Android 15
Google Focuses To Enhance Security & Battery Life With Android 15
Google is actively working on the next iteration, obviously, Android 15, as it already delivered two developer previewsand appears close to jumping on the beta stage. Google is focusing on security and privacy features. Let’s take a closer look at what new novelties Android 15 will bring.
As per the reports, Google is focusing on enhancing security and privacy features in Android 15. The new features on the list include a private space for sensitive applications, protection from rogue devices, location-sharing controls, and automatic redaction of one-time passwords. All of these will add an extra layer of security.
At the time, only these features were discovered, but it is expected that in future beta releases, more security features will be undiscovered, and one more expected feature to see in an upcoming beta release is named ‘adaptive timeout.’
On devices that have a screen look feature enabled, Android will automatically lock the device after a set period has passed. Users will experience a new facility after upgrading to the new iteration of Android 15. By default, Android turns the display off just after 30 seconds of inactivity and then locks the device after an additional five seconds have passed.
Users can change these thresholds just by following the steps. Navigate to Settings >> Display >> Screen Timeout >> and Settings >> Security & Privacy >> Device unlock >> Screen Lock Settings, sequentially.
The ‘Screen attention’ feature available on Pixel 4 and later models will prevent the screen from turning off only if users are looking at it. This feature appears helpful when users need the screen to stay on but cannot touch it; for instance, while reading something, the phone will use the selfie camera to detect users’ faces and keep the screen awake.
Presently, Android just permits users to keep the screen on for longer with the help of the “screen attention” feature but does not have the have the power to automatically turn it off sooner. To avoid this lack, Android 15 is expected to bring a new ‘adaptive timeout’ feature that will address this gap by automatically turning off the screen when you are not using it.
This adaptive timeout feature is speculated as code found in the developer preview 2:
<string name="contextual_timeout_description"> Automatically turns off your screen early if you’re not using your device</string>
<string name="contextual_timeout_title"> Adaptive timeout</string>However, it is expected that this ‘adaptive timeout’ feature could be exclusive to Google Pixel phones since the code is founded under Google-specific namespaces (com.google.*). Also, the code doesn’t belong to the AOSP; it won’t be included in all Android 15 versions from different smartphone producers.
Noticeably, ‘adaptive timeout’ improves security as well as battery life. Although users might choose a longer screen timeout for convenience, it is recommended that this can be risky if the phone is left unattended. Since this feature turns off the screen while not using the device, obviously it will save battery life.
Source – Android Authority
Google’s next major iteration, Android 15, is actively in the developing stage and is expected to stop phones from vibrating while getting a lot of notifications.
Google has recently made Android 15 Beta 1.2 available to download, which has brought some crucial improvements. Now reports are revealing that Android 15 will bring new functionality to enhance the users’ experience, which will force the phone to stop vibrating while getting a lot of notifications.
Android 15’s notification cooldown reduces the volume of repeated notifications from the same application. However, at the moment, it doesn’t stop the phone from vibrating for each notification. However, we anticipate a future update to address this issue.
Speculation suggests that the reporter, while exploring the latest Android 15 Beta 1.2 update, successfully restored the notification cooldown settings page (Settings >> Notifications >> Notification cooldown), which Google had previously hidden from users in Android 15 Beta 1. According to the reports, a new toggle has been added that was previously unavailable: “vibrate when unlocked.” According to the description, this toggle makes it so the device will “only vibrate when [the] screen is unlocked.”
By authorizing this toggle, the phone will avoid vibrating while receiving a ton of successive notifications from the same application. Notification cooldown silences Android 15 repeated notifications from a similar application, but it is possible that it could still vibrate your phone for each one. Apart from this, there’s an option to disable vibration only when your phone is unlocked.
Users will get the power to enable “vibrate when unlocked” for peace and silence. They can disable both “vibrate when unlocked” and notification cooldown entirely to receive all notifications with vibration. Users can change the cooldown to apply only to conversations if they want silence for repetitive chats but notifications for other applications.r
Google is actively preparing for its upcoming version, as demonstrated by the availability of Android 15 Beta 1.2 for download just a few days after the release of Beta 1.1. We anticipate that the stable version of Android 15 will allow you to force apps to go dark, even if they don’t support the feature.
The metrics for 2022 suggest that 81.9% of readers use dark mode on their phones. Google offers support for a system-wide dark mode toggle in Android 14. Despite all of this, some of the applications still don’t have a dark theme, such as the ones from Fitbit or Amazon Shopping, but now the Android 15 update will overcome this lack and let you force these apps to go dark, even if they don’t have a built-in dark theme.
Back in January, Google hid a new’make all apps dark’ toggle under Settings >> Accessibility >> Color and Motion in the Android 14 QPR2 Beta 2. This toggle was not visible by default in Android 14 QPR2 Beta 2, and it was not even visible in Android 15 Beta 1.2.
According to reports, testing revealed that’make all apps dark’ outperforms ‘override force-dark’ in more applications, implying that the current developer opt-out is no longer functional and that the fundamental force-dark algorithm has changed. Android is introducing ‘make all apps dark’, a new accessibility setting that enhances the existing ‘override force-dark’ option and distinguishes itself from color inversion, which causes image distortion.
Currently, Android 15 Beta 1.2 lacks the’make all apps dark’ feature, but Google I/O 2024 next month could see the introduction of this feature in Android 15 Beta 2.
Google has started developing its next big iteration, Android 15. To prepare it for the Android device, the company has already started rolling out the beta updates. Earlier this month, the company rolled out the beta 1 update, which introduced a plethora of new features. However, being a beta update, it comes with a lot of bugs, so to fix them, it introduced the next beta 1.1 update, which fixed a crucial NFC bug. Now that it has brought a new update in the form of the beta 1.2 update, it is also coming with a lot of new bug fixes.
What’s new with the Android 15 beta 1.2 update?
Google has officially announced that the company will roll out the new Android 15 beta 2.1 update, which will provide several new fixes related to the freeze display, fix a system performance issue, resolve a system setting crash when trying to add a fingerprint, and many more. Check out the official changelog below.
Android 15 beta 1.2 update changelog
This minor update to Android 15 Beta 1 includes the following fixes:
- I fixed an issue that sometimes caused apps to freeze and display an “Application Not Responding” message. (Issue #328865524)
- Fixed a system performance issue that caused excessive battery drain in some cases. (Issue #335718464, Issue #335188185)
- Fixed an issue that caused the system Settings app to crash when trying to add a fingerprint. (Issue #334035378, Issue #335481930)
- Fixed an issue that prevented the system back gesture from working in some cases. (Issue #331303569, Issue #334738577)
- Fixed an issue that could cause the screen to flicker repeatedly. (Issue #325555461)
The latest beta update is now live for all the eligible Pixel devices; more specifically, it has started rolling out to the Pixel 6 or nearby devices. The latest update is coming with the firmware version number AP31.240322.027. The latest update is coming with the same April 2024 security patch that has already arrived with previous updates. To check for the new version, you just need to go to the system settings, select software update, touch the system update, and tap the check for updates button. You may have to tap the button more than once to trigger the download, but if all this fails, then you can also manually install the update via official factory image files.