Android 15 is getting a smart and safe display update

Amid all the talk of iOS 18 in the aftermath of WWDC, Google’s Android 15 is quietly chugging along through the beta stages ahead of its release later this summer.

In beta 3, now available for testers with compatible Android handsets, Google has introduced a new display feature that could save you battery and prevent prying eyes from spying what’s on your screen.

The Adaptive Timeout feature sits within the screen timeout settings and, when enabled, will “automatically turn off your screen if you’re not looking at your device”.

It doesn’t appear it will override the existing screen timeout setting, which can be anything from 15 seconds to 30 minutes.

It also sits alongside the existing “Screen Attention” setting that will keep the display on at all times when you’re looking at it. From the screenshots it seems as if you’ll be able to use Adaptive Timeout and Screen Attention in tandem.

However, there’s still mystery surrounding the feature and how it will determine you’re not using your device, because as 9to5Google points out, it’s not actually working yet.

It’s possible, as the site points out, that it uses the selfie camera and proximity sensors to determine whether the handset is in use, beyond you physically touching it.

All in all, it looks like another minor update in what looks like another modest update from Google. Android itself doesn’t seem to change a lot these days, for better or worse, but Google is slowly but surely revolutionising most of the key apps with machine learning and Google Gemini integration.

Here’s how you can download the Android 15 beta ahead of the launch this autumn.