Personal House, app archiving, and extra

Android 15 — Google’s massive characteristic replace for Android in 2024 — is now accessible for obtain on eligible Google Pixel devices. For some context, model 15 of the corporate’s flagship cell working system was truly finalized back on September 3, within the type of an Android Open Source Project (AOSP) launch.

It took Google just a bit bit longer than anticipated to ship its modified Pixel implementation of Android 15 to us, however we lastly have our arms on it now. The change log is fairly lengthy, although a lot of the enhancements and tweaks are under-the-hood versus user-facing. However, there are a number of notable additions to mess around with — listed here are my 5 private favorites.

1 Android lastly has its personal devoted Personal House.

A protracted-time staple of third-party Android skins makes its method to the Pixel

Google / Pocket-lint

Many third-party producers have lengthy supplied a password protected ‘personal’ mode as a part of their Android pores and skin overlay. It has been a very long time coming, however I am pleased to see Google lastly implement a comparable characteristic into the core Android expertise.

Enter Personal House — as soon as activated in settings, it will create a separate enclave inside your app drawer for securing any app behind safe authentication. If this sounds much like iOS 18’s ‘Hide and Require Face ID’ feature, that is as a result of it’s (although applied in a different way, the core idea is comparable)

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2 Theft Detection Lock, Offline Machine Lock, and Distant Lock are all much-appreciated additions

Hopefully, you may by no means want to make use of any of those security measures

Google / Pocket-lint

This subsequent perform, Theft Detection Lock, makes use of on-device AI in live performance along with your cellphone’s gyroscope sensor to activate itself. Within the unlikely occasion that an individual snatches your cellphone out of your hand and takes off with it, the characteristic shortly locks your cellphone display to guard your private knowledge.

Offline Machine Lock routinely lockd your cellphone display if the Android system detects that any individual is making an attempt to disconnect your cellphone from the web for prolonged intervals. After which there’s Distant Lock: a new web portal that lets you remotely lock your Android’s display just by typing within the cellphone quantity related along with your SIM.

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3 App archiving is applied on the system stage

The proper instrument for once you’re operating low on space for storing

Google

App archiving is a great tool that lets you delete the components of an app that take up treasured space for storing with out having to delete your private knowledge within the course of. Primarily, it lets you extra simply re-download the complete utility and proceed off precisely the place you left off.

App archiving is nothing new to working methods, however now it is correctly constructed into Android at a decrease stage than beforehand. Even higher, based on a deep dive by Mishaal Rahman over at Android Authority, the characteristic seems to work on apps put in from sources exterior the Google Play Retailer. As cellphone apps proceed to develop in scope and measurement, straightforward archival choices are an enormous quality-of-life addition in my eyes.

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4 We lastly have a battery cost limiter baked into the OS

On the subject of smartphone battery administration, extra choices are higher than fewer

A battery cost limiter setting is yet one more characteristic that is been round on different working methods and Android skins for a while now. In brief, it lets you cap your cellphone’s battery to an 80% cost versus 100%, with a view to protect the long run well being of your energy cell.

Batteries degrade faster after they’re uncovered to low cost or excessive cost percentages for prolonged intervals, so this characteristic is a justified OS inclusion. At the moment, the setting solely permits for an 80% cap. I would like to see further flexibility in a future replace, with non-compulsory cap charges of 85% and even 90%.

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5 The Android pill expertise simply bought higher

Google continues to slowly however certainly enhance on Android for giant screens.

Google / Pocket-lint

Google started reinvesting within the pill area with the launch of Android 12L in 2021. Since then, the corporate has slowly been chipping away at tablet-friendly OS enhancements, one replace at a time. Fortunately, this development continues with Android 15.

There is a new choice to drive the taskbar to stay on display always, versus the ‘transient’ model that floats out and in of view. In the meantime, a brand new app pairs characteristic permits you to shortly launch any two apps concurrently in split-screen mode, which is nice from a productiveness perspective.

There’s additionally a brand new devoted widgets space accessible from the lock display, just by swiping over to the best. Curiously, Google has elected to maintain lock display widgets tablet-exclusive at the moment. I am hopeful that the characteristic will likely be backported onto phone-sized screens in a future replace. Google seems to be taking part in the lengthy recreation relating to Android tablets, and I am excited to see how the OS will continue to evolve to raised accommodate big-screen devices.

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