20 advanced Android 15 tips

Like many recent Android versions, Android 15 may seem subtle on the surface.

And, to be fair, it certainly isn’t the sort of dramatic interface reinvention we’ve seen from Google in the past. But that doesn’t mean it’s short on efficiency-enhancing treats just waiting to be found.

In fact, most of Android 15’s most noteworthy advancements are things you’d never even notice if you didn’t know where to look. Once they’re on your radar, though, you’d better believe they’ll make your life — and your work — a heck of a lot easier.

Here, then, are 20 advanced Android 15 treasures. Whether you’ve had Android 15 in your life for ages already (hiya, Pixel pals!) or you’re keeping an eye out for the update to reach you hopefully any day now (oh, Samsung…), this will serve as your roadmap to tracking down the software’s best surprises — whenever they become relevant to you.

Note that these features are presented as they apply to Google-made Pixel phones and Samsung-made Galaxy devices, specifically. Different device-makers modify Android in different ways, so if you’re using a phone made by any other company, the availability and exact presentation of some items may vary.

Android 15 tips, part I: Notification nuance

1. As of the most recent Android 15 quarterly update, Google’s Pixel devices have a new Notification Cooldown feature that lets you avoid being annoyed by incessant incoming alerts. Once you flip the switch — within the Notification section of your system settings — your phone will automatically lower its volume anytime you get a bunch of back-to-back notifications from the same app.

JR Raphael / Foundry

No Pixel? No problem: You can set up something similar and even more customizable on any Android device, no matter what Android version it’s running.

2. Also specific to our Pixel-preferring persons, Android 15 adds in a nifty new option that lets your phone’s vibration behavior automatically adjust itself based on your environment. If your phone is in your pocket, for instance, it’ll vibrate at full-blast — but if it’s sitting out on a table, it’ll calm its buzz considerably.

All you’ve gotta do is flip the switch to activate your new Adaptive Vibration advantage. Look in the Sound & Vibration section of your system settings, then tap “Vibration & haptics” followed by “Adaptive vibration” to find the toggle.

3. Another recent Android 15 addition is the introduction of a slightly perplexing new system called Modes. Modes is essentially an expansion of Android’s existing Do Not Disturb setting that bundles options like Bedtime and Driving into a broader interruption-controlling umbrella.

It also allows you to create your own custom modes for how you want to be notified in different scenarios — if, say, you’d like to set up a mode for work in which only work-related apps are allowed to bother you and a mode for weekends where only personal messaging apps can make any sounds.

JR Raphael / Foundry

You can set up modes however you want by looking for the new Modes section within the main system settings menu. Just note that in Google’s version of Android, Do Not Disturb is now part of Modes — meaning your device’s Do Not Disturb status is actually one of the modes you can select — whereas in Samsung’s Android interface, Do Not Disturb continues to exist separately, as its own independent option outside of the main modes list.

4. Speaking of Samsung-specific changes, Android’s keeper of the Galaxy has introduced a major shift with the way you view notifications in Android 15. Instead of having Android’s notifications and Quick Settings exist in a single combined panel that’s summoned with a swipe down from the top of the screen, Samsung now has those two areas divided out into completely different panels.

That means on any Samsung device where this change is present, you’ll swipe down from the left half of your screen’s top edge to see your notifications — and swipe down from the right half to see your Quick Settings.

See?

JR Raphael / Foundry

5. With Samsung’s new split notifications-Quick-Settings setup, you also have the ability to swipe between those two areas of Android whenever they’re visible. Just slide your finger horizontally — toward the left, if you’re seeing notifications, and toward the right, from the Quick Settings view — to switch from one to the other.

6. If you find that split-apart setup to be more work than it’s worth, you can go back to the standard combined panel interface. First, swipe down from the top-right of the screen to open the Samsung version of Quick Settings, then tap the pencil-shaped editing icon, select “Panel settings,” and tap “Together” in the menu that pops up.

Android 15 tips, part II: Apps, multitasking, and on-demand info

7. Android 15 adds in a way to create an extra layer of privacy — a “Private Space” designation that increases the protection around any especially important (or maybe just sensitive) apps and info.

Any apps in your device’s Private Space won’t show up in your app drawer, recent apps view, notifications, or even settings. And they’ll always require authentication — a pattern, PIN, password, or biometric verification — to be seen or opened.

On a Pixel phone or another device that follows Google’s standard Android setup, you can activate and set up your Private Space by looking for the “Private Space” option within the Security & Privacy section of your system settings. Once you’ve got it going, you’ll be able to find and interact with your Private Space at the bottom of your standard app drawer (which you can always access with a single swipe up on your home screen).

JR Raphael / Foundry

Samsung didn’t bring Private Space into its heavily modified Android interface, but Galaxy devices have had a similar equivalent for some time now. If you have a Samsung device, search your system settings for Secure Folder to find and enable that feature.

