Android 15 is said to upgrade the design of the volume bar and add new features

According to a new report, Android 15 may bring a major design change to the volume bar. The release of the next iteration of the Android smartphone operating system is still months away, but some of its new features have already leaked. A recent report claimed that users will be able to back up an app in Android 15 to save space on their smartphone instead of uninstalling it entirely. Now, another report claims that the volume bar may finally be brought to Google’s Material You design language.

According to a report by advisor Mishal Rahman (via Android Authority), Android 15 may continue the process of bringing all areas of the smartphone up to Material You standards. The new design language was first introduced in 2021 with Android 12, and since then Google has been adding it to various apps and features. According to the report, the volume panel is the last to include its elements.

The current volume panel now has some of its elements with a bottom sheet that appears when you press the volume button. However, the current design includes thin sliders for media, call, ring, notification and alarm audio streams. There is also a header with a label Sound and vibration and icons that are placed next to the slider and the stream name is placed above the slider.

Volume Bar Android 15
Photo: Mishaal Rahman/Android Authority

According to the report, the redesigned volume panel changes the sliders quite a bit. These were spotted in the latest Android 15 Developer Preview 2 build, but have not been released to beta testers. The new sliders are now thicker and pill-shaped. The audio stream icon and text are placed inside the slider, and next to the media slider is a button that collapses the entire panel to a single line when tapped. Tapping it opens the fully expanded view again.

Based on the shared image, the top label is also gone and replaced by a permanent audio output toggle icon. The icon remains present even when audio is not being played through an external speaker and indicates that audio is being played through the device itself. The report also highlights that when you adjust the volume of the stream, the text also moves to stay visible at all times. The redesigned volume bar may arrive with the stable version of Android 15, but since Google hasn’t officially added it to the operating system so far, it’s not written in stone.