I upgraded my Pixel 7a to Android 15 yesterday and so far the two new features that I have enabled are Theft Protection and Private Space. The key to discovering both of these features is to go in to Settings and enter these feature names in the search box. Theft Protection is basically something you just turn on and not really use, whereas Private Space is something one actually uses.

The first thing to know about Private Space is that you need a second Google account that is not the primary one that you use with your phone so that what you store in the Private Space is not co-mingled. It appears that Private space is not just a set of hidden and secured file directories that stays on the phone, so be aware that some information you put it in syncs to Google. I already have a “second” Google account associated to my own domain so that is the one that I used.

The second thing I discovered is that there is not way to move an application and it’s data that is already on your phone in to the private space. To move an app you have to install it in the private space, which you do using the second private space Google account and the Play store, then somehow move the data. A problem might be that an app you move may only be associated with your primary account. In thinking about Private Space, I am not sure whether it even makes sense as a place to store banking apps that already have its own authentication, Private Space is just an extra hop in that case. It seems really intended to be a separate area for Google’s own apps, for example, I installed Gmail and this effectively provides a way for me to access my two Gmail accounts on the phone.

One thing I don’t understand about Private Space are notifications. Every Android app seems to request notifications to be allowed, so for example, will I see any notifications for new email that comes in the mailbox tied to the Private Space? The information in the Private Space settings say that it is not suitable for apps that get critical notifications or need to run in the background because they are closed when the Space locks, which happens when the phone locks. I might have expected the notifications to queue and appear when I open the Private Space but so far that doesn’t seem to be the case.