Following last month’s platform stability, Android 15 Beta 4 is rolling out to Pixel devices today. This is officially the near-final build and the “last planned update” of this testing cycle.
Google says “these OTAs will begin tonight PDT”.
…so make sure your apps are ready and you’ve given us critical feedback before non-beta users start getting Android 15.
As the second platform stability release, “developer APIs and all app-related behavior are final”. Google could still release 4.x patches in the coming weeks.
One thing app developers should be aware of is how Android 15 removes the legacy PNG-based emoji font file (NotoColorEmojiLegacy.ttf). In Android 13, Google switched to a vector file, but kept the old approach for compatibility reasons. Move forward:
…some Android 15 devices like the Pixel will only have the vector file.
The following issues are fixed in Beta 4:
Issues reported by the developer
- Fixed a contrast issue that made some elements in quick settings tiles hard to read. (Issue #340944691)
- Fixed an issue that in some rare cases caused some Pixel devices to get stuck in an unbootable state if the device was factory reset shortly after installing an OTA system update. (Issue #349860641, Issue #349978813)
Other issues resolved
- Fixed an issue where an Android Virtual Device (AVD) using an Android 15 image would sometimes fail to launch if the AVD was launched in embedded mode.
- Fixed an issue that sometimes caused app notification settings to fail to restore when restoring the device from a backup.
- Fixed an issue for Pixel Fold devices that prevented the user from continuing to register Face Unlock if the device was folded or unfolded during the process.
- Fixed various other issues that impacted system stability, connectivity, performance, usability, and camera.
Bluetooth solved the problems
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Digital Car Key app from performing a low latency scan when running in the foreground.
- Fixed using custom UUIDs instead of standard HOGP service UUID in Android Head-tracking.
- Take advantage of the head-tracking codec capabilities to detect transmission support in the LE Audio stack.
- A fix has been made to prevent Bluetooth pairing requests from being rejected immediately when there is a mismatch between the traffic proposed by the API and the traffic observed by the Bluetooth stack, potentially improving pairing success.
Known issues:
Android platform
- When the application window goes into picture-in-picture (PiP) mode, the picture-in-picture window disappears if the device is rotated before the picture-in-picture transition is complete.
- An error page appears when adding an account during device setup.
Android Studio and Tools
- The preview API level for Android 15 (VanillaIceCream) is not displayed in the Preview Configuration window.
- In some cases, when checking for updates in Android Studio, the latest version of the Android SDK Build-Tools, which includes the Android 15 Preview SDK, is not offered.
- When configuring a new project in Android Studio, the Android 15 Preview SDK version is not listed in the Target SDK Version and Minimum SDK Version drop-down menus.
- Android Virtual Device (AVD) using Android 15 image sometimes fails to start when AVD is running in embedded mode.
- An issue with the Android emulator sometimes prevents the application from being redeployed to the Android Virtual Device (AVD) after closing the AVD.
- An issue with the Android emulator causes the hearing aid accessibility shortcut to launch multiple settings app windows.
- An issue with the Android emulator causes the notification window to flash when typing a direct reply.
- An issue with the Android emulator sometimes causes the authentication flows in apps to fail and the message “Google Play Services keeps stopping” appears.
- An issue with the Android emulator causes Simpleperf to crash when running the CPU profile.
- An issue with the Android emulator causes the 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 not launch.
- An issue with Android Studio causes Device Manager to temporarily stop displaying “Missing system image…” warning messages after adding or removing an SDK using SDK Manager.
- An issue with the Android emulator prevents the Google Discover feed from loading in some cases.
Application
- “Android System Intelligence keeps stopping” when creating a file in Google Docs.
- The Google TV app sometimes fails to start video playback and instead displays the message “Movies and TV Play is temporarily unavailable”.
You can leave feedback on the Pixel using Android Beta Feedback. Access it from the app drawer or through the Quick Settings tile and log errors in the Google issue tracker. There is also an Android Beta community on Reddit.
Android 15 Beta 4 (AP31.240617.009) with July 2024 security patch is 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 and Android Emulator too. 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 to 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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