Google dropped the second Android 15 beta at Google I/O 2024, and it hasn’t taken long for eagle-eyed testers to spot a host of useful Android 15 features buried within it, including one that could streamline your phone’s storage page.
In Android 14, system storage is displayed as its own category above Apps, Images, Audio and other storage categories. Tapping this option informs you that “System [storage] includes files used to run Android version 14,” which is a fairly unhelpful message, since it doesn't disclose the proportion of System files that are using up storage for other reasons.
The latest Android 15 beta, however, rectifies this unhelpfulness by turning System storage into a header and splitting its contents into two categories: Android 14 (i.e. core OS files) and temporary system files. In other words, Android users could soon have more clarity on how much of their phone’s internal storage is actually being taken up by the core OS.
This small-but-important change was first spotted by Android Authority contributor Mishaal Rahman, who shared an image of the new Android storage layout on X:
Under Settings > Storage in Android 15 Beta 2, 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… pic.twitter.com/gVnEg3tXqIMay 15, 2024
As noted in a dedicated Android Authority article on the matter, this Android 15 storage tweak is reminiscent of Samsung’s recent changes to the presentation of storage in the best Samsung phones (prior to 2023, storage pages in Samsung phones were similarly unhelpful).
News of this new Android 15 beta feature comes just a few months after another storage-related feature was spotted in the first Android 15 beta. Dubbed Device Diagnostics, this new feature can check the health of your phone's onboard storage, thereby alerting you to the risk of losing files or running out of usable space when you need it most. Device Diagnostics can also provide you with a percentage readout of how much of your internal storage is still usable.
It’s worth remembering that both of these new storage features were spotted in beta versions of Android 15, and so there’s no guarantee that they’ll make it into the final Android 15 build. That said, we’d be incredibly surprised to see such small-but-useful changes jettisoned.
For more Android 15-related news, check out our dedicated Android 15 hub, which includes a roundup of every rumored Android 15 feature.
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