Wear OS 5 is coming later this year, so today, Google’s launching a Developer Preview so you can prepare.

Wear OS 5 is based on Android 14 and brings some notable battery life improvements. Workout tracking is more power efficient, with Google saying marathon runs consume up to 20% less power than on Wear OS 4.

The Watch Face Format (WFF), introduced in Wear OS 4, is seeing some improvements in Wear OS 5. Flavors are now supported; these are preset configurations for watch faces available in the companion app. “Goal progress” and “weighted elements” complication types are now supported. Lastly, weather and forecast data can now be used as data sources.

To encourage adoption of the WFF, Wear OS 5 will apply restrictions to some data sources used by complications on watch faces built with the legacy AndroidX or Wearable Support Library APIs. Also, in early 2025, all new watch faces published on Google Play must use the WFF.

Health Services in Wear OS 5 is introducing new data types for running (ground contact time, stride length, vertical oscillation, vertical ratio) and support debounced goals for instantaneous metrics (like heart rate, distance, and speed). Debounced goals mean that events are only emitted if the threshold has been continuously exceeded for a number of seconds.

Version 1.3 of Jetpack Compose for Wear OS graduates a number of visual improvements and fixes from beta to stable.

Version 1.4 of the Jetpack Tiles library (in alpha) will introduce preview support for Android Studio so you can quickly iterate on your Tile development.

Apps can now determine whether their tiles are in use through the getActiveTilesAsync() method.

Android Studio Koala Feature Drop (Canary) adds a new sensor panel that makes it easier to test Health Services. You can mock the capabilities of the device or sensor values.

Android 14 for TV is official!

The latest version of Android TV adds new energy modes to reduce a TV’s standby power consumption. It also brings new accessibility features like color correction, enhanced text options, and improved navigation for users, all of which can be toggled using remote shortcuts. Android TV 14 also brings picture-in-picture mode support on some models. Lastly, it also brings Thread network support for some models.

For developers, Compose for TV is now available in 1.0.0-beta01, graduating several components from experimental and removing the ImmersiveList composable from the androidx-tv-material package.

As for Google TV, there’s new, AI-based recommendations powered by Gemini. Gemini will add AI-generated descriptions on the home screen that are personalized for you based on your genre and actor preferences. AI-generated descriptions will also fill in untranslated or missing descriptions for movies and shows.

Android phones are getting a theft protection feature that automatically locks them when they’re stolen!

Theft Detection Lock uses a ML model to detect when someone snatches your phone from your hand and tries to run, bike, or drive away. It uses data from your phone’s accelerometer and gyroscope and checks if common motions associated with theft are detected. If so, your phone will quietly lock itself.

The Theft Detection Lock feature will roll out through Google Play Services later this year on Android 10+ devices.

Other new theft protection features include:

- Upgraded factory reset protection in Android 15. If a thief tries to force a reset of a stolen device, they won’t be able to set it up again without knowing your device or Google account credentials.

- Disabling Find My Device or extending screen timeout now requires your screen credential.

- Enhanced authentication, when enabled, will require biometrics for accessing and changing critical Google account and device settings (like changing your PIN), disabling theft protection, or accessing passkeys from an untrusted location. This will roll out to select devices later this year.

- Offline Device Lock automatically locks the screen to protect your data even when your device is off the grid.

- Remote Lock lets you lock your phone with just your phone number (and a quick security challenge) in case you forgot your Google account password and can’t access Find My Device. This will be available on Android 10+.

- Private Space in Android 15. You can hide particularly sensitive apps in Private Space using a separate credential.

Android 15 Beta 2 brings the following features:

- Private Space.

- New volume panel design.

- Bluetooth auto-on toggle.

- Predictive back gesture by default.

- Saving app pairs.

- Color contrast settings. (One thing to note: It's no longer under Settings > Accessibility > Color and motion. Instead it's under Settings > Wallpaper & style.)

- Updated storage page. Under Settings > Storage, there's no longer a "System" option. Instead, there's a "System" header that splits into the "OS" and "temporary system files". This may somewhat reduce confusion with how much space system files takes up. Unrecognized files will still be seen as "temporary system files", though.

- New USB debugging/Android System icon. The upside down logo has been replaced with a V shape to reflect the internal dessert name of Vanilla Ice Cream.

- Changing the screen timeout to a higher value in Android 15 Beta 2 requires you to unlock the device.

(Screenshots: Skiman10)