The Second Beta of Android 15

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering

At this time we’re releasing the second beta of Android 15, which continues our work to construct a platform that helps enhance your productiveness, decrease battery affect, maximize clean app efficiency, give customers a premium machine expertise, defend consumer privateness and safety, and make your app accessible to as many individuals as attainable — all in a vibrant and various ecosystem of gadgets, silicon companions, and carriers.

Android delivers enhancements and new options year-round, and your suggestions on the Android beta program performs a key function in serving to Android repeatedly enhance. The Android 15 developer web site has heaps extra details about the beta, together with downloads for Pixel, and the launch timeline. We’re wanting ahead to listening to what you suppose, and thanks upfront on your continued assist in making Android a platform that works for everybody.

Now accessible on extra gadgets

The Android 15 beta is now accessible on handset, pill, and foldable kind components from companions together with Honor, iQOO, Lenovo, Nothing, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Sharp, Tecno, vivo, and Xiaomi, so there are such a lot of extra gadgets so that you can check your app on, and so many extra customers that may run your app on the Android 15 beta.

Making Android extra environment friendly

We’re persevering with to optimize the platform to enhance the standard, velocity and battery lifetime of Android gadgets.

Foreground providers modifications

Foreground providers maintain apps working in an energetic state to allow them to do one thing vital and user-visible, usually on the expense of battery life. In Android 15 Beta 2, the dataSync and mediaProcessing foreground service varieties now have a ~6 hour timeout, after which the system calls Android 15’s new Service.onTimeout(int, int) technique. At this level, the service is now not thought of a foreground service. If the service doesn’t name Service.stopSelf() in response to the timeout, it is going to get stopped with a failure.

Beta 2 additionally provides new necessities for beginning foreground providers whereas the app is working within the background. – In case your foreground service depends on the SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission exemption for background begin, you at the moment are required to have a visual overlay when concentrating on Android 15.

For battery-efficient finest practices, debugging community and energy utilization, and element on how we’re bettering battery effectivity of background work in Android 15 and up to date variations of Android, see the “Bettering battery effectivity of background work on Android” I/O speak.

Upcoming required assist for 16 KB web page sizes

Android 15 provides assist for gadgets that use bigger web page sizes, with assist for 16 KB pages along with the usual 4 KB pages. In case your app makes use of any NDK libraries, both immediately or not directly by way of an SDK, then you’ll doubtless want to easily rebuild your app for it to work on these 16 KB web page dimension gadgets.

Gadgets with bigger web page sizes can have improved efficiency for memory-intensive workloads. Whereas our testing might not be consultant of all gadgets within the ecosystem, listed below are a among the efficiency positive aspects we recognized in our preliminary testing of gadgets configured with 16KB web page sizes:

• Decrease app launch instances whereas the system is beneath reminiscence stress: 3.16% decrease on common, with extra vital enhancements (as much as 30%) for some apps that we examined
• Lowered energy draw throughout app launch: 4.56% discount on common
• Sooner digicam launch: 4.48% sooner scorching begins on common, and 6.60% sooner chilly begins on common
• Improved system boot time: improved by 1.5% (roughly 0.8 seconds) on common

As machine producers proceed to construct gadgets with bigger quantities of bodily reminiscence (RAM), many of those gadgets will undertake 16 KB (and ultimately larger) web page sizes to optimize the machine’s efficiency. Including assist for 16 KB web page dimension gadgets allows your app to run on these gadgets and helps your app profit from the related efficiency enhancements. We plan to make 16 KB web page compatibility required for app uploads to Play Retailer subsequent yr.

That can assist you add assist on your app, we have supplied steering on learn how to examine in case your app is impacted, learn how to rebuild your app (if relevant), and learn how to check your app in a 16 KB surroundings utilizing emulators (together with Android 15 system photos for the Android Emulator).

