Android 15 Beta 4 rolling out to Pixel as ‘last scheduled update’

EleonJuly 18, 2024

15 4 minutes read

Android 15 Beta 4 rolling out to Pixel as ‘last scheduled update’

Following last month’s platform stability update, Android 15 Beta 4 is rolling out to Pixel devices today. It’s officially a near-final build and the “last scheduled update” of this preview cycle.

The OTA images will officially be “available for download later today.”

…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 release of platform stability, “developer APIs and all application-oriented behaviors are final.” Google may still release 4.x patches in the coming weeks.

App developers should be aware that Android 15 removes the legacy emoji font file in PNG format (NotoColorEmojiLegacy.ttf). In Android 13, Google switched to a vector file, but kept the old approach for compatibility reasons. Going forward:

…some Android 15 devices like Pixel will only have the vector file.

The following issues have been fixed in Beta 4:

Issues reported by developers

Fixed a contrast issue that made some elements in Quick Settings tiles difficult to read. (Issue #340944691)
Fixed an issue that, in rare cases, caused some Pixel devices to become 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 sometimes an Android Virtual Device (AVD) using an Android 15 system image would fail to launch if the AVD was launched in embedded mode.
Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented app notification settings from being restored when restoring a device from a backup.
Fixed an issue for Pixel Fold devices that prevented a user from continuing with Face Unlock enrollment if the device was folded or unfolded during the process.
Fixed various other issues that affected system stability, connectivity, performance, usability, and camera.

Bluetooth issues fixed

Fixed a bug that prevented the Digital Car Key app from performing low latency scans when running in the foreground.
A fix has been made to use custom UUIDs instead of the standard HOGP service UUID in the Android head tracking service.
Use the head tracking codec features to detect transport support in the LE Audio stack.
A fix has been made to prevent Bluetooth pairing requests from being immediately rejected when there is a mismatch between the transport suggested by the API and the transport observed by the Bluetooth stack, potentially improving pairing success rates.

Known issues:

Android platform

When an application window enters picture-in-picture (PiP) mode, the PiP window disappears if the device is rotated before the PiP transition completes.
An error page is displayed when adding an account during device setup.

Android Studio and Tools

Android 15 preview API level (VanillaIceCream) is not displayed in the preview configuration window.
In some cases, when checking for updates in Android Studio, the latest version of Android SDK Build-Tools which includes Android SDK 15 Preview is not offered.
When setting up a new project in Android Studio, the Android 15 SDK preview version is not listed in the Target SDK Version and Minimum SDK Version drop-down menus.
Sometimes an Android Virtual Device (AVD) using an Android 15 system image fails to launch if the AVD is launched in embedded mode.
An issue with the Android emulator sometimes prevents an app from being redeployed to an Android Virtual Device (AVD) after the AVD is closed.
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 flicker when typing a direct reply.
An issue with the Android emulator sometimes causes authentication flows in apps to fail and displays the message “Google Play Services keeps stopping”.
An issue with the Android emulator causes Simpleperf to crash when running a CPU profile.
An issue with the Android emulator causes incorrect characters to be displayed in languages listed in the system language settings.
An issue with the Android emulator sometimes causes the QR code scanner to display “An error has occurred” message and fail to launch.
An issue with Android Studio causes Device Manager to temporarily stop displaying “Missing system image…” warning messages after adding or removing a platform SDK using SDK Manager.
An issue with the Android emulator prevents the Google Discover feed from loading in some cases.

applications

“Android System Intelligence keeps stopping” message appears when creating a file in the Google Docs app.
The Google TV app sometimes fails to start video playback and instead displays the message “Play Movies & TV is temporarily unavailable.”

On Pixel, you can leave feedback using the Android Beta Feedback tool. Access it from the app drawer or via the Quick Settings tile to report bugs in Google’s issue tracker. There’s also the Android Beta community on Reddit.

Android 15 Beta 4 (AP31.240617.009) with the July 2024 security patch is available for the 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, as well as the Android emulator. Most users will install through the Android Beta Program, but you can also update or sideload.