The Android team at Google LLC today released the second developer preview for Android 15, which includes extended support for satellite connectivity, better support for large screens, prioritizes privacy for developers and streamlines app performance.

Previews provide a way for developers to get time hands-on with the upcoming operating system before the Android team begins to solidify all of the features. This also allows them to provide necessary feedback that can adjust how the team changes those features in future builds of the operating system. The Android team is currently seeking early feedback from application developers on new features that will help guide them on what will go into the final release.

New communication capabilities

Android 15 has extended its platform to support nonterrestrial networks such as satellites. As a result, the new preview includes developer and user interface elements that provide a more consistent experience for satellite connectivity.

Apps can now detect when a device is using a satellite network, giving them more awareness of why full network services may not be available. Additionally, the platform also now supports SMS/MMS applications for messaging over satellite.

Near Field Communication capabilities should also be smoother and more reliable for developers and users. Support devices can listen to the NFC adapter in observe mode, where the device will listen to but not respond to NFC readers.

That allows apps to signal authorization before the first communication with an NFC node, such as a tap-to-pay experience, enabling one-tap transactions in many cases. It will also lower the time that a device needs to be within range of a receiver.

Developer and user improvements

The developer preview includes improvements to PDF image rendering capabilities. They will provide apps the ability to incorporate features such as rendering password-protected files, annotations, form editing, searches and selection with copy. This uses the Pdfrender application programming interface module that can be updated using Google Play and updates independently from the platform.

Automatic language switching has been updated so that developers have better control over on-device switching between languages. Android 14 added the ability to detect when speakers switch between languages when speaking, so especially when languages switch, there’s less of a pause. Android 15 added controls that allow apps to tune the switching, including the ability to deactivate it in case it’s expected that a single language is being spoken.

Beginning in Android 15, TextView and the underlying line break display engine will pay more attention to a given portion of text to preserve more readability. Developers can take advantage of this through line break customization by using the <nobreak> tag.

Apps also gain greater flexibility on different form factors and screens. Android 14 iterated on work done to bring Android to large-screen devices by Android 12L, a user interface that added features designed to make using tablets and foldable phones simpler and easier to use, which was enhanced in Android 13. In Android 15, apps can now support even more large screens, flippables and foldables.

In addition, apps can now declare a property to allow an app or activity to present on a cover screen of a supported flappable device. Since the cover screens of these devices are extremely small, they’re not considered large enough for most apps to run on, but an app can opt in to support them. That will allow an app to become available there.

Android 15 also adds support for apps to detect screen recording to increase security and privacy. With this new feature, an app can make itself invisible to screen recording in the case that the app is doing something sensitive such as a person doing online banking, decrypting information, entering a visible password or the like.

The preview is available now with setup instructions for Pixel 6, 7 or 8 series devices, along with Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablets. For developers with access to a Pixel device, it is also possible to run the preview using a 64-bit system image using Android Emulator in Android Studio.

This is the second preview for Android 15 and platform stability is not expected until June. Before that, there will be several beta releases to refine the platform. After that, the final release for the operating system will be expected in about two months. Full details on the platform timeline are available on the Android 15 developer site.

Image: Google