On November 15,
Minecraft 1.9 apk was released. Now you have access to a huge list of new features in Minecraft PE Village & Pillage Update. For example, added pillagers, new flowers, birch, jungle, acacia and dark oak signs, more than 10 types of stairs and walls.
There is only one question-why the developers have changed the Beta version to a new one, it's the same as renaming the upcoming update for PC - from 1.14 to 1.15. Most likely, Mojang wants to make a full 1.8 release in the near future, and all the juicy features to move to 1.9 version, which should be released in early 2019.