Android 15 is an exceptionally boring update to my Pixel phone

So what does Android 15 actually do?

Typically, when a new version of Android drops, there is usually a prompt or notification, waiting to tell you all about what is the latest with the OS. Not only that, but with Pixel phones in particular, you also have the Pixel Tips app, which usually gets updated with new info when an OS upgrade happens.

This time around I had neither. Which is probably something that Google needs to work on, but still: I wanted to figure out if Android 15 actually did something to my phone or not. So, I went over the press release.

What was odd is that Google only highlighted a couple of changes:

• Two new forms of phone theft protection
• Private space
• Updates to how Android works on foldables (which I’m not using, so I won’t comment on)
• Improvements to low light photography (which may or may not be a Pixel exclusive thing)

I had to search for these as apps and then within Settings, since the system didn’t bother to tell me about them in any meaningful way. Ultimately, the new security settings boiled down to me setting two more toggles to “On”, which isn’t exactly thrilling.

I got my girlfriend to pretend-steal my phone from me while we were on our evening stroll, so that we can test out Theft Protection and even though she ran quite the distance, all that managed to achieve was to accidentally activate Messenger's bug report from all the shaking, so take that as you will. 

Private space is weird. The way it’s explained made me feel like I need a secondary Google account in order to use it. Look, Google, all I wanted was a way to get sensitive apps and files out of my way — I didn’t need a soft gateway into having a midlife crisis and starting a second life. Point is — this felt way too overengineered for me to use.

Low Light boost is sort of cool, I guess

The other new thing, which would theoretically make an impact for photo nerds like me, is improved night shots. Since I wasn’t expecting this to be part of the update, I haven’t really prepared a pre-update photo, but I got three ones to show to you guys:


So, is there an improvement? You tell me.

I think that the photos taken in dark conditions appear a bit sharper than in the past. The photo taken with Night mode on in particular has a totally different color profile, which doesn’t jive well with me, but in terms of quality — I can’t say I find much difference between it and the one that’s taken in Standard mode, in the dark.

What I can say after some more experimentation is this: the camera seems to take less time to figure out what subject I’m trying to shoot in darker conditions specifically. If it does figure it out, the photo comes out a bit sharper, but still lacking detail. If it fails to understand the subject, though, you’ll get the typical smartphone-versus-darkness mumbo-jumbo that we’re accustomed to seeing.

But here’s the thing: this could’ve been a regular old update to the camera app, or if that reliant on integral core updates — just another increment to Android 14. Otherwise it seems like Android 15 boils down to some new toggles I can tap and a slight boost to the camera app.

Oh, wait. App Archiving is cool, if not exactly new. This is probably the most underrated feature that Android 15 brings.

When you Archive an app on an Android phone, the said application gets almost completely uninstalled. The key difference is that once archived, that app’s key data — such as login info, settings or save games — will remain backed up on your phone. This, in turn, makes it really easy to re-install an app, should you need it in the future again.

How to Archive apps on Android 15:

1. Go to Settings
2. Open up Apps
3. Navigate to an application you want to archive
4. On the central UI element, leftmost, you should see an “Archive button”
5. Tap it and you should be good to go!

• Note: If you don’t see an “Archive” button, that is either a system app that your phone needs in order to function properly or one that doesn’t support app archiving. The latter are a rare instance, but do exist all the same.

So, that’s really cool and helpful! However, I’ve got two issues with it:

• It’s not exactly a new feature. We’ve seen this on other phones in the past numerous times and if anything, it should’ve been added to Android as a staple feature ages ago.
• I literally needed this just minutes before I got the update and I didn’t get to use it, and I hate that so much.

But other than these handful of features and a volume slider that seems to have had a growth spurt, nothing much has actually changed with the update.

So then, is Android 15 worth upgrading to?

Yes! Absolutely! Of course! Always! Whenever you have an OS update, upgrade or security patch, you should apply that as soon as possible. These are the things that keep your phones alive and your data safe. Android 15 is as an integral part of that as it gets.

But this article isn’t about that at all. It’s about Android 15 being boring.

Not only that, but it is also guilty of not fixing errors that were previously existent in Android 14. Now, to be completely honest: this may be just due to caching issues with my particular unit, so I won’t specify anything beyond this point. By the way, I’ve made a reminder to come back and update this section with new info down the line.

Toggles, over-engineered niche features and bucket loads of tiny improvements are just not as exciting as UI changes, huge feature drops or design philosophy updates. These few, minor new additions, however, are what Google chose to tell us about in its blog post. So that’s what we’re going with, just like any other person would.

Again: I’m certain that there’s exciting stuff happening on the backend, so in my opinion, Google should’ve absolutely told us about that too. I mean, the Big G even kept quiet about App Archiving, which I find to be way more useful than Private Space.

The big question here is as follows: should this have been Android 14.5 instead? My honest opinion is: yes, it absolutely should have been. The point of a major OS upgrade is that it can be felt throughout the entire system. It is 2024: we have huge events surrounding things like mobile operating systems and people go to those gatherings, because they get excited about seeing what the future of tech holds. But this time around, with Android 15, there's just not much to get excited about.

I think that Google should’ve kept Android 15 in the pot for a bit longer, enriching the update in the process. We should’ve gotten at least one killer feature, at least a few super-useful — as in, ones that we can actually use — ones and then, those that we actually ended up getting would’ve made for sweet icing on the cake, for sure.

But then again, it’s not like we didn’t know that Android 15 was going to be like this.

What we’ve got right now, however, isn’t bad. Yes: it’s not exciting. But I’m sure that the numerous changes and improvements that are working hard in the background of your phone’s system will end up laying the groundwork for even greater things to come.

It’s just that waiting for the future to happen isn’t as exciting as seeing it unfold in front of your very eyes after you’ve restarted your phone, you know?