A new report has revealed more information about Android 15's Adaptive Timeout, which aims to extend the phone’s battery life.
Adaptive timeout appears to be an addition to the Screen Attention feature introduced with the Google Pixel 4. Screen Attention uses the phone's front-facing camera to check if someone is looking at the screen. If it registers a user, it will not turn off the screen, even if the screen is set to timeout. This was a great feature, but Android 15 looks to improve what it is capable of.
Mishaal Rahman, writing for Android Authority, noted several code strings for adaptive timeout in the Android Developer Preview 2 release build. These strings indicated a setting that “automatically turns off your screen early if you’re not using the device.” This would mean that if a user places their phone down, the screen will turn off rather than waiting for the set time in the phone's settings.
One aspect that has not been explained yet is how the phone will recognize if someone is looking at it, although it will likely use the front-facing camera. The only concern is whether it will use Face ID technology when deciding if it will turn off the screen. If it does not, then it does raise some questions about the security One final point is that this specific feature will be locked to the Pixel version of Android 15. This is because the code -line suggests that it won't be part of the open-source version of Android.
This isn’t the only feature coming with Android 15, which promises to bring many quality-of-life improvements to Android users. So far, we have heard several promising additions, including satellite communication and improved find my device software. We have also seen reports of improved support for the range of Android foldable, including the ability to continue to use apps when opening and closing the phone.
There is currently no set release date for Android 15, although we know that the final release will happen at an unspecified time after July. We will likely get a more solid release date at Google I/O, which is happening in May 2024. In the meantime, check out our hub for the event, and our hub for Android 15 to keep up with all the latest news and rumors.
