Android 15: An incremental update

That said, Android 15 follows the same-same-but-different maxim—so there’s not nothing to look forward to. Let's break down the key changes and explore the standout features on this new Android flavour, internally codenamed "Vanilla Ice Cream."

Privacy and Security

Android 15 introduces significant enhancements and nifty upgrades that elevate Android's privacy game and safeguards your data. One of the key focus areas this time around is theft prevention to ensure your data isn't accessible if your device is stolen.

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The feature leverages the on-device AI smarts and uses the onboard sensors to determine if your phone is stolen—that is, when someone snatches your phone and runs or drives away when you were using it. In such an event, the device locks itself automatically, preventing unauthorized access to personal information.

Aside from that, there’s a Remote Lock feature if you lose your phone—you can easily lock it with a phone number by going to android.com/lock. Of course, the device needs to be online for this feature to work. If your device is offline, its screen will lock automatically once it's online. But there’s a separate feature as well to help protect your data that locks your phone shortly after your device goes offline.

Then there’s Private Space, a sandbox which hides selected apps from the app drawer away from prying eyes and requires additional authentication for access. It allows you to make sensitive apps (such as dating or adult-themed apps) virtually invisible—not just from the app list, but also recent apps view, notifications, and even settings. For those who want ultimate discretion for myriad reasons, you can even hide the existence of the Private Space altogether.

Of course, we’ve seen similar implementations before—Secure Folder on Samsung One UI, Hidden Space on OnePlus’ OxygenOS, etc. And it’s quite likely that most brands will continue to refine their implementation instead of offering Private Space as is. Private Space also allows you to run a second instance of an app without too much of a hassle, just like the nifty app clone feature on Xiaomi’s MIUI or OPPO’s ColorOS, for example.

Productivity

Android 15 refines multitasking features, making split-screen mode and recent app navigation more efficient. The improvements are more pronounced on foldable devices, allowing better continuity and seamless transition of apps between cover and inner displays.

With Android 15, you can now pin a floating taskbar to the screen, making it quicker and easier to switch between apps. The update also introduces paired app shortcuts allowing users to save their favourite split-screen app combinations for quick access. These are welcome optimizations considering the significant adoption of foldable smartphones in recent times even though the Android software experience has been limited on large-sized screens, including tablets, all this while.

Android 15 also introduces changes to the built-in screen recording capability—you can now use partial screen recording to record just a specific app instead of the entire screen. This aids privacy while sharing content, since other details like network connectivity, unread notifications, or the status bar will not show up in the recording.

Additionally, Android 15 includes substantial improvements to the PDF experience allowing apps to incorporate advanced features such as rendering password-protected files, annotations, form editing, searching, and selection with copy.

Camera

Android 15 gives third-party apps deeper access to camera hardware and its algorithms, potentially leading to more innovative and feature-rich camera experiences in the future.

Moreover, the new Low Light Boost auto-exposure feature enhances image quality in challenging light conditions, reducing noise and improving detail. Low Light Boost provides an enhanced image preview to allow us to frame our low-light pictures better and allows scanning QR codes in low light.

User Experience

While the under-the-hood optimizations contribute to smoother performance and better user experience on Android 15, there’s a few standout refinements. The haptics are better as well! Android 15 also adds features that improve accessibility for visually challenged users, making the platform more inclusive for users with disabilities.

Android 15 has a brand-new volume panel with bigger pills and chunky controls. It’s cleaner, and more visually appealing. Of course, there’s a chance that most smartphone manufacturers would instead continue with their own implementations, and one would be able to experience this only on Google’s own Pixel smartphones.

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Google announced support for app archiving last year, allowing users to free up space by removing infrequently used apps while still having its data preserved. Android 15 includes OS level support for app archiving and unarchiving, making it easier for all app stores to implement it. It’s a handy feature, and could make buying base variants with limited storage capacity more

Android 15 integrates the latest extensions around Health Connect, Google’s secure and centralized platform to manage and share app-collected health and fitness data. This update adds support for additional data types across fitness, nutrition, skin temperature, training plans, and more.

Connectivity

Android 15 continues to extend platform support for satellite connectivity in areas without mobile or Wi-Fi coverage. It provides support for SMS and MMS apps as well as preloaded RCS apps to use satellite connectivity for sending and receiving messages. However, satellite connectivity isn’t available in India across the entire lineup of devices that have been launched in the market.

Additionally, Android 15 enables smoother NFC experiences to make the tap to pay experience more seamless and reliable. It also allows tighter integration with the user's preferred wallet app.

Coming To a Phone Near You

Google released Android 15 for its Pixel lineup on October 15th, 2024. The rollout for other smartphones varies for different brands, but the update has already landed for flagship smartphones from major brands like vivo, iQOO, Xiaomi, and OnePlus. Samsung though is running behind, as is the company’s cadence.

The mid-range and budget devices across brands typically receive updates later and it might take until mid-2025 or even later for some of these devices to get Android 15.

Android 15 represents a thoughtful evolution of the Android ecosystem, prioritizing security, multitasking, and large-screen device usability. It also lays the groundwork for future innovation with features like satellite connectivity and deeper camera API access.

However, the lack of a major visual refresh or a slew of groundbreaking new features to play with might temper expectations for some users. It's an incremental upgrade, for what it’s worth.