Android 15 is quietly shaping up to be a bigger deal than we thought

It’s a known fact that software updates aren’t as exciting as they used to be. Today, the latest versions of Android are extremely fleshed out, and each update is an iterative step forward. However, the upcoming Android 15 isn’t as boring as you might think. There are few truly exciting features, and many more quality-of-life changes that make it a noticeable advancement over Android 14.

In fact, you could argue that Android 15 is a more significant upgrade than iOS 18, which was announced earlier this month and is set to hit iPhones this fall. Why aren’t more people excited about Android 15? It’s because Google did a terrible job of marketing Android at Google I/O 2024, and this critical error is undermining the real progress the company has made with it.

Android 15 might be bigger than iOS 18

But there’s a ton of hype for iOS because Apple actually showed it

Following Apple’s announcement of iOS 18 at WWDC earlier this month, there is a lot of hype and excitement around the upcoming operating system. People are interested in Apple Intelligence, which is Apple’s first real shot at artificial intelligence, but it isn’t available in iOS 18 developer beta 1 or beta 2. It will be stuck in beta even after iOS 18 releases publicly in the fall.

And yet, iPhone users and developer beta testers are still excited about the features you can use today; a calculator app that solves handwritten math problems and custom home screen icons was all it took to captivate the iPhone user base. That’s in spite of Android clearly inspiring some iOS 18 features.

The reason isn’t that iPhone users are gullible, or they don’t know what they’re missing on the Android side of things. It’s because Apple spent time showcasing the new features at WWDC, while Google spent most of its time at I/O talking about AI.

Android was only mentioned relatively briefly throughout the two-hour keynote, and was mostly talked about in the context of AI. The bulk of the Android 15 announcements were part of a “What’s new in Android” session that wasn’t streamed live. The video was available a day later, but Google missed the chance to showcase Android 15’s best features live and drive up excitement around the upcoming release.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about AI so far, it’s that average consumers don’t usually get excited about it. Focusing too much on AI may have been the wrong move.

Google quietly announced 24 new Android 15 features at I/O

The majority of these changes were buried in blog posts

It would be one thing if there simply weren’t a lot of new features in Android 15 to talk about. However, in a recap blog post, Google outlined 24 brand-new features it announced at I/O 2024. The problem is many of these features either didn’t get much screen time in the keynote, or weren’t mentioned at all. These 24 features don’t include the broader Google features, like those affecting search, Google Gemini, and Google Play.

For example, a few of my favorite Android 15 features use AI to help protect yourself and your data. Theft Detection Lock is a tool that uses Google AI to automatically detect if your phone has been stolen, and will let you quickly secure your device and its contents in the event it is snatched. There’s another upcoming feature that uses AI to thwart scam calls, helping unknowing users avoid falling victim to digital threats.

There are other ways to keep your data secure without AI, though. Private space lets you hide apps and info from prying eyes, and will even make it possible to hide the spaces altogether. Apple introduced a similar feature with iOS 18, and it got much more coverage since the company showed it off in its WWDC keynote.

Private spaces were discovered in the Android 15 beta before Google I/O, but it didn’t pick up much steam in the tech community. Whether we like it or not, the way features are previewed, announced, and introduced matters.

The most egregious example might be Android 15’s satellite connectivity feature. This was rumored for a while and slowly confirmed after more code references to satellite connectivity trickled in through beta software.

Google actually had the chance to beat Apple to the punch. While Apple offered Emergency SOS and roadside assistance with satellite connectivity, it didn’t support sending regular text messages in non-emergency situations. Of course, the Android 15 version of the feature will let any Android user on a supported cellular plan send texts via satellite when cellular is unavailable.

That’s a big deal, and as someone who keeps their primary SIM in an iPhone most of the time, the satellite messaging feature had me jealous. Google had its Android 15 “killer feature,” but hardly anyone outside the Android tech space knows that satellite messaging is coming to Android 15, let alone why it matters.

Once again, Apple prominently debuted the same feature at WWDC, but better — it’s all handled by Apple for free; no particular cellular plan required.

Android 15 should have people excited

The update has a lot going for it

Those are just some of the Android 15 features that I find the most interesting, but there are plenty more. Partial screen recording is a great way to share your screen with anyone — without revealing content you don’t want people to see. App archiving means you can free up space while preserving an app’s documents and data, copying a longtime iOS feature.

There’s also better continuity support for the best folding phones and more features for big-screen devices.

iOS 18 can be reduced to tinted app icons, locked apps, and Apple Intelligence. Those are the only big features of note, and the last one is a completely unknown quantity right now. By comparison, Android 15 is chock-full of exciting features. If Google had just half the excitement for Android 15 as Apple has for iOS 18, maybe the sentiment about the update would be more positive.