Android 15 gets satellite messaging, starts foldable cover app support

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

Android's satellite messaging support has been in the works for about a year now, and it sounds like Android 15 is going to launch the feature for apps. The new OS is including notifications and better status bar indicators for when you're connected to space. A "NonTerrestrialNetwork" API will let apps know when they're limited to barely there satellite connectivity. Google says Android 15 will let third-party SMS and MMS applications tap into the satellite connectivity APIs, but enhanced messaging with RCS support will be limited to "preloaded" applications only. It seems incredible that Google doesn't have public APIs for third-party RCS apps, but here's your confirmation that Android 15 will continue locking out Play Store apps from RCS.

• Android 15's new satellite messaging UI. [credit: Google ]

Android's PDF support can be all over the place depending on what device you have, so Android 15 is including making some big improvements to the built-in PDF render. First it's going to end up as a module so it can be updated via the Play Store. Google says this Android 15 version is getting "advanced features such as rendering password-protected files, annotations, form editing, searching, and selection with copy."