Google's Third Beta of Android 15 Is Out, and It Has Some Handy New Security Features

Android developers now have official notice to get their apps in gear for Android 15, as Google has released the third beta for the next generation of its mobile operating system.

This beta release—following a first developer preview in February, a second preview in March, a first beta in April, and a second beta that debuted at Google I/O in May—brings Androlid 15 to its “platform stability” milestone. The headline in Google’s announcement post spells out what that means for developers: “Get your apps, libraries, tools, and game engines ready!” 

The major new feature in this preview, announced Tuesday, streamlines the user experience for passkey sign-in. Instead of Android asking if you want to use a passkey you’ve saved in the operating system, after which you can approve that cryptographically secure authentication with a tap of your phone’s fingerprint sensor, Android 15 will take you straight to that biometric prompt. 

Using a third-party password manager today requires first invoking that app, though, and Google’s post doesn’t spell out how this new system would change that. (You can also green-light a passkey login with a non-biometric login like a screen-unlock code or pattern, but those methods are less secure.)

Google's announcement post also calls out some minor changes in memory management and system animations, as well as one of Android 15’s bigger security features: the option of a Private Space for apps that you must unlock each time with your fingerprint or screen-unlock code or pattern, and which you can also connect to a different Google account. 

Best of all, Android 15 seems to be on track for release in late summer or early fall. And if the future of Android follows its past, people with Pixel phones will be first in line to get this update (Google’s documentation lists the 2021-vintage Pixel 6 as the oldest phone supported), with this update reaching newer Samsung phones weeks or months later. With other Android phones, however, Android 15’s release date is probably “never.”