Pixel 9 series rumored to not run Android 15 out of the box

Historically, Pixel phones have launched with the new version of Android. A leak today says that might not be the case in 2024, with the Pixel 9 series apparently launching with Android 14. 

According to Android Headlines, the Pixel 9 series “will be launching on Android 14.” This is presumably based on marketing material, like a specs sheet. 

The precise interpretation might be that, out of the box, the Pixel 9 devices will have Android 14 — instead of Android 15 — installed. This could be due to the phones launching at an accelerated timeline (two months ahead of schedule).

The manufacturing (and shipping) process dictates when the OS has to be loaded onto phones. At that time, it’s likely that Android 15 was not ready to be finalized internally. Presumably, that deadline is much earlier than Beta 4 and the “last scheduled update” in mid-July.

This would have forced Google to go with a stable release of Android 14 as a reliable stopgap of sorts. It could be that the Android 15 update is available immediately as an OTA during the set-up process.

Overall, it’s less likely that a bug was responsible for any last-minute delay to Android 15 as the OS decision would have been decided upon much earlier.

What remains to be seen is whether the 7 years of updates promised might get impacted?

One interpretation is that it wouldn’t as Google’s guarantee is based on years of updates instead of a set number of releases. For example, if Android 22 gets released in August of 2031, the Pixel 9 series will end up getting 8 major operating system releases. 

Regardless, the optics of the Pixel 9 series not launching with the latest version of Android is not ideal, especially after the consolidation of the software and hardware teams earlier this year. If this a one-off occurrence given the early launch schedule, it could be excused.

That said, Google should have arguably worked to push up OS development if it knew the phones were launching much earlier.