Android 15 Beta 2 Update Arrives with These Exciting Changes

With a month before from the stable release of Android 15, most major changes and improvements in the Beta 2 appear to be reserved in the background focusing on privacy, security, performance, battery life, and more. However, there are also a few iterations in the surface that are outright noticeable for users.

Private Space

Android has long featured the ability to hide or lock away apps, but with Android 15, Google is expanding this by introducing a dedicated container inside the launcher called Private Space.

As detailed in the blog post, users can place and lock away apps into this space. They can only access these apps through the selected lock method or biometric. If the space is locked, apps profiles including generated content and notifications are hidden, so you won’t be bombarded with pushes and updates.

Better background tasks management for a longer battery life

Android 15 Beta 2 is also improving battery life in devices at least at a developer level. Specifically, with the latest beta, foreground apps and services will now have a preconfigured and shorter timeout after which these apps and services will be rolled into background. Subsequently, background apps have restricted functions that result into optimized performance and minimized power drawn by the system.

Improved multitasking for tablets

A new enhancement that specifically target Android tablets and other large screen devices is on the multitasking front. Android 15 Beta 2 is adding support for taskbar and split-view apps to be pinned on the home screen for quicker access. At the same time, apps are more adaptive and bring edge-to-edge view, utilizing empty spaces more efficiently than before.

Personalized widget previews and predictive back gesture

Google is making Generated Previews more personalized in this Beta release. Apps with widgets support can use the improved widget manager which will fetch the most relevant information and generated them into the widget that is displayed in the home screen or lock screen.

Following of appearing in the preview versions of Android 15, predictive back is now available for migrated apps. Predictive back adds visual cues to gesture-based controls such as showing an arrow when going back to the previous page.

Customized vibrations and new Bluetooth toggle

With Android 15 Beta 2, it is now possible to customize vibrations for app notifications. You can set a different vibration pattern and intensity for a specific app to better identify it from the other apps without pulling out and checking your phone’s screen.

A new Bluetooth toggle to enable the connectivity on the next day is also added. Inside the Bluetooth settings, the toggle is aptly called “Automatically turn on again tomorrow,” which a useful touch as Google and Apple rolls outs cross-platform unwanted Bluetooth tracking alerts.

Where are the new AI features?

Apart from these changes, there are numerous bug fixes and updated security patches tagged in the Beta 2 as well. But where are the AI goodies Google showcased? Well, the internet search giant has not mentioned in the Beta 2, so it’s likely they plan to deploy new AI technologies iteratively and per service update.

The Beta 2 update is compatible to Google’s Pixel smartphones including the Pixel 6 series all the way to the Pixel 8 series (review), Pixel Fold (review), and Pixel Tablet (review).

More Android devices can now install Android 15 Beta

Along with the release of Android 15 Beta 2, Google announced that the first Android 15 Beta build is hitting more devices from manufacturers which developers and testers can download and install. As usual the actual list of devices supported still depend on the manufacturer. But so far, you can find below the confirmed OEMs:

• Xiaomi
• Oppo
• Vivo
• OnePlus
• Honor
• iQOO
• Lenovo
• Nothing
• realme
• Sharp
• Tecno

Do you rock a Google Pixel handset? And so, have you installed the Android 15 Beta? Share with us what other changes have you discovered.