8. Android’s been in a league of its own with multitasking since the platform’s earliest days, but one of the software’s most useful features is also one of the toughest to find — and to remember to keep using.

I’m talkin’ about the ability to split your screen in half and see (and use!) two apps at once, on screen together at the same time. With Android 15, that action gets easier to manage and keep front and center. That’s because of a new option that empowers you to create a shortcut for a specific preset pair of apps — say, Gmail and Chrome or maybe Docs and Outlook — and then open those two apps into a split together with a single swift tap.

To start, you’ll first need to fire up a regular split-screen with the two apps you want to use for your shortcut:

• Open up your phone’s Overview mode (by swiping up about an inch from the bottom of the screen and then stopping, if you’re using the current Android gesture system, or by tapping the square- or three-line Overview button along your device’s bottom edge, if you’re still stickin’ with the legacy three-button nav setup).
• Tap the icon above any app in that area, select “Split screen” (with standard Android) or “Open in split screen view” (in Samsung’s Android vernacular), and select another app to pair with it.
• Head back into that same Overview area, tap one of the icons above your newly created split, and tap the option to “Save app pair” — or “Add app pair,” with Samsung’s different-for-the-sake-of-different equivalent.

JR Raphael / Foundry

That’ll put a single shortcut to open that specific pair of apps together in a split right on your home screen — so the next time you want to make that happen, you’ll need only that one fast tap. (If you aren’t seeing the option to create a new app pair, by the way, try switching back to your device’s default launcher. It seems that support for this feature may be limited to that environment.)

9. I’m a big proponent of uninstalling stuff you aren’t actively using. That keeps unused apps from needlessly burning up resources on your device and potentially creating unnecessarily opened windows into your data. But if you aren’t gonna stay on top of that task regularly, Android 15 has a new next-best-thing option that’ll help.

It’s a feature that automatically archives apps for you when they haven’t been used in a while. And it could actually be advantageous in certain scenarios even if you’re pretty good about eliminating unused apps on your own, as it makes it easy to restore an app later — with its previous data and settings still in place — without having to start over from square one.

Any apps put into that pile are temporarily unavailable and compressed down to take up less space. But all it takes is a couple taps to bring ’em back to life from there, should the desire ever strike.

This feature is on by default in most Android 15 environments, so you shouldn’t have to do anything to have it available. If you don’t want certain specific apps to ever be archived — even if they’re unused — head into the Apps area of your system settings, tap the line to see all apps, and select any app from the list. Then, within its settings screen, look for the “Manage app if unused” toggle and flip it into the off position.

10. Pixel owners, take note: Android 15 introduces a simple but supremely welcome new switch that’ll keep your apps’ names from being cut off in your app drawer.

Traditionally, apps with long names have been truncated in that area — leaving you with awkward and occasionally confusing abbreviations like “American Ai…” (for American Airlines). With Android 15, you can opt to instead have any such titles split into two lines and shown in their entirety.

All you’ve gotta do is flip a switch: Provided you’re using the standard Pixel Launcher and not a custom Android home screen setup, long-press on any open space on your Pixel’s home screen and select “Home settings” followed by “Apps list settings.” Then, nudge the toggle next to “Show long app names” into the on position.

Just note that this change doesn’t apply to the home screen — only the app drawer. But hey, that’s what custom Android launchers are for!

11. While we’re on the subject of understated but appreciated adjustments, with its take on Android 15, Samsung is at long last giving Galaxy owners the ability to have their app drawers scroll in a sensible vertical style — by swiping up and down, in other words, instead of being forced to clumsily swipe through multiple pages just to see all of your apps.

This one may or may not be activated by default, but it isn’t at all difficult to dig up — once you know where to look. On any Galaxy gadget with Android 15 in place:

• Open up your app drawer (by swiping upward on your home screen).
• Tap the three-dot menu icon within the search bar at the bottom.
• Select “Sort,” then change that option from “Custom order” to Alphabetical order.”

JR Raphael / Foundry

12. Here’s one for any large-screen Pixel appreciators out there: Your device’s dynamic taskbar — that handy little app-switching bar that pops up when you swipe up gently from the bottom of your screen — can now be kept visible and at your fingertips all the time instead of only when you summon it.

The secret lies within an easily overlooked new option deep inside Android 15’s innards. So if you’re toting a Pixel Tablet or a folding Pixel, try this: Summon the taskbar by swiping up gently from the bottom of the screen (while your phone is in its unfolded state, on a Fold). Then press and hold the little vertical line on the taskbar’s left side, between the app drawer icon and the first app in the list. That’ll reveal the newly added option to keep the taskbar permanently in place.

13. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d never once thought about Android’s screen saver system. It’s one of the platform’s most potential-packed possibilities, though — and with Android 15, it’s getting even more powerful.

Specifically: Android 15 takes the once-Pixel-Tablet-exclusive ability to show a connected-device control panel anytime your device is docked or charging and makes it available on any Android product, thereby making said contraption significantly more useful in its idle state.

