The initial developer preview of Android 15 has been released by Google.
The most recent version of Privacy Sandbox for Android was added on Friday, according to a post by engineering veep Dave Burke. The update is touted as providing “user privacy” and “effective, personalized advertising experiences for mobile apps.”
Burke was also thrilled to see that Android Health Connect has been enhanced with the addition of Android 14 extensions 10, which “adds support for new data types across fitness, nutrition, and more.”
Another recent addition is partial screen sharing, which accomplishes exactly what it sounds like: it lets users capture a window rather than their whole screen. Partial screen sharing makes sense, as Burke noted the growing demand for large screen Android devices in tablet, foldable, and flappable form factors.
Three new features are intended to enhance battery life. Burke gave the following description of them:
- For extended background tasks, a power-efficiency mode for hint sessions can be used to signal that the threads connected to them should prioritize power conservation above performance.
- Hint sessions allow for the reporting of both GPU and CPU work durations, which enables the system to jointly modify CPU and GPU frequencies to best match workload demands.
- Using headroom prediction, thermal headroom criteria can be used to understand potential thermal throttling state.
- Improved low light performance that increases the brightness of the camera preview will be available to shutterbug developers, along with “advanced flash strength adjustments enabling precise control of flash intensity in both SINGLE and TORCH modes while capturing images.”
According to Burke’s description, the developer preview includes “everything you need to test your apps, try the Android 15 features, and give us feedback.”
If developers are inclined to follow his lead, they may either install the preview into Android Emulator within Android Studio or flash the OS onto a Google Pixel 6, 7, 8, Fold, or Tablet device.
According to Burke’s post, there will be a second developer preview in March, followed by monthly betas in April. Burke stated, “several months before the official release to do your final testing.” Platform stability is anticipated by June.
Beta 4 in July is the second-to-last item on Google’s release schedule, while the last item is an undated event titled “Android 15 release to AOSP and ecosystem.”
On October 8, 2023, Google unveiled the Pixel 8 series of smartphones. According to The Register, Android 15 will launch a few days before or after a comparable date in 2024. Google prefers for its newest smartphones to display the most recent iteration of Android.