The first beta of Android 15 is now available to developers and owners of Google Pixel smartphones

Google has announced the release of the first beta version of Android 15. The operating system is available for both developers and Pixel users, SiliconANGLE reports.

The new release of the Android platform includes updates that improve basic performance, such as support for archiving applications at the operating system level, improved communication, and better support for large-screen applications.

Android communications have also been updated for Braille displays, and security and privacy have been prioritized in the beta.

Apps in Android 15 are designed for large screens by default, which means they no longer need to call “Window.setDecorFitsSystemWindows(false)” or “enableEdgeToEdge()” to show content behind system bars.

Android 15 also adds support for archiving and unarchiving applications at the OS level, which will make it easier to use this feature and give users more free space on their devices. Archiving involves partially removing elements of an application from a mobile phone.

When an application is archived, it removes the Android package set, a package that contains the files for installing and running the application on the device, as well as any cached data, while retaining user data.

With the new PerformanceManager class, apps can now manage and collect profile information from within the app to help improve performance.

The Android development team announced that they plan to add this feature to the Android Jetpack application programming interface, which will make it easier to collect dumps, stack sampling, etc. The API also has a speed limiter so that the application does not affect performance.

The TalkBack screen reader built into Android has been updated to support Braille displays using the Human Interface Devices (HID) standard, both via USB and secure Bluetooth.

The HID standard is a device class definition that has opened up USB drivers to a variety of devices such as mice, keyboards, and game controllers, so it should eventually make braille displays more accessible to Android devices.

Android 15 makes additional changes to the way background apps work to prevent them from pushing other apps to the foreground, elevating privilege, and abusing user interaction. This will give people more control over their devices and prevent malware from controlling devices behind the scenes.

Now that Android 15 has entered the beta phase, users can register any supported Pixel device to receive this version and future Android betas. It is also possible to test this beta version using a 64-bit system image on the Android emulator in Android Studio.