Posted by Matthew McCullough – VP of Product Management, Android Developer
Today's Android 15 Beta 3 release takes Android 15 to Platform Stability, which means that the developer APIs and all app-facing behaviors are now final for you to review and integrate into your apps, and apps targeting Android 15 can be made available in Google Play. Thank you for all of your continued feedback in getting us to this milestone.
Android 15 continues our work to build a platform that helps improve your productivity while giving you new capabilities to produce superior media and AI experiences, take advantage of device form factors, minimize battery impact, maximize smooth app performance, and protect user privacy and security, all on the most diverse lineup of devices.
Android delivers enhancements and new features year-round, and your feedback on the Android beta program plays a key role in helping Android continuously improve. The Android 15 developer site has lots more information about the beta, including how to get it on devices and the release timeline. We’re looking forward to hearing what you think, and thank you in advance for your continued help in making Android a platform that works for everyone.
Given where we are in the release cycle, there are just a few new things in the Android 15 Beta 3 release for you to consider when developing your apps.
Improved user experience for passkeys and Credential Manager
Users will be able to sign-into apps that target Android 15 using passkeys in a single step with facial recognition, fingerprint, or screen lock. If they accidentally dismiss the prompt to use a passkey to sign-in, they will be able to see the passkey or other Credential Manager suggestions in autofill conditional user interfaces, such as keyboard suggestions or dropdowns.
Single-step UI experience
Fallback UI experience
Credential Provider integration for the single-step UI
Registered credential providers will be able to use upcoming APIs in the Jetpack androidx.credentials library to hand off the user authentication mechanism to the system UI, enabling the single-step authentication experience on devices running Android 15.
App integration for autofill fallback UI
When you present the user with a selector at sign-in using Credential Manager APIs, you can associate a Credential Manager request with a given view, such as a username or a password field. When the user focuses on one of these views, Credential Manager gets an associated request, and provider-aggregated resulting credentials are displayed in autofill fallback UIs, such as inline or dropdown suggestions.
WebSQL deprecated in Android WebView
The setDatabaseEnabled and getDatabaseEnabled WebSettings are now deprecated. These settings are used for WebSQL support inside Webview. WebSQL is removed in Chrome and is now deprecated on Android Webview. These methods will become a no-op on all Android versions in the next 12 months.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) encourages apps needing web databases to adopt Web Storage API technologies like IndexedDB.
If you develop an SDK, library, tool, or game engine, it's even more important to prepare any necessary updates now to prevent your downstream app and game developers from being blocked by compatibility issues and allow them to target the latest SDK features. Please let your developers know if updates are needed to fully support Android 15.
Testing your app involves installing your production app using Google Play or other means onto a device or emulator running Android 15 Beta 3. Work through all your app's flows and look for functional or UI issues. Review the behavior changes to focus your testing. Each release of Android contains platform changes that improve privacy, security, and overall user experience, and these changes can affect your apps. Here are several changes to focus on that apply even if you don't yet target Android 15:
- Package stopped state changes - Android 15 updates the behavior of the package FLAG_STOPPED state to keep apps stopped until the user launches or indirectly interacts with the app.
- Support for 16KB page sizes - Beginning with Android 15, Android supports devices that are configured to use a page size of 16 KB. If your app or library uses the NDK, either directly or indirectly through an SDK, then you will likely need to rebuild your app for it to work on these devices.
- Private space support - Private space is a new feature in Android 15 that lets users create a separate space on their device where they can keep sensitive apps away from prying eyes, under an additional layer of authentication.
- Predictive back animations enabled - Beginning in Android 15, system animations such as back-to-home, cross-task, and cross-activity will now appear for apps that have opted in to the predictive back gesture either entirely or at an activity level.
Remember to thoroughly exercise libraries and SDKs that your app is using during your compatibility testing. You may need to update to current SDK versions or reach out to the developer for help if you encounter any issues.
Once you’ve published the Android 15-compatible version of your app, you can start the process to update your app's targetSdkVersion. Review the behavior changes that apply when your app targets Android 15 and use the compatibility framework to help quickly detect issues.
Today's beta release has everything you need to try out Android 15 features, test your apps, and give us feedback. Now that we’re in the beta phase, you can check here to get information about enrolling your device; Enrolling supported Pixel devices will deliver this and future Android Beta updates over-the-air. If you don’t have a supported device, you can use the 64-bit system images with the Android Emulator in Android Studio. If you're already in the Android 14 QPR beta program on a supported device, you'll automatically get updated to Android 15 Beta 3.
For the best development experience with Android 15, we recommend that you use the latest version of Android Studio Koala. Once you’re set up, here are some of the things you should do:
- Try the new features and APIs - your feedback is critical during the early part of the developer preview and beta program. Report issues in our tracker on the feedback page.
- Test your current app for compatibility - learn whether your app is affected by changes in Android 15; install your app onto a device or emulator running Android 15 and extensively test it.
- Update your app with the Android SDK Upgrade Assistant - The latest Android Studio Koala Feature Drop release now covers android 15 API changes and walks you through the steps to upgrade your targetSdkVersion with the Android SDK Upgrade Assistant.
We’ll update the beta system images and SDK regularly throughout the remainder of the Android 15 release cycle. Read more here.
For complete information, visit the Android 15 developer site.
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