Modernizing Android’s GPU entry

Android {hardware} has developed fairly a bit from the early days the place the core OS would run on a single CPU and GPUs have been accessed utilizing APIs based mostly on fixed-function pipelines. The Vulkan graphics API has been accessible within the NDK since Android 7.0 (API degree 24) with a lower-level abstraction that higher displays trendy GPU {hardware}, scales higher to assist a number of CPU cores, and affords lowered CPU driver overhead — resulting in improved app and sport efficiency. Vulkan is supported by all trendy sport engines.

Vulkan is Android’s most well-liked interface to the GPU. Due to this fact, Android 15 contains ANGLE as an non-compulsory layer for working OpenGL ES on prime of Vulkan. Transferring to ANGLE will standardize the Android OpenGL implementation for improved compatibility, and, in some instances, improved efficiency. You’ll be able to check out your OpenGL ES app stability and efficiency with ANGLE utilizing the “Developer choices → Experimental: Allow ANGLE” setting in Android 15.

The Android ANGLE on Vulkan roadmap

As a part of streamlining our GPU stack, going ahead we will likely be transport ANGLE because the GL system driver on extra new gadgets, with the long run expectation that OpenGL/ES will likely be solely accessible by way of ANGLE. That being mentioned, we plan to proceed assist for OpenGL ES on all gadgets.

Really helpful subsequent steps: Use the developer choices to pick the ANGLE driver for OpenGL ES and check. For brand spanking new initiatives, we strongly encourage utilizing Vulkan for C/C++.

Trendy graphics

Android 15 continues our modernization of Android’s Canvas graphics system with new performance:

• Matrix44, gives a 4×4 matrix for reworking coordinates that needs to be used while you need to manipulate the canvas in 3D.
• clipShader intersects the present clip with the desired shader, whereas clipOutShader units the clip to the distinction of the present clip and the shader, every treating the shader as an alpha masks. This helps the drawing of complicated shapes effectively.

Extra environment friendly AV1 software program decoding

dav1d, the favored AV1 software program decoder from VideoLAN is now accessible for Android gadgets not supporting AV1 decode in {hardware}. It’s as much as 3x extra performant than the legacy AV1 software program decoder, enabling HD AV1 playback for extra customers, together with some low and mid tier gadgets.

For now, your app must opt-in to utilizing dav1d by invoking it by identify “c2.android.av1-dav1d.decoder“. It will likely be made the default AV1 software program decoder in a subsequent replace . This assist is standardized and backported to Android 11 gadgets that obtain Google Play system updates.

For extra on the newest options and developer options for Android media and digicam, see the “Constructing trendy Android media and digicam experiences” I/O speak.

A extra personal, safe Android

We’re at all times trying to give customers extra transparency and management over their information whereas enhancing the core security measures of the platform. See the “Safeguarding consumer safety on Android” I/O speak for extra of what we’re doing to enhance consumer safeguards and defend your app towards new threats.

Personal area

Personal area permits customers to create a separate area on their machine the place they will maintain delicate apps away from prying eyes, beneath an extra layer of authentication. Personal area makes use of a separate consumer profile. When personal area is locked by the consumer, the profile is paused, i.e. the apps are now not energetic. The consumer can select to make use of the machine lock or a separate lock issue for personal area. Personal area apps present up in a separate container within the launcher, and are hidden from the recents view, notifications, settings, and from different apps when personal area is locked. Consumer generated and downloaded content material (media, information) and accounts are separated between the personal area and the principle area. The system sharesheet and the picture picker can be utilized to offer apps entry to content material throughout areas when personal area is unlocked. There’s a identified situation with personal area in Beta 2 that impacts house display apps; you could find out extra within the Beta 2 launch notes. We’ll have an replace within the coming days, so you could want to wait till then to check your app with personal area to verify it really works as anticipated.

