Google has just announced the availability of the Android 15 Developer Preview (DP) on the official product page. For now, it can only be installed on selected Android devices, with more devices expected to have access soon. It is giving us a glimpse of what we can expect from Android 15 when it is rolled out to other manufacturers.
What is new with Android 15 Preview?
While the latest edition of Android is said to bring new features and updates to the user base, most reports suggest that there is no big redesign on the aesthetics of the OS. On the other hand, the updates look to be more geared towards the nuts and bolts of the OS itself.
A major part that did see an update is for Security and Safety. The Privacy Sandbox system has been updated by making web access more stringent for users as a safety measure against advertising. Additionally, there are new APIs introduced for developers designed to optimise the development of apps and products to deliver better performance and save more energy, especially for apps running in the background.
Third-party apps can now access the cameras more easily. Social media apps will see the biggest advantage as those apps can now directly access the native camera app on the phone without needing to have a workaround in capturing images or videos for the application. There is also support for partial screen sharing. What this means is that you can share or record just a part of the screen, rather than the whole screen.
Android now has a better way to work with different resolutions – a breakthrough for devices with non-typical screen display sizes such as foldables. The OS can work with the different screens more intelligently and have better multitasking to increase productivity. For example, multi-app shortcuts are now more intuitive to create and can be set to a particular requirement by the user.
One interesting feature that will be introduced with Android 15 is called Notification Cooldown. In a nutshell, it is a feature that will gradually lower the volume of successive notifications from the same app. Imagine if you receive several notifications from the same app (like email or instant messengers), the subsequent notifications will have a quieter volume than the previous notifications. It is designed to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed if you suddenly get a ton of notifications around the same time.
Who can install Android 15 Preview?
For those who are interested in being on the cutting edge, or just curious about how the next Android iteration will look they can install Android 15 Preview on the following supported devices:
- Pixel 6 and 6 Pro
- Pixel 6a
- Pixel 7 and 7 Pro
- Pixel 7a
- Pixel Fold
- Pixel Tablet
- Pixel 8 and 8 Pro
Google recommends installing the preview manually using the Android Flash Tool, a tool created by Google itself. Of course, as this is a preview build of Android, it is advisable to not attempt the instal unless you are certain that you can live with an early build of the Android OS. Additionally, make sure that your important data is backed up before attempting to install the new OS.
The Beta version of Android 15 is expected to be distributed as early as April 2024 to Google Pixel devices first and the full version should go out on a public release by July 2024. Google’s brand partners like Samsung, OnePlus, Realme and others should have stable builds of Android 15 after the official availability. You can check the official Android website for additional information.
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