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Google’s second day of its I/O developer conference focuses on updates to its Android ecosystem. The company recently consolidated all of its hardware teams—Pixel devices—with its Android platforms, which include anything and everything powered by Android (plus Chrome OS). Naturally, today’s announcements touch on every part of that ecosystem, from Android 15 to Wear OS 5.
Here are the key new features to know about.
Android’s Top New Features
There's a mix of new Android features that are exclusive to Android 15—the next version of Google’s mobile operating system—but many of these features will be rolling out to existing devices through Play Store and app updates without the need for an over-the-air OS upgrade. (I’ll indicate which ones are Android 15 exclusive.) My colleague, Simon Hill, has rounded up all the top Android 15 features in this story with details on how to download the beta, but here are a few standouts.
Private Space
Various Android manufacturers have long offered a way to lock and hide certain apps behind biometric authentication, but Google is now building this into Android with a feature called Private Space. This is an Android 15–specific feature because Dave Burke, Google’s VP of engineering on Android, says there were a lot of ways for an app’s information to leak throughout the operating system. The team had to do “surgery in Android 15” to make it work, but this means these apps are now completely hidden and private everywhere in Android.
Private Space is visually separate from your apps in the app drawer. You can even set a password to access the private apps that's different from the one you use to unlock your phone. Once you add an app to the Private Space, its notifications will be hidden, and it won’t be accessible even if someone went digging in your phone’s settings. You can also wipe your private space immediately.
Theft Detection Lock
This feature is not Android 15 specific and will arrive later this year. Google says it uses “Google AI” to identify when someone steals your phone while you are using it—and yes, it knows the difference between you going for a run with your smartphone and someone swiping it and running, biking, or motoring off with it. Once Android detects a theft, it will make sure the phone is locked down to prevent someone from accessing your apps and private information.
It will even lock once the device goes offline, meaning someone trying to factory reset your phone will need the passcode to reactivate the device, potentially depriving them of the ability to resell the handset. And there’s an added feature called “Remote Lock” which lets you lock the screen of the phone remotely. If you add your phone number, you can call the phone on any other device (like a friend’s phone) and enter a security challenge to authenticate the action.
Speaking of theft protection, Google says later this year, Google Play protect will be able to use on-device artificial intelligence to detect apps that engage in fraud or phishing acts. Play Protect already does this on the cloud, but some malicious bits of software can cloak their activities there. Having this working on-device allows the service to detect how the app uses sensitive permissions and spot suspicious behaviors—without collecting any personal data.
Google Wallet Gets Less Restrictive
Google Wallet doesn’t just handle payments. Right now, you can add loyalty cards, gym memberships, transit cards, concert tickets, and boarding passes, in addition to credit cards. However, an update coming later this year will soon let you create a digital version of passes by simply snapping a photo of it. Upload the image to Google Wallet—think parking passes, library cards, auto insurance cards—and Google will create a digital version for quick access. Now whether these digital versions will be accepted is a different matter.
Google Teases Its Upcoming Mixed Reality Headset
You might not remember this, but Samsung and Google are working on a mixed reality headset with Qualcomm. The partnership was announced last year along with the expectation that it would make its debut later in 2024. Google confirmed to me that it had nothing to share at I/O on the development of the headset, but the company did tease an augmented reality experience with Google Maps that might be something you’d be able to experience on the device when it arrives.
In Google Maps, you’ll soon be able to access AR content when searching specific locations. Tap the “AR Experience” button and bring your phone up to see augmented content appear over the real world. This even works remotely through Street View, so you don’t have to go halfway across the world to try it.
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These AR experiences are going to start with a six-month pilot program in Singapore and Paris—Google says its Arts & Culture team is working with the Singapore Tourism Board to build these experiences. “These AR advancements lay the foundation for the extended reality (XR) platform that we’re building in collaboration with Samsung and Qualcomm for the Android ecosystem,” Google says in a press release.
Sameer Samat, Google’s president of the Android ecosystem, says Google wanted to give AR and XR its own moment, alluding to a possible launch event later this year. “It needs to be introduced as a new form factor in the family but just not at this event because there’s a lot going on.”
Here Comes Wear OS 5
Google’s partnership with Samsung to revamp Wear OS in 2022 seems to be paying off. Burke says Wear OS grew its user base by 40 percent in 2023 with users in more than 160 countries and regions. This is aided by more manufacturers coming back to the Wear platform; OnePlus, Oppo, and Xiaomi all have Wear OS smartwatches on the market.
The next version is Wear OS 5—based on Android 14—and it will arrive later this year. The main highlight is battery life optimization. Burke tells me that current smartwatches that upgrade from Wear 4 to Wear 5 will automatically consume up to 20 percent less power when running a marathon. This is a very specific metric to use—I’m not sure how many people are running marathons every day—but hopefully it means decent battery life gains in day-to-day use.
There are also new data types for running, so apps will be able to show more kinds of fitness data, such as ground contact time, stride length, vertical oscillation, and vertical ratio. Many of the other improvements in Wear OS 5 are for developers, like giving them better tools to adapt apps for larger watch screens.
Google Cast Comes to Android Auto
Fan of Android Auto? Google says there are now more than 200 million cars compatible with Android Auto on the road, with nearly 40 car models offering Google built-in, the Android Auto experience that isn’t powered by a smartphone. The latest updates will focus on bringing … more apps to the experience. Yes, Google says you’ll be able to stream shows from Peacock or Max, and even play mini-games like Angry Birds on select cars with Google built-in. Don’t worry, Google says these new apps fall under the “parked app” category—the car will need to be in park for them to work—though there are plans to expand beyond that restriction in the future.
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Also, Google’s long-running Cast technology will finally come to vehicles running Android Automotive OS, starting with Rivian. If the car is parked, you can cast video content from a phone to the car’s display.
Android TV Gets Gemini-fied
Finally, there’s Android TV. According to Google’s latest stats, there are more than 220 million active TVs running Android TV, more than 300 TV partners, and a 47 percent year-over-year increase in Android TV adoption. Burke says it’s the “number one TV OS in the world.”
Android TV is now powered by Google’s Gemini large language model, so users will soon get AI-generated descriptions of content on the home screen. These are personalized, so they are different for each user based on their genre and actor preferences.
