Android 15 Beta 3 is here! With Beta 3, Android 15 has now reached Platform Stability. Follow me to see my coverage of what's new in Beta 3, but you can catch a rundown of what Google announced over on Android Faithful.

The latest beta should start rolling out very soon to the Pixel 6 and later. The GSI went live last night, which is how I've already been posting about the update.

Build number: AP31.240517.022
Security patch level: June 2024

The new "Google Home Controls" screen saver that I first revealed back in April is now live in Android 15 Beta 3!

Android 15 Beta 3 finally lets you trigger Circle to Search with Android's action key, meaning you can finally use CtS on both taskbars on the Pixel Fold & Pixel Tablet!

More details + a video can be found in this article.

Android 15 Beta 3 suggests that Google is working on a "Creative Assistant" app that could use generative AI to create custom stickers. The app isn't available yet, but it could be something we'll see on the Pixel 9.

More details can be found in this article.

Android 15 Beta 3 has added the "show long app names" toggle that I previously found back in April. This toggle lets you decide whether to truncate app names in the app list and search results of the Pixel Launcher.

The Adaptive Timeout feature that I discovered back in April is here in Android 15 Beta 3, at least on my Pixel 8 Pro! It doesn't seem to work for me, though.

Adaptive Timeout "automatically turns off your screen if you're not using your device."

UPDATE: Okay, I think I figured out how Adaptive Timeout works: It checks your proximity sensor to see if anything is in front of it (like the inside of your pocket). If so, it shortens the screen timeout and turns the screen off early.

This'll be useful for people who like to have longer screen timeouts but who forget to turn the screen off manually.

Here's a sneak peek at the revamped top-level settings homepage that Google is working on. This isn't live yet in Android 15 Beta 3, but I've created a mockup based on what the code suggests it'll look like.

Details on the new layout plus screenshots can be found in this article on Android Authority.

Android 15 is preparing to add a dedicated "device diagnostics" menu that not only lets you test your phone's display and touchscreen but also shows you some battery and storage health information.

More details plus screenshots can be found in my latest article for Android Authority.

Pixel phones will soon proactively alert their users to take action to cool them down when they're overheating. This alert is part of a new "Adaptive Thermal" feature that's in testing.

This hasn't rolled out yet, but you can find more details in this article.

Food for thought: Since the upcoming update to Google's Gemini Nano model will support image processing, Google could very well build something like Windows' Recall into Android.

Android already takes snapshots of your screen whenever you switch apps (they're stored in /data/system_ce/{user}/snapshots and are used for the recents screen previews), so extending this to have snapshots be taken periodically and then having Nano process these screenshots to build a searchable database is feasible.

Plus, Android's app security model makes it less likely for the database to be exfiltrated even if unencrypted (you can't access other apps' private data directories in the internal storage without superuser [which isn't available to apps by default] or an exploit), at least compared to Windows, though it should still be encrypted due to the possibility of exploits like CVE-2024-31317 existing.

Although, rather than have screenshots be taken periodically, perhaps only those screenshots manually taken by the user should be processed. That would remove a lot of the perceived scary bits of the feature.

The idea behind Recall is really neat. It's just the initial implementation wasn't.

Google just sent out invites for a #MadeByGoogle press event in August.

The event will "showcase the best of Google AI, Android software, and the Pixel portfolio of devices."

The keynote kicks off on Tuesday, August 13 at 10:00 AM PT!

Samsung's next Galaxy Unpacked event takes place in Paris before the 2024 Olympics!

On July 10, 2024 at 9AM ET, Samsung will unveil its next-gen Galaxy mobile devices. You may have already heard of them, but here's hoping they have some surprises for us next month!

Google is working to make the Android Find My Device network more reliable at locating lost items!

A spokesperson for the company shared in a statement with me that they're "actively working to roll out enhancements" to the network over the coming weeks that'll improve the "speed and ability of locating lost items." As more and more devices opt into the network, lost item findability should also keep improving. However, by default the network is set to "with network in high traffic areas" when you opt in; Google encourages Bluetooth tracker tag owners to switch to "with network in all areas" to improve the FMDN's ability to locate your tags in lower-traffic areas.

Here's Google's full statement:

We are actively working to roll out enhancements to how the Find My Device network operates that will improve the speed and ability of locating lost items over the coming weeks. Devices are continuing to join the new Find My Device network, and we expect the network to grow, which will also help improve lost device findability. We encourage Bluetooth tag owners to change their Find My Device network setting to 'With network in all areas' to help improve the network’s ability to find their lost items in lower-traffic areas.

I shared my experiences with the Chipolo and Pebblebee trackers during episode 47 of the Android Faithful podcast. I had the same experience as others: the location of my trackers was seldom updated. I'm confident this will improve, though, and hope Google will include an opt-in in the setup wizard for new Android devices!

Samsung will hold its annual developer conference on October 3, 2024, where we'll likely see the company detail its latest Android 15-based One UI 7 operating system (among other things) for Galaxy mobile devices!

H/T Android Authority

Adaptive Touch, Even Dimmer, Adaptive Timeout, and Audio Sharing: Here's even more info on these four upcoming Android 15 features! I managed to grab screenshots, too!

You can read about these new features in my latest article on Android Authority.

2076x2152: The likely display resolution of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. With such a resolution, Android normally wouldn't let users put apps into a left-right split-screen config, but fortunately Google quietly tweaked Android to support that.

More details can be found in my article on Android Authority.

PSA for users with a Pixel 6, 6 Pro, or 6A: Factory resetting your phone seems to trigger a bug that results in your phone (soft) bricking itself.

A member of the Pixel support forums' product expert program says that Google is aware of the issue and is investigating.

Via The Verge.

Gemini's new Dynamic Contextual Suggestions feature inches closer to release!

Google is preparing to push an update to Private Compute Services, the Android system app that securely handles ML model downloads, that adds support for displaying Dynamic Contextual Suggestions in the PCS network log (Settings > Security & privacy > More security & privacy > Android System Intelligence > Network usage log).

The network log will reflect whenever the on-device model for using screen information to generate contextually relevant suggestions (ie. the new Gemini Nano with multimodality) has been updated.

While digging into Android 15's new audio sharing feature, I discovered something pretty unfortunate: The Pixel 8a and Pixel 7 series might not get it.

I sincerely hope this isn't the case, but the evidence I've seen suggests this will happen.

You can read why I think so in this article on Android Authority.

Do you work for an OEM or on an AOSP project and want to enable the USB webcam feature Google introduced in Android 14 (QPR1)?

Good news, because Google has recently published documentation on how to do so!

Use a device as a webcam

With "Quick Share V2," Google is working to bring Quick Share for Chrome OS in line with Quick Share for Android.

Google is also still working on enabling Wi-Fi Direct support in Chrome OS, which will speed up Quick Share transfers.

More details can be found in this Android Authority article.