Chosen photographs entry enchancment

It’s now attainable for apps to spotlight solely essentially the most lately chosen photographs and movies when partial entry to media permissions is granted. This could enhance the consumer expertise for apps that ceaselessly request entry to photographs and movies. This may be achieved by enabling the QUERY_ARG_LATEST_SELECTION_ONLY argument when querying MediaStore by way of ContentResolver.

valexternalContentUri = MediaStore.Information.getContentUri("exterior")

val mediaColumns = arrayOf(
   FileColumns._ID,
   FileColumns.DISPLAY_NAME,
   FileColumns.MIME_TYPE,
)

val queryArgs = bundleOf(
   // Return solely objects from the final choice (chosen photographs entry)
   QUERY_ARG_LATEST_SELECTION_ONLY to true,
   // Kind returned objects chronologically based mostly on after they have been added to the machine's storage
   QUERY_ARG_SQL_SORT_ORDER to "${FileColumns.DATE_ADDED} DESC",
   QUERY_ARG_SQL_SELECTION to "${FileColumns.MEDIA_TYPE} = ? OR ${FileColumns.MEDIA_TYPE} = ?",
   QUERY_ARG_SQL_SELECTION_ARGS to arrayOf(
       FileColumns.MEDIA_TYPE_IMAGE.toString(),
       FileColumns.MEDIA_TYPE_VIDEO.toString()
   )
)

val cursor = contentResolver.question(externalContentUri, mediaColumns, queryArgs, null)

Permission checks on content material URIs

Android 15 introduces a brand new set of APIs that carry out permission checks on content material URIs. They embrace:

Secured background exercise launches

Android 15 protects customers from malicious apps and provides them extra management over their gadgets by including modifications that forestall malicious background apps from bringing different apps to the foreground, elevating their privileges, and abusing consumer interplay. Background exercise launches have been restricted since Android 10.

Malicious apps inside the identical process can launch one other app’s exercise, then overlay themselves on prime, creating the phantasm of being that app. This “process hijacking” assault bypasses present background launch restrictions as a result of all of it happens inside the identical seen process. To mitigate this danger, we have added a flag that blocks apps that do not match the highest UID on the stack from launching actions. To decide in for all your app’s actions, replace the allowCrossUidActivitySwitchFromBelow attribute in your app’s AndroidManifest.xml file:

<utility android:allowCrossUidActivitySwitchFromBelow="false" >

As soon as your app has opted into the brand new safety, particular actions designed to be shared will be opted-out utilizing this API inside the Exercise:

public void onCreate(Bundle bundle) {
tremendous.onCreate(bundle);
setAllowCrossUidActivitySwitchFromBelow(true);
...
}

Be taught extra about restrictions on beginning actions from the background.

Safer Intents

Android 15 introduces new safety measures to make intents safer and extra sturdy. These modifications are aimed toward stopping potential vulnerabilities and misuse of intents that may be exploited by malicious apps. There are two major enhancements to the safety of intents in Android 15:

• Match goal intent-filters: Intents that concentrate on particular elements should precisely match the goal’s intent-filter specs. In case you ship an intent to launch one other app’s exercise, the goal intent element must align with the receiving exercise’s declared intent-filters.
• Intents will need to have actions: Intents with out an motion will now not match any intent-filters. Which means intents used to start out actions or providers will need to have a clearly outlined motion.

Vital: These enhancements will likely be a part of Strict Mode. If you want to strive them out please add the next technique:

public void onCreate() {
    StrictMode.setVmPolicy(VmPolicy.Builder()
        .detectUnsafeIntentLaunch()
        .construct());
    ...

Elevated minimal goal SDK model from 23 to 24

Android 15 will increase the minimal targetSdkVersion required to put in apps from 23 to 24, constructing on the earlier minimal goal SDK change from Android 14, Outdated apps usually lack the newest safety protections, making gadgets and information weak. Requiring apps to satisfy trendy API ranges helps to make sure higher safety and privateness.

In case you attempt to set up an app that targets a decrease API degree than 24, you will see an error raised in Logcat:
INSTALL_FAILED_DEPRECATED_SDK_VERSION: App package deal should goal not less than SDK model 24, however discovered 7.

