Android 15: All the new features in Google’s next operating system

It’s always worth keeping an eye on the annual Android and iOS updates, and after Google I/O 2024 we now have the second beta of Android 15, so it’s a good opportunity to summarize everything coming to the operating system this year .

If you want to get involved in beta testing – keeping in mind that these betas will have bugs and issues – head here to see if your device is eligible. Google Pixel owners can sign up, and a select number of phones from third-party manufacturers are also included in the program, including handsets from OnePlus and Nothing (though not yet from Samsung).

Keep in mind that features will be added (and possibly removed) in the coming months as we move towards the full release of Android 15, which will be around October if Google follows the Android 14 timeline. But for now, here Here are the new features and improvements in Android 15 so far.

Android 15 will improve the multitasking experience on tablets and large screens by allowing you to permanently pin the taskbar to the screen for a more desktop-like experience. What’s more, split-screen app combinations – like Gmail and YouTube – can be saved to be recalled later. These app pairs can also be pinned to the taskbar.

Android 15 is adding a new secure place to your phone – a private space – so you can lock your most sensitive apps and the data in them. If you use a Samsung phone, there is already something similar called Secure Folder, but it will now be built into Android for all users.

It works by creating a new section in the app drawer that will need extra verification (like a password or fingerprint) to access. You can install any app you want here, including separate instances of Camera, Google Photos, and Google Chrome, for photos, videos, and web browsing that you really don’t want anyone to see.

This oddly named feature means you see a quick preview of what’s coming back when you use the universal back gesture (a swipe from the side of the screen). So, for example, you might see a website you just left or the home screen – the idea is that users know where they are going back to before completing the gesture.

New in Android 15 is the ability to record just part of the screen, instead of all of it; This is useful if you’re putting together a tutorial, troubleshooting a problem, or recording your screen for any other reason. It is available in Android’s own screen recorder tool and developers can also add it to their own apps.

It’s perhaps not the most important change, but you’ll see a lot of it: the panel that appears when you tap the three dots at the bottom of the volume slider now takes up more space on the screen, making it easier to adjust volumes for media, alarms, and calls. You can also access connected Bluetooth devices on the same screen.

It looks like Android phones can finally receive messages via satellite, just like the iPhone. We say “may” because although Android 15 will be officially “expand platform support for satellite connectivity” in terms of software features, this connectivity will also have to be built into the hardware and presumably involve a satellite network partner.

Widgets aren’t new to Android, of course, but usually when you add new ones to your home screen, you just see generic examples of what the widgets look like. In Android 15, developers can add rich previews to widgets – so, for example, when you add a contact widget, you’ll be able to preview what it looks like using one of your real contacts.

Something for those who always have their phones on mute: Android apps could already set their own custom vibrations, but in Android 15, you’ll be able to set them yourself for specific notification channels. So you can have one buzz for an email and two buzzes for a text message, for example.

You may have accounts that you log into that receive one-time passwords (OTPs) to prove that you are who you say you are. In Android 15, notifications with these OTPs will not appear on your screen, minimizing the risk of someone stealing your passwords by looking over your shoulder or recording your screen in some way.

Google is adding several features to Android to deter thieves. The Theft Detection Lock, for example, will use AI to detect if your phone has been stolen at high speed and then automatically activate the lock screen. This automatic lock will also activate if the phone is off the network for an extended period of time or if too many failed authentication attempts are made.

You’ll also be able to lock your device remotely more easily. All of these features will be heading to devices running Android 10 or later at some point this year, but one is exclusive to Android 15: your device cannot be reset (a common tactic used by thieves) without access to your Google account credentials, which means only you will be able to do this.

Android 15 also brings some useful tweaks to passkey support on your phone – this is where you use a phone unlock method (like a fingerprint scan) instead of a password to sign in to your Google account. In the new operating system, the account selection screen and confirmation screen are combined into one, so there’s one less screen to go through. Google is also adding a new restore feature to make it easier to transfer your credentials to a new phone.

Android updates always include various tweaks and small improvements that don’t necessarily get a lot of attention, but are still welcome. With Android 15, these include more efficient video processing, better handling of apps running in the foreground (an increase in battery life), security protections to prevent malicious apps from hijacking tasks performed by trusted apps, and the ability of Health Connect to get more data from more apps over a longer period of time.

Then there are the features that weren’t announced but that diligent code diggers found. Since these updates are disabled and hidden and haven’t been mentioned by Google yet, we can’t promise they’ll make it into the final version of Android 15. But if you’re interested, they include a Samsung DeX-like desktop mode, a status page for the health of your phone’s storageIt is an extra-dark mode This makes the phone screen easier to read in very dark environments.

It’s possible that Google will decide not to include some of these features in the full Android 15 release, but we’ll likely get a few more updates and announcements before then – we’re not at the final version of the software yet.