Android 15 and its update story
This is known as Vanilla Ice Cream version. It continues the work to build a platform that helps improve the productivity while giving new capabilities to produce superior media experiences, minimize battery impact, maximize smooth app performance, and protect user privacy and security all on the most diverse line-up of devices out there.
Major Feature Changes of Android 15
Link: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/15/features#kotlin
https://developer.android.com/about/versions/15/behavior-changes-15
1. Satellite Support: Android 15 continues to extend platform support for satellite connectivity and includes some UI elements to ensure a consistent user experience across the satellite connectivity landscape.
- Apps can use ServiceState.isUsingNonTerrestrialNetwork() to detect when a device is connected to a satellite, giving them more awareness of why full network services may be unavailable. Additionally, Android 15 provides support for SMS/ MMS applications as well as preloaded RCS applications to use satellite connectivity for sending and receiving messages.
2. Loudness Control: Android 15 introduces support for the CTA-2075 loudness standard to help you avoid audio loudness inconsistencies and ensure users don’t have to constantly adjust volume when switching between content. Android 15 uses microphone and other sensors to determine the sound levels around.
3. Automatic Language switching refinement: Android 15 introduces refinements to the automatic language switching feature. This functionality allows the device to recognize and switch between multiple languages during audio sessions, improving language localization for diverse user bases.
4. Vibration and haptics menu in the Android 15 OS, there is a new option called “Keyboard vibration”, which lets the user to disable the keyboard haptics of any keyboard app
5. Virtual MIDI 2.0 devices: Android 15 extends UMP support to virtual MIDI apps, enabling composition apps to control synthesizer apps as a virtual MIDI 2.0 device just like they would with an USB MIDI 2.0 device.
6. Picture-in-Picture Ability: When using split screen mode, Android 15 provides an option to save app pairs by simply opening the recent page and on clicking the icon, it will save up the two apps split screen combination pair in the home screen, to relaunch and use it later.
7. Private Space: Private space lets users create a separate space on their device where they can keep sensitive apps away from prying eyes, under an additional layer of authentication. The private space uses a separate user profile. The user can choose to use the device lock or a separate lock factor for the private space.
8. Camera and media: Android 15 includes a variety of features that improve the camera and media experience.
a. Low Light Boost: a new auto-exposure mode available to both Camera 2 and the night mode camera extension. It enables new camera capabilities, such as:
- Providing an enhanced image preview, so users are better able to frame their low-light pictures
- Scanning QR codes in low light
- Advanced flash strength adjustments enabling precise control of flash intensity in both SINGLE and TORCH modes while capturing images.
9. Volume Panel has pill-shaped sliders and access extra features like the audio picker to let the users to switch between connected devices, toggling the live caption
10. Improved OpenType Variable Font API: Android 15 improves the usability of the OpenType variable font. One can create a FontFamily instance from a variable font without specifying weight axes with the buildVariableFamily API. The text renderer overrides the value of weight axis to match the displaying text.
11. A new feature is introduced in Android 15, which is called Predictive back gestures, which helps to give the sneak-peak of the previous page while swipe to go back. This option is under Developer mode and user cannot force it to toggle off like in Android 14.
12. PDF improvements: Android 15 includes substantial improvements to the PdfRenderer APIs. Apps can incorporate advanced features such as rendering password-protected files, annotations, form editing, searching, and selection with copy. Linearized PDF optimizations are supported to speed local PDF viewing and reduce resource use.
13. Granular line break controls: In Android 15, the TextView and the underlying line breaker can preserve the given portion of text in the same line to improve readability.
14. App Archiving: Android 15 now includes OS level support for app archiving and unarchiving, making it easier for all app stores to implement it to free up space.
- Apps with the REQUEST_DELETE_PACKAGES permission can call the PackageInstaller requestArchive method to request archiving an installed app package, which removes the APK and any cached files, but persists user data. \
15. Performance, Storage: Android 15 adds the StorageStats.getAppBytesByDataType([type]) API, which helps to get insight into how a particular app is using up all that space, including APK file splits, AOT and speedup related code, dex metadata, libraries, and guided profiles.
- Android 15 includes the all-new ProfilingManager class, which lets you collect profiling information from within your app
16. SQLite Database Improvement: Android 15 introduces new SQLite APIs that expose advanced features from the underlying SQLite engine that target specific performance issues that can manifest in apps.
17. Screen Recording detection: Android 15 adds support for apps to detect that they are being recorded. A callback is invoked whenever the app transitions between being visible or invisible within a screen recording.
18. Partial Screen Sharing: Android 15 supports partial screen sharing so users can share or record just an app window rather than the entire device screen.
19. Health Connect: Android 15 integrates the latest extensions around Health Connect by Android, a secure and centralized platform to manage and share app-collected health and fitness data. This update adds support for new data types across fitness, nutrition, skin temperature, training plans, and more.
20. Wallet Role: Android 15 introduces a new Wallet role that allows tighter integration with the user’s preferred wallet app. This role replaces the NFC default contactless payment setting.
21. Integrated Credential Manager with autofill: Android 15, provides the option to link specific views like username or password fields with Credential Manager requests, making it easier to provide a tailored user experience during the sign-in process.
- When the user focuses on one of these views, a corresponding request is sent to Credential Manager. The resulting credentials are aggregated across providers and displayed in autofill fallback UIs, such as inline suggestions or drop-down suggestions.
- Credential Manager integrates biometric prompts into the credential creation and sign-in processes, eliminating the need for providers to manage biometric prompts.
22. Accessibility Changes: In Android 15, Braille displays the HID standard over both USB and secure Bluetooth. This standard, much like the one used by mice and keyboards, will help Android support a wider range of Braille displays over time.
Know more about the Android Releases: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2024/06/the-third-beta-of-android-15.html
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