Android's theft protection features are officially rolling out globally!

These features lock your phone so thieves who snatch it can't get access to your data.

Also, Google will roll out a new Identity Check feature later this year.

Click here to find more details on these new features.

Alongside Android 15 for Pixel, Google is also announcing Android 15 for business today!

Android 15 brings a number of features that impact enterprises. If you're an IT admin, check out this article to see what changes could impact your users.

Today is the Android 15 update day...and I'm exhausted just reflecting on the past year I've spent meticulously digging into each developer preview and beta lol.

I'm pretty sure I've single-handedly discovered/first documented the overwhelming majority of new features in Android 15, and I hope I can continue to do that for Android 16 and beyond!

If you like hearing about what's new in Android, give me a follow or subscribe, it helps a lot!

Yep, let's see. I was first to discover/document:

* Private Space
* App archiving
* Color contrast
* Edge-to-edge enforcement
* Redesigned volume panel
* Taskbar pinning
* Cellular network security settings
* Default Wallet app
* App pairs
* Adaptive vibration
* Bluetooth auto-on
* Adaptive timeout
* Home Controls screensaver
* Device Diagnostics
* The increase to Android's minimum installable target SDK
* Disable default game framerate
* New screen share protections
* New Google Pixel Avatar app
* Pixel Launcher "show long app names" toggle
* The flag planting addition to Android's Easter egg

...and SO much more: https://authory.com/MishaalRahman

FYI: Android 15's new cellular security features that protect you from 'stingray' tracking devices are NOT available for Pixel phones in the stable release.

No current Pixels - not even the Pixel 9 - support it. Here's why.

Also, the entrypoint to the Device Diagnostics app in Settings is also NOT present in the stable Android 15 update for Pixels. It was removed in Android 15 Beta 4.2.

The app is still there, but you have to launch it manually. It was likely removed because most Pixels aren't set up to accurately report battery health statistics.

Android 15's app archiving feature works with ALL Android apps, regardless if they're distributed as APKs or Android App Bundles.

In contrast, the Play Store's auto-archiving feature only works with app bundles.

Here's why.

UPDATE: Google tells me that Night Sight for Instagram is available on all Pixel phones getting the latest Pixel Drop update, including Pixel A-Series phones!

The press material that Google originally sent out said that Night Sight for Instagram wouldn't be coming to the Pixel A-Series. However, Google's blog post said it would, but confusingly, the availability chart it shared on its support forum said it would be available on the 8a and 7a but not 6a.

Well, the availability chart has been updated, and Google confirmed to me that Night Sight for Instagram is available on the Pixel 6 and later, including A-Series.

F-Droid is the first third-party app store to support Android 15's app archiving feature!

The popular repository for FOSS apps is preparing to add support for app archiving in its next release, using new APIs Google added in Android 15.

🔗Details in this article on Android Authority.

(The contributor who submitted the patch to add app archiving support to F-Droid used my articles as background ❤️. I love when my articles help developers!)

Google is rolling out a Timeline menu on Android where you can delete, backup, or export your location history data.

Google said it'd move location history from the cloud to on-device, and it's making good on that promise.

More details can be found in my latest article for Android Authority.

OnePlus has announced that its next major version of OxygenOS - OxygenOS 15 based on Android 15 - will be unveiled next week on Friday, October 24 at 11:30AM ET!

OnePlus teases "unprecedented smooth animations effects," a "unique visual style," new features that "empower multi-tasking scenarios and personality expression," and the company's latest AI features that maximize productivity and creativity.

Looking forward to trying it out on the OnePlus 12/Open!

Motorola is the latest smartphone brand to roll out Circle to Search to its smartphones!

X user Nhyphk tells me that after receiving the October 2024 update on his Motorola Edge 50 Ultra, he now has Circle to Search.

With the addition of the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra and Razr 50, there are now over 100 Android devices that are ready for Circle to Search!

I've put together the most comprehensive list of devices that are ready for Circle to Search, which you can find here.

Android 15 introduces a new security feature wherein if multiple failed login attempts are made, the OS will lock down your device to prevent unauthorized access.

The official term for this new feature seems to be Failed Authentication Lock, and it's considered part of Android's new suite of theft protection features, alongside Theft Detection Lock, Remote Lock, and Offline Device Lock.

The existence of this feature was already known since Google announced it at I/O and also earlier this week, but the company never shared the name for it until now.

Android's new Theft Protection features are awesome, but many people probably won't find them because they're buried under layers of Settings.

Thankfully, Google is rolling out a new, easier way to access Theft Protection settings on Android!

Google Play will force many apps to use Android’s Photo Picker for better privacy

Google wants to crack down on how many apps have broad access to your personal photos & videos, so it's trying to make developers use Android's Photo Picker.

More details over on this article.

Here's an in-depth look at Android 15's new Failed Authentication Lock feature - how it works, why it requires Android 15, and a video demo!

Everything you need to know can be found in this article.

Google Chrome will soon require biometrics for password autofills if your Android phone gets stolen

Chrome is preparing to support Android's Identity Check feature, which is coming in the December Android 15 QPR1 update.

More details on this upcoming change can be found in this article.

Qualcomm says its Snapdragon 8 Elite is a quantum leap forward in performance.

It has Qualcomm's custom Oryon cores clocked at up to 4.32GHz (!), 24MB of L2 cache (!), supports Unreal Engine 5 features like Nanite, multimodal gen AI models like Gemini Nano, and more.

My article on Android Faithful details everything you need to know.

Big security improvement in Android 15!

Third-party apps with notification access can no longer read notifications that have OTP codes in them, for the most part.

This'll cut down on malware stealing OTP codes from your notifications.

More details can be found in my latest article on Android Authority.

Qualcomm will provide BSP support for the Snapdragon 8 Elite for 8 generations of Android releases.

That 8 includes the original OS release, by the way, which means Qualcomm is supporting 7 years of updates!

By the way, the actual "how" is quite interesting. Will write up an article on this soon!