Posted by Dave Burkevice president of engineering
Today we're releasing the first Developer Preview of Android 15 so that you, our developers, can work with us to build a better Android.
Android 15 continues our work to build a platform that helps improve your productivity while giving you new capabilities to produce superior media experiences, minimize battery impact, maximize smooth app performance, and protect privacy and security. protect user safety, all on the widest variety of devices available.
With Android, your apps can take advantage of high-end device hardware, including high-end camera capabilities, powerful GPUs, dazzling displays, and AI processing. Demand for large-screen devices, including tablets, foldables and flippables, continues to grow, providing the opportunity to reach high-end users. Android also aims to provide tools and libraries that allow your apps to take advantage of the latest advances in AI.
Your feedback on the Android 15 Developer Preview and QPR Beta program plays a key role in continuously improving Android. The Android 15 developer site has more information about the preview, including downloads for Pixel and detailed documentation of changes. This preview is just the beginning and we will have much more to share as we move through the release cycle. Thank you in advance for helping us make Android a platform that works for everyone.
Protecting user privacy and security
Android is constantly working on solutions that maximize user privacy and security.
Privacy sandbox on Android
Android 15 brings Android AD Services to extension level 10, with the latest version of the Privacy sandbox on Android, part of our work to develop new technologies that improve user privacy and enable effective, personalized advertising experiences for mobile apps. Us website has more about the Privacy Sandbox on Android developer preview and beta programs to get you started.
Connecting health
Android 15 integrates Android 14 extensions 10 around Health Connect by Android, a secure and centralized platform for managing and sharing health and fitness data collected by apps. This update adds support for new data types suitability, power supplyand more.
File integrity
Android 15s FileIntegrityManager includes new APIs that leverage the power of the fs-verity function in the Linux kernel. With fs-verity, files protected by custom cryptographic signatureshelp you Make sure they have not been tampered with or damaged. This leads to improved security and protection against potential malware or unauthorized file changes that could compromise your app's functionality or data.
Partial screen sharing
Android 15 supports partial screen sharing, allowing users to share or record only an app window instead of the entire device screen. This feature, which was first enabled in Android 14 QPR2, includes: Media projection callbacks that allow your app to customize the partial screen sharing experience. note that User consent is now required for each Media projection record session.
Creator support
Android continues to work to give you access to tools and hardware that help creators bring their visions to life on Android.
Camera control in the app
Android 15 adds new extensions for greater control over camera hardware and its algorithms on supported devices:
Virtual MIDI 2.0 devices
Android 13 added support for connecting to MIDI 2.0 devices via USB, which communicate via Universal MIDI Packets (UMP). Android 15 is being expanded UMP support for virtual MIDI appsallowing composition apps to control synthesizer apps as a virtual MIDI 2.0 device, just as they would with a USB MIDI 2.0 device.
Performance and quality
Android continues to focus on helping you improve the quality of your apps. Much of this focus is on tooling and libraries, including Jetpack Composing, Android studioand more.
Dynamic performance
Android 15 continues our investment in… Android Dynamic Performance Framework (ADPF), a set of APIs that allow games and performance-intensive apps to communicate more directly with the power and thermal systems of Android devices. On supported devices, Android 15 adds new ADPF capabilities:
- a energy efficiency mode for hint sessions to indicate that the associated threads should prioritize energy savings over performance, ideal for long-running background workloads.
- GPU and CPU running time Both possible reported in hint sessions, allowing the system to adjust CPU and GPU frequencies together to best meet the workload.
To learn more about using ADPF in your apps and games, go to the documentation.
Developer productivity
Android 15 continues to add OpenJDK APIs, including quality of life improvements NIO buffers, flow, security, and more. These APIs are being updated more than a billion devices running Android 12+ via Google Play System updatesso you can focus on the latest programming features.
App compatibility
To give you more time to plan your app compatibility work, we'll let you know our platform stability milestone well in advance.
At this milestone, we are delivering the final SDK/NDK APIs as well as the final internal APIs and app-centric system behaviors. We expect to reach Platform Stability in June 2024, and from then on you will have several months before the official release to do your final testing. The release timeline details are here.
Get started with Android 15
The Developer Preview includes everything you need to try out Android 15 features, test your apps, and give us feedback. You can get started today by flash a system image on a Pixel 6, 7, or 8 series device, along with the Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet. If you don't have a Pixel device, you can do this use the 64-bit system images with the Android emulator in Androidstudio.
For the best development experience with Android 15, we recommend using the latest preview of Android Studio Jellyfish (or more recent Jellyfish+ versions). Once you've got everything set up, here are some things you need to do:
- Try the new features and APIs. Your feedback is critical during the first part of the developer preview. Report problems in our tracker on the feedback page.
- Test your current app for compatibility – find out if your app will be affected by changes in Android 15; Install your app on a device or emulator running Android 15 and test it extensively.
We will update the preview system images and SDK regularly during the Android 15 release cycle. This initial preview release is for developers only and not intended for everyday or consumer use. That's why we only make it available via manual download. After you manually install a preview build, you will automatically receive future updates over the air for all subsequent previews and betas. read more here.
If you are planning to move from the Android 14 QPR Beta Program to the Android 15 Developer Preview program and if you don't want to wipe your device, we recommend that you go to Developer Preview 1 now. Otherwise, you may encounter periods where the Android 14 Beta has a more recent build date, preventing you from going straight to the Android 15 Developer Preview without clearing the data.
As we get closer to beta releases, we'll invite consumers to try Android 15, at which point we'll open enrollment for the Android beta program. For now, keep in mind that the Android Beta program is not yet available for Android 15.
For complete information, visit the Android 15 developer site.
Java and OpenJDK are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.