We’re about to enter August and Google is expected to finally deploy the full-fledged release of Android 15. The search giant will unveil its new Pixel flagships on August 13, and the new smartphones are expected to be among the first to run a stable Android 15 update. Ahead of their launch, the company is now rolling out the fourth and perhaps the final Android 15 beta.
Android 15 Beta 4 is Rolling Out For Users
The Android 15 beta 2 added new features like Private Spaces, a more efficient AV1 video decoder, and more. Then beta 3 finalized the APIs, allowing developers to start testing against the new additions and the deprecated features. Now with Beta 4, the only notable change is that Google deprecated the PNG-based emoji font. Since Android 13, the system has supported vector emojis. The old PNG version of the font was kept around for compatibility reasons. Now, the feature is deprecated. App developers will have plenty of time to move over to the new vector format.
Gizchina News of the week
Apps targeting Android 15 can now reach the Google Play Store. Users that install the beta OS can download the new versions. Or you might as well wait a couple more weeks for the stable release.
Here is the complete list of supported devices:
- Pixel 6
- Pixel 6 Pro
- Pixel 6a
- Pixel 7
- Pixel 7 Pro
- Pixel 7a
- Pixel Tablet
- Pixel Fold
- Pixel 8
- Pixel 8 Pro
- Pixel 8a
These devices are under the beta program, and hence, are likely the first to get stable Android 15. The stable release happens on August 13, and we expect Android OEMs to share their plans for updating shortly after the stable rollout. Samsung, for example, is already testing its Android 15-based One UI 7.0 internally. Similarly, OnePlus released beta 2 for the OnePlus 12 and Open, and Honor is testing the update with the Magic6 Pro and Magic V2.
Android 15 is mostly an incremental update over Android 14 with some quality-of-life improvements. It’s not revolutionary in terms of features and does not change the formula or design that we’ve been using since Android 12.