. Within the new OS, the account choice display and affirmation display are mixed into one, in order that’s one much less display to get by means of. Google can be including a brand new restore characteristic to make it simpler to switch your credentials over to a brand new cellphone.

Android updates at all times embrace a bunch of tweaks and minor enhancements that don’t essentially seize lots of consideration however are nonetheless welcome nonetheless. With Android 15, they embrace extra environment friendly video processing, higher dealing with of apps working within the foreground (a lift for battery life), safety protections to cease malicious apps hijacking duties run by reliable apps, and the flexibility for Well being Join to tug in additional knowledge from extra apps over an extended time interval.

Then there are the options that haven’t been introduced however that diligent code diggers have discovered. As these updates are disabled and hidden away and but to be talked about by Google, we are able to’t promise they’ll make the ultimate launch of Android 15. However in the event you’re , they embrace a Samsung DeX-like desktop mode, a standing web page for the well being of your cellphone’s storage, and an extra-dim mode that makes it simpler to learn a cellphone display in very darkish environments. 

It’s potential that Google will determine towards together with a few of these options within the full launch of Android 15, however we’re prone to get a number of extra updates and bulletins earlier than then — we’re certainly not on the ultimate model of the software program but.