A premium machine expertise

Android 15 contains options that assist your apps enhance the expertise of utilizing an Android machine, together with smoother transitions, a extra useful UI, updates for large-screen gadgets, and extra lovely choices for designers.

Improved giant display multitasking

Android 15 beta 2 provides customers higher methods to multitask on giant display gadgets. For instance, customers can pin the taskbar on display to shortly swap between apps or save their favourite split-screen app mixtures for fast entry. Which means ensuring your app is adaptive is extra vital than ever. Google I/O has periods on Constructing adaptive Android apps and Constructing UI with the Materials 3 adaptive library that may assist, and our documentation has extra that will help you Design for big screens.

Window Insets

Along with edge-to-edge enforcement, when concentrating on SDK 35+ in Android 15 Configuration.screenWidthDp and screenHeightDp, now embrace the depth of the system bars. Whereas these values should be used for useful resource choice (e.g. res/layout-h500dp), utilizing them for structure calculations is discouraged.

Image-in-Image

Android 15 introduces new modifications in Image-in-Image (PiP) guaranteeing a good smoother transition when getting into into PiP mode. This will likely be useful for apps having UI parts overlaid on prime of their major UI, which works into PiP. At present, onPictureInPictureModeChanged is used to outline logic that toggles the visibility of the overlaid UI parts. This callback is triggered when the PiP enter or exit animation is accomplished. Ranging from Android 15, we’re introducing a brand new state within the PictureInPictureUiState class. The onPictureInPictureUiStateChanged callback will likely be invoked with isTransitioningToPip() as quickly because the PiP enter animation begins and the app can disguise the overlaid UI parts.

override enjoyable onPictureInPictureUiStateChanged(pipState: PictureInPictureUiState) {
    if (pipState.isTransitioningToPip()) {
	      // Cover UI parts
        }
    }

override enjoyable onPictureInPictureModeChanged(isInPictureInPictureMode: Boolean) {
    if (isInPictureInPictureMode) {
	      // Unhide UI parts
        }
    }

This fast visibility toggle of irrelevant UI parts (for a PiP window), will guarantee a smoother and flicker free PiP enter animation.

Richer Widget Previews with Generated Previews

Make your widget stand out by displaying a personalised preview. Apps concentrating on Android 15 can present Distant Views to the Widget Picker, to allow them to replace the content material within the picker to be extra consultant of what the consumer will see. Apps might use the AppWidgetManager setWidgetPreview, getWidgetPreview and removeWidgetPreview strategies to replace the looks of their widgets with updated and customized data.

Predictive Again

Predictive again gives a smoother, extra intuitive navigation expertise whereas utilizing gesture navigation, leveraging built-in animations to tell customers the place their actions will take them to scale back surprising outcomes. In Android 15, predictive again will now not be behind a developer choice, so system animations equivalent to back-to-home, cross-task, and cross-activity will seem for apps which have correctly migrated.

Set VibrationEffect for notification channels

Android 15 beta 2 now helps setting wealthy vibrations for incoming notifications by channel utilizing NotificationChannel.setVibrationEffect, so your customers can distinguish between various kinds of notifications with out having to have a look at their machine.

New information varieties for Well being Join

Well being Join, the centralized method for customers to regulate and handle entry to their health information, is including assist for extra information varieties to assist much more well being and health use instances. This launch has 2 new information varieties: pores and skin temperature and coaching plans.

Pores and skin temperature monitoring permits customers to retailer and share extra correct temperature information from a wearable or different monitoring machine.

Coaching plans are structured exercise plans to assist a consumer obtain their health objectives. Coaching plans assist contains:

“Select the way you’re addressed” system desire

Initially solely in French, however increasing quickly to further gendered languages, customers can customise how they’re addressed by the Android system with a grammatical gender desire. The brand new setting will be discovered within the system language settings: Settings → System → Languages & Enter → System languages → Select the way you’re addressed.

