Google Delivers Android 15 Developer Preview 2

Google on Thursday shipped Android 15 Developer Preview 2 (DP2) with several platform enhancements. The preview is available on supported Pixel devices and various software-based Android emulators.

“Android 15 continues our work to build a platform that helps improve your productivity while giving you new capabilities to produce superior media and AI experiences, take advantage of device form factors, minimize battery impact, maximize smooth app performance, and protect user privacy and security, all on the most diverse lineup of devices out there,” Google VP of engineering Dave Burke writes in the announcement post. “Android continues to add features enabling your apps to take advantage of premium device hardware, including the latest telecommunications features, high-end media capabilities, dazzling displays, foldable/filppable form factors, and AI processing.”

Key updates in Android 15 DP2 include:

Improved cover screen support. With Android 15, apps will be able to present themselves in the small cover screen on support flipped phones. “These screens are too small to be considered as compatible targets for Android apps to run on, but your app can opt-in to supporting them, making your app available in more places,” Google notes.

Loudness control. Android 15 will support the CTA-2075 loudness standard, helping developers avoid audio loudness inconsistencies that today require users to constantly adjust the volume as they switch between apps.

Improve satellite connectivity support. With DP2, developers gain improved satellite connectivity functionality with more devices, including more consistent user interfaces and support for SMS/MMS communications in addition to RCS.

Improved NFC capabilities. DP2 adds new NFC functionality, such as the ability to listen to, but not respond to, NFC readers on supported devices.

PDF improvements. With DP2, developers can access an early version of a new PDF renderer API with substantial improvements to rendering, password-protected files, form editing, annotations, search, selection, and more. This new renderer will be updated through Google Play so that it can be updated more frequently and easily, and it will be supported on Android back through Android R.

Automatic language switching improvements. Android added on-device multi-language audio recognition with automatic switching between languages, but this capability is being improved in Android 15 to prevent words from being dropped and with better language tuning.

Text control improvements. The Android TextView control is getting a big update in DP2, with support for line break customizations and a new no-hyphen mode.

There is a lot more, but you can check out the original post for the full list.

Developers interested in checking out Android 15 DP2 can install the pre-release version on Pixel 6, 7, or 8-series phones, Pixel Fold, or Pixel Tablet, though you will have to flash the device as sideload images are not available. There are also emulators for Android Studio.

You can learn more at the Android Developer website.