If there’s not an iPhone in your pocket then chances are your smartphone runs Android, the most popular smartphone software in the world. It’s customisable and more flexible than Apple’s iOS, but which version of Android you’re running depends on your how long its maker has decided to support it for, and when it deems it ready to push out the free update.
Google makes Android, so its Pixel phones tend to have the latest version first. The company has just unveiled the first version of Android 15, the newest flavour of the operating system for your phone, and you can even download it today if you have one of the eligible Pixel devices.
The release is called Android 15 Beta. A beta is a pre-release version of software, and means that it’s still being tested. If you choose to download the beta, beware – it will likely be buggy and unstable, and some things on your phone might not work properly. We don’t recommend downloading it on your primary phone in case things go wrong, as to revert back to Android 14 you usually have to factory reset your phone, which wipes all your data.
The phones that can run the Android 15 Beta are the Google Pixel 5a, 6, 6 Pro, 6a, 7, 7 Pro, 7a, 8, 8 Pro, and the Pixel Tablet and the Pixel Fold.
You can enrol your phone into the beta by visiting this link to the Android Beta site – just make sure you use Google Chrome and you’re signed in to the same Google account that your Pixel device uses. Your phone or tablet will show up on the page and you can choose to enrol. Your device will then receive the software update for you to download and install.
Android 15 is not expected to bring many big new features, and in this first public beta iteration there’s not much new. The visuals are incredibly similar to Android 14, which itself was based on the big design overhaul of Android 12, which Google calls Material You. It’s nicely customisable and is based around playful icons, text, and colour theming.
Rumoured interesting new features such as lock screen widgets and Private Space, a secure folder system, are not on the first beta. But if you decide to install it, you’ll get notifications about when a new version is ready over the coming months, which you can download and use immediately.
Google is expected to unveil all the headline features of Android 15 at its annual Google I/O event, which this year starts on 14 May. Rumours also point to a new mid-range Pixel phone being announced, which will be called the Pixel 8a.