Android 15 Is Finally Out, But Could Take Weeks To Reach Your Smartphone

Well, it seems like things on the Android development team are humming along. No sooner had reports (and even by Google's own indirect admission) swirled around that the stable Android 15 is coming this October, along comes the announcement that source code for Google's latest Android OS experience is ready (for developers, for now). It's going live over the coming weeks for select Pixel devices, starting with the Pixel 9 series and backtracking from there. Other manufacturers are expected to follow suit.

Google's newest operating system is now available in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), open to developers. It's expected that specific Pixel phones will begin supporting Android 15 over the coming weeks. Owners of the freshly minted Pixel 9 series smartphones didn't get the new OS as planned, but can soon enjoy some of the big new features Android 15 promises. Since AOSP has just become, well, open sourced, other device makers like Samsung, OnePlus, Nothing, Oppo, Motorola, etc, can finally start final-testing and pushing out their versions of Android 15 over the coming months.

With the announcement, Google said that it has given Circle to Search the ability to search for songs. If a Circle to Search result contains a song, a musical note button becomes available that—when users tap it—pulls up a Google search card with information about the song. If this sounds similar to "Identify songs playing nearby", you'd be right. The Circle to Search method is merely another way to discover new music using powerful Shazam-like powers.


Android 15 also expands push earthquake alerts to all U.S. states and six of its territories. Presently, data from the United States Geological Survey and its ShakeAlert early warning system is available to West Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington. What's different in how earthquake data is captured and presented now is Google can leverage "crowdsourced data to determine if an earthquake is occurring" via accelerometers on Android devices. 

Foldable Android phones will see greater refinement in terms of multitasking and app experiences. There will be the ability to save split-screen app combinations to the taskbar. Devices such as the OnePlus Open already do this via their Android skins, but it's good to see native support here. When developers upgrade their apps to SDK 35, Android 15 will now allow their apps to run edge-to-edge by default, At present, many apps running on foldables in opened mode tend to have distracting letterboxing along the top and bottom edges of the display.