Following the release of the platform stability build last month, Android 15 Beta 4 is now rolling out to Pixel devices. It’s officially a near-final release and the “last scheduled update” of this preview build cycle.
OTA images will officially be “available for download later today.”
…so make sure your apps are ready and you’ve given us important feedback before non-beta users start receiving Android 15.
As this is the second stability release for the platform, “developer APIs and all app-related behaviors are final.” Google may still release 4.x patches in the coming weeks.
One thing app developers should note is that Android 15 is removing the PNG-based emoji font file (NotoColorEmojiLegacy.ttf). In Android 13, Google moved to a vector-based file, but kept the old approach for compatibility reasons. Here’s what:
…some Android 15 devices like Pixel will only have the vector-based file.
The following issues have been fixed in Beta 4:
Issues reported by developers
- Fixed an issue with contrast that made some elements in the quick settings tiles difficult to read. (Issue #340944691)
- Fixed an issue that in rare cases caused some Pixel devices to become stuck in an unbootable state if the device was reset to factory settings shortly after installing an OTA system update. (Issue #349860641, Issue #349978813)
Other problems solved
- Fixed an issue where an Android Virtual Device (AVD) using an Android 15 system image sometimes failed to boot if the AVD was started in seamless mode.
- Fixed an issue that sometimes caused app notification settings to fail to be restored when restoring a device from a backup.
- Fixed an issue on Pixel Fold devices that prevented a user from continuing with Face Unlock enrollment if the device was folded or unfolded during the process.
- Fixed several other issues affecting system stability, connectivity, performance, usability, and camera.
Bluetooth issues resolved
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Digital Car Key app from performing low latency scans when running in the foreground.
- Made a fix to use custom UUIDs instead of the standard HOGP service UUID in the Android Head Tracking Service.
- Use head tracking codec capabilities to detect transport support in the LE audio stack.
- A fix has been made to prevent immediate rejection of Bluetooth pairing requests when there is a mismatch between the transport suggested by the API and the transport observed by the Bluetooth stack, potentially improving pairing success rates.
Known issues:
Android Platform
- When an app window switches to picture-in-picture (PiP) mode, the PiP window disappears if the device is rotated before the PiP transition completes.
- An error page appears when adding an account during device setup.
Android Studio and Tools
- Android 15 (VanillaIceCream) Preview API level is not displayed in the Preview Settings window.
- In some cases, when checking for updates in Android Studio, the latest version of Android SDK Build-Tools that includes the Android 15 Preview SDK is not offered.
- When setting up a new project in Android Studio, the Android 15 SDK Preview version does not appear in the Target SDK Version and Minimum SDK Version drop-down menus.
- Sometimes an Android Virtual Device (AVD) using an Android 15 system image fails to boot if the AVD is started in seamless mode.
- An issue with the Android emulator sometimes prevents an app from redeploying to an Android Virtual Device (AVD) after the AVD is closed.
- An issue with the Android emulator causes the hearing device accessibility shortcut to launch multiple settings app windows.
- An issue with the Android emulator causes the notification window to flicker when typing a direct reply.
- An issue with the Android emulator sometimes causes authentication flows in apps to fail and display the message “Google Play Services keeps stopping.”
- An issue with the Android emulator causes Simpleperf to crash when running a CPU profile.
- An issue with the Android emulator causes languages listed in the system language settings to display incorrect characters.
- An issue with the Android emulator sometimes causes the QR code scanner to display a “Something went wrong” message and fail to launch.
- An issue with Android Studio causes Device Manager to temporarily stop displaying “System image missing…” warning messages after adding or removing an SDK platform using SDK Manager.
- An issue with the Android emulator prevents the Google Discover feed from loading in some cases.
Applications
- “Android System Intelligence keeps stopping” message appears when creating a file in the Google Docs app.
- The Google TV app sometimes fails to start playing video and instead displays the message “Play Movies & TV is temporarily unavailable.”
On Pixel, you can leave feedback using Android Beta Feedback. Access it from the app drawer or through the Quick Settings tile to report bugs on Google’s issue tracker. There’s also the Android Beta Community on Reddit.
Android 15 Beta 4 (AP31.240617.009) with the July 2024 security patch is now available for Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a, Pixel Tablet, Pixel Fold, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel 8a devices, as well as the Android Emulator. Most people will install through the Android Beta Program, but you can also flash or sideload.
If you need help, here’s our complete guide on installing Android 15.
- Pixel 8a: Factory Image (OTA)
- Pixel 8 Pro: Factory Image (OTA)
- Pixel 8: Factory Image (OTA)
- Pixel Tablet: Factory Image (OTA)
- Pixel Fold: Factory Image (OTA)
- Pixel 7a: Factory Image (OTA)
- Pixel 7 Pro: Factory Image (OTA)
- Pixel 7: Factory Image (OTA)
- Pixel 6a: Factory Image (OTA)
- Pixel 6 Pro: Factory Image (OTA)
- Pixel 6: Factory Image (OTA)
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