5 features I hope Google brings to Android 15

Over a decade and a half, Google has made Android as beautiful and natural to use as it can be. Since Android 13, the challenge has been to make the platform more useful to those who live on it with each passing year. It’s a lot of work for small additions that you probably might not care about when you first hear about them, but you might come to appreciate what these improvements can do to make something you don’t think about often seem effortless.

We’ve gotten some hints about what goodies Android 15 might bring later this year from people who know the code. But let’s cut away from the command lines and focus on a few changes we think will make the most difference to you.

Improved audio streaming with Auracast

Auracast is a pretty sweet name for an awesome feature that’s enabled by the Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) Audio standard. If you’ve got wireless headphones connected to your smartphone, you can use your phone to tap into local area broadcasts or streams, then have your headphones connected directly to the broadcast source. The stream won’t need to pass through your phone, meaning you’ll be getting better quality audio and less latency than if it did.

The practical applications seem endless. Auracast streams can be set up for descriptive narration services at exhibitions or live translation at performance venues. You can listen to what’s being played on muted TVs in public locations. Silent discos will have the bandwidth to provide more stations than their existing fixed-channel headphone setups. Heck, you can even just initiate an Auracast stream yourself and get all of your friends vibing to the same beat at the campus café.

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Android has been working on Auracast support in its recent beta releases, but the current speculation is that it will go official with Android 15.

Speaking of Bluetooth …

Bluetooth Quick Settings, pretty please

Android 9 Marshmallow was an annoying update for those who wanted to switch up their Bluetooth connections without having to dip three menus deep into system settings because it killed off expandable Quick Settings tiles. With Android 12, Google consolidated the Wi-Fi and Cellular Data tiles into a single one called ‘Internet’ and brought back an expanded dialog box, allowing people to be mindful of which networks they’re using.

Don’t call it a comeback yet, but it sounds as though Android 15 may be Google’s chosen opportunity to bring back the expanded Bluetooth Quick Settings tile with the ability to turn the radio on or off, connect or disconnect with recognized devices, and even pair with a new device.

In an era where we’re able to listen to millions of hours of audio in all sorts of places without as many cables plugged in, Bluetooth device management shouldn’t be the 110m hurdles event at the Summer Olympics. Good on Google if it’s going through with this.

Let me create App Pairs

Android has had a split-screen mode (officially “multi-window”) baked into the platform since the days of 7.0 Nougat. Even before that, individual OEMs, including Samsung and LG, had their own split-screen implementations. Samsung, in particular, had a nested feature within its Apps Edge suite that let users create shortcuts to open up designated pairs of applications in split-screen mode. Come Android 15, more users might be able to take advantage of a potential feature called App Pair.

Tablet owners are set to benefit the most, since productivity on a large screen demands quick multi-window toggling. But even when we’re talking about phones or foldables, they would also be a great surface to leverage App Pairs such as YouTube and Discord, WhatsApp and Netflix, and other combos that are heavy on multimedia and interaction.

View notifications in landscape orientation

The Android 12L update brought a breath of fresh air for tablets with a range of interface design changes to suit a large-screen experience. One of them was breaking the notification shade into two columns: one for Quick Settings, the other for the notification feed. It’s a better use of space, and it’s something Google should’ve taken to the phones in landscape mode a long time ago.

Well, it looks like Android 15 will finally do just that. It should be noted that this change along with others were found in an Android 14 QPR2 beta, but we probably might not actually see them go into stable software until much later. Maybe that will be for the next major Android 14 quarterly update, maybe it will be Android 15.

In any case, dealing with notifications while watching ESPN, Netflix, or YouTube fullscreen won’t be as bothersome with the new design. It also might make for a better time if you have a phone standing on your bedside table where you settle your phone down in landscape mode.

We can’t get away from them. And, honestly, I can’t wait to have them. Having more visible information such as future weather, stock information, commute times, and so much more without even having to unlock my phone is way too useful.

Going past the lock screen threshold opens me up, personally, to become distracted by other content on my phone, so diving in for a few seconds to get the information I want and then putting my phone back in my pocket truly works for me. If I can also get shortcuts that take me past my home screen and directly to what I need to do, it is also a brain-saver.

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