Android 15: all the new features in Google’s next OS

After previews at Google I/O 2024 and months of testing, the finished version of Android 15 is now available for developers.

That doesn’t mean it’s out for users just yet: according to Google, it’ll be a few weeks before it arrives on Pixels and then will get to Samsung and other select devices “in the coming months.” As usual with Android, the software will come with a variety of different tweaks and variations depending on the make of your phone.

In terms of the core Android 15 functionality that Google, Samsung, and others are building on top of, here’s some of what’s new with this release.

Android 15 will improve the multitasking experience on tablets and large-screen displays by enabling you to pin the taskbar permanently on the screen for a more desktop-like experience. What’s more, split-screen app combinations can be saved to bring back later. These app pairs can be pinned to the taskbar, too.

Android 15 is adding a new secure location on your phone — a private space — so you can lock away your most sensitive apps and the data inside them. If you use a Samsung phone, there’s already something similar called Secure Folder, but now it’s going to be baked into Android for all users.

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

This oddly named feature means you see a quick preview of what you’re going back to when you use the universal back gesture (a swipe in from the side of the screen). So, for example, you might see a website you just left or the homescreen — the idea being that users know what they’re going back to before they complete the gesture.

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

Better PDF controls are arriving with Android 15: features such as annotations, password protection, and searching inside PDFs are now supported. Although you may currently use an Android app that supports some or all of these tricks (including Google Drive), Google has now added support for them at the operating system level.

Perhaps not the most important change but one you’ll see a lot: the panel that appears when you tap the three dots on the bottom of the volume slider now takes up more room onscreen, making it easier to adjust volumes for media, alarms, and calls. You’re also able to access connected Bluetooth devices from the same screen.

You can already send emergency SOS messages on a Pixel 9 phone using Android 14 in the US, but Android 15 adds support for SMS, MMS, and RCS messaging via satellite networks as well.

Widgets are nothing new, of course, but usually, when you’re adding them to the homescreen, 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 how it looks using one of your actual contacts.

A couple of useful Android 15 additions will improve the photo and video-capturing experience. First, the camera preview will work better in low light, so it’s easier to, for example, frame a photo or video, or snap a QR code, when the lighting is not ideal. Second, there’s more granular control over the flash light level, which means you can ramp the intensity up or down as needed.

Android apps have been able to set their own custom vibrations, but in Android 15, you’re going to be able to set these yourself for specific notification channels. So, you can have one buzz for an email and two buzzes for a text, for example.

The TalkBack accessibility feature is getting an upgrade that will provide more detailed image descriptions. With TalkBack enabled, you can use the designated shortcut (set via Accessibility > TalkBack in Settings) to have any picture onscreen described using a spoken voice, even if no description was included with it.

This is already a feature in Android, but Android 15 and the Gemini Nano AI model means these descriptions will be more comprehensive and useful and won’t need internet access. You will need Gemini Nano and a phone that supports it: as of now, that means any Pixel 8, Pixel 9, or Galaxy S24 handset, as well as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6.

You may have accounts you log in to that are sent to one-time passwords (OTPs) to prove you are who you say you are. In Android 15, notifications with these OTPs won’t show up onscreen, minimizing the risk of anyone stealing your passwords by looking over your shoulder or somehow recording your screen.

Google is adding a bunch of features to deter thieves. Theft Detection Lock, for example, will use AI to detect if your phone is snatched at speed and then automatically turn on the lockscreen. This auto-lock will also kick in if your phone is off the grid for an extended period of time or if too many failed authentication attempts are made.

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

Android 15 is also bringing with it some useful tweaks to passkey support on your phone — that’s where you use a phone unlock method (like a fingerprint scan) rather than a password to get into your Google account. In the new OS, the account selection screen and confirmation screen are combined into one, so that’s one less screen to get through. Google is also adding a new restore feature to make it easier to transfer your credentials over to a new phone.

Android updates always include tweaks and minor improvements that don’t necessarily grab a lot of attention but are still welcome. With Android 15, they include more efficient video processing, better handling of apps running in the foreground (a boost for battery life), security protections to stop malicious apps hijacking tasks run by trustworthy apps, and the ability for Health Connect to pull in more data from more apps over a longer time period.

Update, September 11th: This article was originally published on May 20th and has been updated to include new Android 15 features.