Android 15 Beta 2 is Here for Pixel Devices and Non-Pixel Devices

It wouldn’t be a Google I/O week without a brand new Android 15 Beta release. Prepare your Pixel devices, my friends, for the Android 15 Beta 2 update. Oh, and if you don’t own a Pixel, you may be schedule for your own little taste test of Android 15.

Google released the newest Android 15 beta build today for the Pixel 6 up through the Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel Fold. We should see the first beta for the Pixel 8a as well. As the second beta, expect this to be quite stable, although we still have future updates in June and July to further button things up before Android 15 goes stable. Google is calling this an “incremental Beta-quality release.”

What’s new in Android 15 Beta 2? There could be a lot of changes, but we’ll have to get it on device first. For now, Google is saying the following to describe what’s you should look forward to:

• Private Space: This is official as a secure space in the phone where you can keep sensitive apps. It lives under an additional layer of authentication and as a separate user profile. You can choose to lock it with your phone’s device lock or it can have its own lock factor. The private space lives inside of a separate container in your phone’s launcher, plus user generated or downloaded content remain separate from the main or non-private space. That said, Google has already acknowledged a bug in Beta 2 that affects home screen apps. They plan to fix it in the coming days.
• Large screen device multi-tasking: Multi-tasking on big screens in Android 15 is improved now thanks to taskbar pinning. This should allow you to quickly switch between apps.
• Picture-in-Picture smoothness: This new Beta 2 is making PiP have a smoother transition when you enter PiP mode. Google is making changes make the entering animation better and flicker free.
• Predictive Back: The predictive back gesture is no longer hidden behind a developer option going forward, so that should lead to less guessing when you use the back gesture in Android. The idea is to show you “back-to-home, cross-task, and cross-activity” previews when you leave apps.
• Vibration effects in notification channels: Yep, you’ll soon be able to set specific vibration effects in notification channels. Maybe I should start using notification channels.
• More Health Connect data: In the latest Health Connect update, Google is adding two new metrics – skin temperature and training plans.

Now, that’s not all that is new here. Google has a lengthy developer post below that you should jump into if you want to know more. They talk through GPU improvements, tweaks to foreground tasks, 16KB pages, and more.

Android 15 Beta 2 downloads: To get Android 15 Beta 2 on your Pixel phone, you’ll want to enroll in the Android Beta Program. This is the easiest way, as Google will send it to you over-the-air. However, if you want to manually update, you can – you’ll find Android 15 Beta 2 factory images here and the OTA files here.

If you own one of the Pixel devices below, you can run Android 15 Beta 2.

• Pixel 6 and 6 Pro
• Pixel 6a
• Pixel 7 and 7 Pro
• Pixel 7a
• Pixel Fold
• Pixel Tablet
• Pixel 8 and 8 Pro
• Pixel 8a

Android 15 for non-Pixel phones: And if you own devices from Honor, iQOO, Lenovo, Nothing, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Sharp, Tecno, vivo, or Xiaomi, Google says they should have beta builds available as well. You can check for your device at this site.

More soon on this latest Android 15 Beta update!

// Android Developers