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Android 15 Beta 4 is here with finishing touches ahead of the impending public release

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4 months ago

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Android 15 Beta 4 is here with finishing touches ahead of the impending public release

Summary

  • August 2024 may be when Android 15 debuts if no setbacks occur, and Google seems to be on schedule this year.
  • Android 15 Beta 4 is rolling out now as the second Platform Stability release, allowing developers to ready their apps for the new version.
  • This update doesn’t have many user-facing changes, but PNG-based emoji have been removed from Pixel phones altogether in favor of vector-based graphics.



If you remember the Android 15 development timeline Google first shared way back in February, you might have spotted that July was the last month on the line graph. This doesn’t guarantee that Android 15 will make its stable debut in August 2024 — after all, Android 14 had a similar timeline, but setbacks pushed its release to October — but if all goes to plan, this month’s beta release would be the last major version, aside from any potential x.1 patches. That time has now come, and it seems Google is right on schedule.

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Google announced Android 15 Beta 4 on its developers blog today, noting that it’s the second “Platform Stability” release after Beta 3 finalized new APIs and app-facing changes. This means developers can get their apps ready to fully integrate with the new OS version, and it also means that we’re nearing a stable release.

Android 15 release timeline

Source: Google


What’s new in this version?

For end users, not much has changed in this release. Google says it has removed the legacy PNG-based emoji font in favor of vector-based emoji, meaning they’re infinitely scalable and shouldn’t look pixelated at even the highest resolutions. This comes after Google implemented the new vector emoji in Android 13, but maintained support through Android 14. In removing the PNGs, the company says some phones, like its own Pixel line, will now only use vector graphics for their emoji.


Google’s release notes don’t mention any new functionality, but they do highlight a laundry list of fixes going live in the new version, which has a build number of AP31.240617.009 on most devices and includes the July 2024 security patches:

Android 15 Beta 4 resolves the top issues that are described in the following sections and includes fixes for some issues that are not noted here.

Developer-reported issues

  • Fixed an issue with contrast that made some elements in Quick Settings Tiles hard to read. (
    Issue #340944691
    )
  • Fixed an issue that in some rare cases caused some Pixel devices to get stuck in an unbootable state if the device was factory reset shortly after an OTA system update was installed. (
    Issue #349860641
    ,
    Issue #349978813
    )

Other resolved issues

  • Fixed an issue where sometimes an Android Virtual Device (AVD) using an Android 15 system image failed to launch if the AVD was launched in embedded mode.
  • Fixed an issue that sometimes caused app notification settings to fail to be restored when restoring a device from backup.
  • Fixed an issue for Pixel Fold devices that prevented a user from continuing Face Unlock enrollment if the device was folded or unfolded during the process.
  • Fixed various other issues that were impacting system stability, connectivity, performance, usability, and camera.

Bluetooth resolved issues

  • Fixed a bug which prevented the Digital Car Key app from performing low latency scans when running in foreground.
  • Made a fix to use custom UUIDs instead of standard HOGP service UUID in Android head-tracking service.
  • Use head-tracking codec capabilities to detect transport support in LE Audio stack.
  • Made a fix to prevent immediate rejection of Bluetooth pairing requests when there’s a mismatch between the API-suggested transport and the transport observed by the Bluetooth stack, potentially improving pairing success rates.

Importantly, this update fixes the issue that was leaving some Pixel 6 series owners with bricked devices. As Google explained earlier, factory resetting a Pixel 6, 6 Pro, or 6a after installing an update would lead to this problem if the phone was wiped in the first 15 minutes after updating. Google says this problem has been resolved in the second bullet above.


Google says today’s update may take up to 24 hours to reach all eligible Pixel phones enrolled in the Android beta program, and it has started hitting devices as of Thursday evening. You can check to see if it’s available under Settings → System → Software updates → System update → Check for update. Failing that, you could try the manual method if your bootloader’s unlocked, but Google has yet to publish the new factory images or the OTA file, so we’re stuck in a holding pattern for now.

Android 15 logo over an image of the Milky Way

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