Android 15 is meant to drive apps to go edge-to-edge, however Google quietly added a strategy to choose out

Though Android has lengthy supplied apps the power to make use of your cellphone’s complete display screen by letting them draw content material beneath the standing and navigation bars, many apps don’t reap the benefits of this. There are lots of explanation why builders have shied away from making their apps go edge-to-edge, however within the upcoming Android 15 replace, they’ll don’t have any alternative however to take action — or not less than, that’s what we thought.

For a little bit of context, apps have lengthy been in a position to go edge-to-edge by implementing a couple of APIs that tells the OS to attract the app beneath the 2 “system bars” (ie. the standing and navigation bars). The rationale that Google didn’t instantly implement this conduct is that many apps may need UI points in the event that they had been compelled to go edge-to-edge. For instance, an app may need an interactive aspect like a floating motion button that might overlap with the navigation bar if it went edge-to-edge.

To resolve this, Google gave builders a strategy to deal with overlaps through the use of insets, which specify which components of the app’s display screen intersect with the system UI. Nevertheless, as a result of edge-to-edge was by no means enforced on apps, many builders didn’t have to trouble with dealing with these UI conflicts. That’s supposed to alter with Android 15, although.

When Google introduced Android 15 Beta 1 earlier this 12 months, they revealed that apps focusing on Android 15 might be displayed edge-to-edge by default. To help builders with this transition, Google revealed new developer docs, tutorials, and codelabs that show deal with edge-to-edge enforcements in Android 15.

What none of those guides point out, although, is that there’s really an API that apps can use to choose out of edge-to-edge mode.

On the left: App targets SDK 34 (Android 14) and isn’t edge-to-edge on an Android 15 gadget.
On the correct: App targets SDK 35 (Android 15) and is edge-to-edge on an Android 15 gadget. Supply: Google

The API in query is an attribute known as windowOptOutEdgeToEdgeEnforcement that apps can set to true of their theme information. The attribute is fake by default, which signifies that edge-to-edge enforcement might be utilized to the window if it’s a part of an app that targets Android 15. If the attribute is about to true, although, then edge-to-edge enforcement received’t be utilized to the window in query.

Nevertheless, the outline for the API warns that “this attribute might be deprecated and disabled in a future SDK stage,” which suggests this workaround received’t exist ceaselessly. On the very least, it provides builders not less than two extra years to optimize their apps for edge-to-edge mode because the Google Play Retailer received’t drive apps to focus on Android 15 till August 31, 2026. Even then, we don’t know precisely which model of Android will really deprecate and disable this attribute as Google warns, which means it could possibly be used to keep away from supporting edge-to-edge mode for longer than two years.

Regardless, we hope most builders will replace their apps to assist edge-to-edge mode fairly than choose out. If not, we hope that this attribute is barely used to quickly and selectively choose sure home windows out of edge-to-edge enforcement. A number of of Google’s personal apps could also be doing simply this, as the oldsters over on the GN Points group on Telegram have identified that apps like Telephone by Google and Google Play Companies aren’t drawing edge-to-edge regardless of focusing on Android 15.

Then there’s Google Chrome for Android, which can additionally use this API to choose out of edge-to-edge mode. Some builders are additionally pushing Google to offer an opt-out mechanism in future variations of Android, and in the event that they oblige, then Android’s edge-to-edge enforcement might return to being only a suggestion.