Trendy internationalization by way of ICU 74

Android 15 Beta 2 contains API-related updates from ICU 74. ICU 74 accommodates updates from Unicode 15.1, together with new characters, emoji, safety mechanisms and corresponding APIs and implementations, in addition to updates to CLDR 44 locale information with new locales and varied additions and corrections.

CJK Variable Font

Ranging from Android 15, the font file for Chinese language, Japanese, and Korean languages, NotoSansCJK, is now a variable font. Variable fonts open up new potentialities for inventive typography in CJK languages. Designers can discover a broader vary of types and create visually placing layouts that have been beforehand tough or unattainable to realize.

New Japanese Hentaigana Font

In Android 15, a brand new font file for previous Japanese Hiragana (often called Hentaigana) is bundled by default. The distinctive shapes of Hentaigana characters can add a particular aptitude to art work or design whereas additionally serving to to protect correct transmission and understanding of historic Japanese paperwork.

Avoiding clipped textual content

Some cursive fonts or language characters which have complicated shaping might draw the letters within the earlier or subsequent character’s space. Such letters could also be clipped at the start or ending place. Beginning in Android 15, TextView allocates further width for such letters and places additional padding to the left.

As a result of this modifications how the TextView decides the width, TextView allocates extra width by default if the purposes goal Android 15 or later. You’ll be able to allow or disable it by calling setUseBoundsForWidth API on TextView. As a result of including left padding might trigger a misalignment of current layouts, the padding shouldn’t be added by default even when concentrating on Android 15 or later.

So as to add additional padding to forestall clipping, name setShiftDrawingOffsetForStartOverhang.

<TextView
    android:fontFamily="cursive"
    android:textual content="java" />

<TextView
    android:fontFamily="cursive"
    android:textual content="java"
    android:useBoundsForWidth="true"
    android:shiftDrawingOffsetForStartOverhang="true" />

<TextView
    android:textual content="คอมพิวเตอร์" />

<TextView
    android:textual content="คอมพิวเตอร์"
    android:useBoundsForWidth="true"
    android:shiftDrawingOffsetForStartOverhang="true" />

App compatibility

If you have not but examined your app for compatibility with Android 15, now’s the time to do it, with many extra gadgets getting into this system. Within the weeks forward, you’ll be able to anticipate extra customers to strive your app on Android 15 and lift points they discover.

To check for compatibility, set up your printed app on a tool or emulator working Android 15 beta and work by way of all your app’s flows. Assessment the conduct modifications to focus your testing. After you have resolved any points, publish an replace as quickly as attainable.

To offer you extra time to plan for app compatibility work, we’re letting you understand our Platform Stability milestone nicely upfront.

At this milestone, we’ll ship remaining SDK/NDK APIs and in addition remaining inside APIs and app-facing system behaviors. We’re anticipating to succeed in Platform Stability in June 2024, and from that point you’ll have a number of months earlier than the official launch to do your remaining testing. The discharge timeline particulars are right here.

Get began with Android 15

At this time’s beta launch has every little thing it’s essential to strive the Android 15 options, check your apps, and provides us suggestions. Now that we’re within the beta part, you’ll be able to examine right here to get details about enrolling your machine; Enrolling supported Pixel gadgets will get this and future Android Beta updates over-the-air. In case you don’t have a supported machine, you’ll be able to use the 64-bit system photos with the Android Emulator in Android Studio. In case you’re already within the Android 14 QPR beta program on a supported machine, you will robotically get up to date to Android 15 Beta 2.

For the very best improvement expertise with Android 15, we suggest that you simply use the newest model of Android Studio Koala. When you’re arrange, listed below are among the issues it’s best to do:

• Strive the brand new options and APIs – your suggestions is vital in the course of the early a part of the developer preview and beta program. Report points in our tracker on the suggestions web page.
• Take a look at your present app for compatibility – be taught whether or not your app is affected by modifications in Android 15; set up your app onto a tool or emulator working Android 15 and extensively check it.

We’ll replace the beta system photos and SDK usually all through the Android 15 launch cycle. Learn extra right here.

For full data, go to the Android 15 developer web site.

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