Just march on over to the Display section of your system settings and tap the “Screen saver” option. Turn the system on, if it isn’t already, then look for the “Home Controls” choice — or “Device Control,” in Samsung vernacular — to set and select your smart new setup.

JR Raphael / Foundry

And if you aren’t seeing that option, make your way to the Play Store and install the Google Home app. It’s the hub for all connected-device controls, whether they’re in your home or in an office (or even in a fully colonized frog palace). Once you’ve opened it and signed into it a single time, the new screen saver option should appear and be available for you.

14. Google’s next-gen Gemini Android assistant may be overly complicated, inconsistent, and at times dangerously inaccurate, but it does have a handful of potentially useful tricks. And with Android 15, it gains a big one: the ability to perform multipart actions across multiple apps on your behalf.

So, for instance, you might ask Gemini to find all the best lunch spots in a specific area and then text ’em to a particular client or colleague — or to look up the address of a certain restaurant and then add it into an event in your calendar for dinner tonight at 6 p.m.

It’s fantastically useful, when it works. The tricky thing is knowing its limitations and which apps are compatible and then getting it to do what you want it to do.

But it’s well worth your while to play around with and see how it might save you time. And while this capability is currently being framed as a feature that’s exclusive to the new Samsung Galaxy S25 phone, I was able to get it working both on that device and on a Pixel 9 Pro — so while it’s hard to say exactly how far it’s spread at this point, it certainly isn’t limited to any one Android-15-running model.

Just fire up Gemini to give it a go for yourself. Depending on your device, you might be able to do that by saying Hey Google or pressing and holding your physical power button — or, if you haven’t yet opted into using Gemini (and it wasn’t already present by default for you), try downloading the official Google Gemini app and then opening it once to get it up and running.

Android 15 tips, part III: Smarter sounds

15. With Android 15 on your device, you’ve got a snazzy new look for your volume panel — and with Pixel devices, that means you now have the ability to control exactly where any audio playing from your phone or tablet gets directed.

Just tap the three-dot menu icon within the volume panel (after pressing either of your device’s physical volume buttons to make it appear), then tap the big “Audio will play on” button at the top of the panel’s expanded view to explore your options.

JR Raphael / Foundry

16. Another one for the Pixel adorers among us: The next time you temporarily turn off Bluetooth on your device, you can have it automatically come back on a day later — without having to remember yourself.

You’ll see the option appear anytime you disable Bluetooth, or you can also find the associated toggle in the Connected Devices section of your system settings — under “Connection preferences” and then “Bluetooth.”

17. If you’re packin’ a Pixel 8 or higher, Android 15 gives you some spectacular new superpowers around improving the sound in any videos you capture. It’s an expansion to your Pixel’s existing Magic Audio Eraser system, which lets you select specific individual sounds to remove from a video.

With Android 15, Magic Audio Eraser can identify distinct different sounds — like one particular person’s voice or even wind noise — and make it easy for you to lower or erase everything associated with that specific area.

Tap the Edit button beneath any video on your phone (in either the Camera app or Photos), then select “Audio Eraser” to get started.

18. Got a Galaxy gizmo? Get yourself over into your Samsung Phone app settings to surface the newly present option for recording and creating an instant transcript and summary of the conversation. Just look for the “Record calls” section in the Phone app’s settings section (accessible via the three-dot menu icon in the app’s upper-right corner).

A similar feature has been available with Google’s Pixel 9 models for a while now as well. And if you want to record a call on any other Android device — well, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Android 15 tips, part V: The finer touches

19. Android has long offered settings to boost your screen’s contrast and make it a teensy bit easier on the eyes. As of Android 15, you can take that customization up a notch with a sophisticated new series of contrast controls.

Look for the “Color contrast” option within the Display section of your system settings — or, if you’re using a Samsung-made device, go instead to the Accessibility section of your settings and then tap “Vision enhancements.”

JR Raphael / Foundry

Either way you get there, you’ll find yourself facing a freshly expanded array of contrast-related choices, with plenty of room to figure out which precise path looks most pleasing to you.

20. Last but not least is a new touch of nuance for your device’s charging habits. While Google recently released an Adaptive Charging system for Pixels that lets you cap your phone’s charge at 80% in order to prolong its battery health, Samsung has stepped things up in that department and will now let you choose exactly where your phone should stop its charge.

That means you can enjoy the same stamina-stretching advantage while having a little more flexibility — if, say, you find 80% just isn’t quite enough to make it through the day and you’d rather charge up to 85% or 90% instead.

You can find the new options within the Battery section of your system settings on a Samsung Android device, under the “Battery protection” submenu.

And there you have it: 20 bits of Android 15 brilliance to seek out and explore. Find something new and useful — or if you’re still waiting for Android 15 to arrive on your device, save this page for later and head over to my collection of Android-15-inspired features you can bring to any Android device today.