Android 15 gets satellite messaging, launches support for apps with a foldable skin

Android 15 continues its march toward release with Android 15 Developer Preview 2. Android 15 won’t be out until around October, but the first preview shipped a month ago. Time for another one!

Android’s support for satellite messaging has been in the works for about a year now, and it looks like Android 15 will launch the feature for apps. The new OS includes notifications and better indicators in the status bar when you are connected to a space. The “NonTerrestrialNetwork” API will notify applications when they are limited to a barely-there satellite connection. Google says Android 15 will allow third-party SMS and MMS apps to access the satellite APIs, but enhanced messaging with RCS support will be limited to “preloaded” apps only. It seems incredible that Google has no public APIs for third-party RCS apps, but here’s your confirmation that Android 15 will continue to lock Play Store apps from RCS.

Android’s PDF support can be all over the place depending on the device you have, so Android 15 includes big improvements to built-in PDF rendering. It will first end up as a module so it can be updated via the Play Store. Google says this version of Android 15 gets “advanced features like showing password-protected files, comments, form editing, search and selection with copy”.

Flip phones are upending the Android app ecosystem with tiny screens that are too small to run normal Android apps, and Google is trying to do something about them with Android 15. Today’s devices like the Motorola Razr and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip , with a square front display of ~3 inches, are mostly limited to packaged applications.

For now, it seems that Google is just standardizing the toggle, with the “support for home screen” feature. Google says, “These screens are too small to be considered compatible targets for Android apps to work on, but your app can include their support, making your app available in more places.” Regarding how the developer is supposed to support a bunch of proprietary, ultra-small screens, it sounds like Google isn’t ready to help with that yet. At some point, Android needs a framework, IDE, and Play Store app listing support for home screens.

A second developer preview is available today for the Pixel 6, 7, 8, Fold, and Pixel Tablet. There’s no beta program yet, so you’ll have to grab a cable and flash it yourself if you’re running a stable version of Android. As always, these early releases are just low-level additions aimed at developers (we’ve skipped a lot of font and SQL changes). Exciting new features – if any – should be announced on May 14 at Google I/O.