• Google has released the first public beta for Android 15.
• Unfortunately, only users with Pixel smartphones will be able to download the update and begin testing it.
• So far only accessibility improvements and new camera software features for developers have been revealed by the public beta, but more is expected later this year at Google I/O.

It seemed like almost yesterday that the first public beta for Android 14 rolled out so that the public could begin testing and developers could start working on app updates, and now Android 15 is already seeing its first public beta released to the world.

Unfortunately, the beta is only available to users with Google Pixel smartphones but those users and developers can download and start testing out all the new features for Android 15 right now, through the first beta build, which is no doubt somewhat unstable.

For the rest of us non-Pixel users, we can only sit back and read all the updates coming in the new version of the Android OS. Here we can see according to Google’s update material that apps will now scale edge to edge by default, and will draw behind see-through system bars on the top and bottom of the screen instead of around them like previously.

Android 15 will also have better support for Braille displays continuing Google’s work towards increasing accessibility features with every iteration of the OS. According to a report from The Verge, there seems to be more in the OS than Google is highlighting with its blog post on the topic.

This includes better support for third-party camera apps, and even partial screen recording tech. Low-light images will appear brighter in Android 15-running devices thanks to an update with camera software, and app developers will be able to access flash controls to adjust flash brightness even more easily.

It seems Google is leaving the best and freshest new features for its Google I/O event later this year. The event is scheduled for 14th May, and if it is anything like last year’s event, it will be AI-heavy. Apart from new features coming to Android, improvements to Google Gemini and updates to Google’s range of products like Gmail, Maps, Photos and others, are also expected.

[Image – Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash]