Even though the first public beta of Android 14 hasn’t been released just yet, we have some idea of what to anticipate. With each update, the Android system will get new features and minor enhancements. The initial developer previews for all supported Pixel devices and several additional non-Pixel phones are due in the coming months. Here’s all you need to know about Android 14.
Android 14 has yet to receive a release date, although it is likely to stick to the same schedule as past versions. The first developer preview of Android 13 was released in February 2022, and this was followed by a second preview and four beta versions before the official release in August 2022. Now that the first developer beta of Android 14 has arrived, it’s looking like we’ll stick to the same release schedule as last year.
If Google sticks to the same release schedule as last year, Android 14 will reach “platform stability” for developers around the third beta. Last year, when APIs had finally reached a stable state, developers were able to submit apps to the Google Play Store that made use of the new API level.
How to try out Android 14 before everyone else?
It’s safe to assume that if you own a current Google Pixel smartphone, such as the Pixel 7 series, you will be among the first to experience Android 14 when it becomes available. Although it will still be in preview form for developers only (and hence not recommended for your daily use), you will be able to give it a try. While devices from companies like OnePlus and Xiaomi aren’t often updated as frequently, we still anticipate their participation.
What to expect in Android 14?
Here are a few of the improvements to Android 14 that have been discovered so far but have not been verified.
Applications can be instructed to adopt your local calendar and number system with Android 14’s regional preferences feature.
Because of Android’s widespread use around the world, the system must accommodate a variety of date and time formats as well as metric and imperial systems of measurement (e.g., miles vs. kilometers). Several apps (especially weather apps) will prompt you to select a preferred measurement system because it isn’t always acceptable for the app to guess what the user prefers. In Android 13, Google implemented language options on a per-app basis, and the company appears to be spreading this concept to additional contexts.
The “Regional preferences” feature, now in beta testing for Android 14, will allow users to configure their device to reflect their weather patterns, calendar, weekday of the week, and numbering system preferences. When a hidden dev flag is turned on, “Regional preferences” appears in Settings > System > Languages & input.
With Android 14, perhaps all that annoying carrier-installed bloatware will be easier to locate and uninstall.
Bloatware refers to any unnecessary software that is pre-installed on a smartphone. It’s a problem that everyone has different requirements, but I think we can all agree that apps that are loaded in the background without the user’s knowledge or agreement count. With institutions like India’s CCI directing and slapping fines on Google for enforcing bloatware (including GApps), such a setting is required for regulatory compliance. The “apps installed in the background” choice in Android 14 DP1 is not immediately available. It is not visible in the standard Settings interface unless the developer flag is toggled on. You’ll find it under a “Spa” submenu of Settings, which is likewise hidden from regular users and requires the developer flag to access.
Apps that don’t use the Photo Picker won’t be able to access photos unless you allow them to in Android 14.
Among the many new features introduced in Android 13, the Photo Picker API stands out. Thanks to Project Mainline, it is now available on Android 4.4 and later devices. By allowing users to choose which media an app can view, this feature helps ensure that apps don’t have unrestricted access to all media stored on a user’s device. It’s important for apps to implement the Photo Picker API, and many don’t.
As of Android 14, a new option to “Select Photos” may appear in the runtime permission box when an app requests access to READ_MEDIA_VIDEO or READ_MEDIA_IMAGES (or both) from the user. When you tap this entry, the Photo Picker will reappear so you can choose which pictures and videos to share with the app. Following the user’s selection, the app will only have access to the chosen media.
Updatable root certificates for better security.
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) relies on root certificates issued and signed by trusted Certificate Authorities (CA). Yet sometimes, those CAs become untrustworthy; therefore, devices need a solution to get new certificates to ensure full access to the internet. Android’s certificates have always been kept on the phone’s system partition, making over-the-air updates the sole viable method for issuing new ones.
In the future, perhaps with Android 14, this will change, as Google will incorporate the root store on your phone (the store that basically tells the phone what certificates are accepted) into the Conscrypt Mainline module that may be updated via Google Play System Updates.
Possible inclusion of Health Connect as built-in with Android 14.
There has always been a way for health and fitness apps to communicate with one another, but until recently, there was no standard API by which these apps could do so. Google has developed a solution called Health Connect that will allow all of these tracking apps to communicate with one another and share data. In the past, Adidas Running had to build its own interfaces with Samsung Health, Fitbit, and Google Fit in order to import data from those apps. In this situation, it has simply to link up with Health Connect, and the latter will take care of linking up with everyone else.
Although Health Connect is now available in the Google Play Store, not everyone is aware of it because it is not pre-installed on their phones. Google has given indications that it plans to ship with at least some Android phones with this feature pre-installed.
Officially announced features of Android 14 by Google
Optimization of Background Processes
Google has enhanced background broadcasts since apps require them to retrieve data or notify you of changes. Broadcasts to context-registered receivers may be queued and only provided to the app once it exits the cached state, so apps only get them when they are in an active state. Furthermore, once the app leaves the cached state, any context-registered broadcasts that are expected to be sent repeatedly, such as BATTERY CHANGED, may be merged into a single final broadcast before being sent. This helps in saving extra resources and, in turn, battery.
New customizations
Android’s focus on personalization means that the operating system has seen a number of updates in recent years to improve accessibility for all users. Features such as larger fonts with non-linear scaling, language options per app, and an API for grammatical inflection that works with languages with gendered grammar include these.
Lower SDK install block
Google has disabled the ability to install applications designed for Android SDK level 22 or lower on devices. This is due to Android 6.0 Marshmallow’s introduction of a new runtime permission framework, which could cause malicious apps to specifically target SDK 22. There are more enhancements, such as the requirement for apps to define dynamic Context.registerReceiver() as exported or unexported and the introduction of safer implicit intents and dynamic code loading.
Installing Android 14 on your Pixel phone
Officially, Google has released this developer preview update for the Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6, Pixel 5a 5G, Pixel 5, and Pixel 4 devices (5G). The Android Studio Android Emulator is compatible with 64-bit system images. You can download factory images for Pixel or use Android Flash Tool to flash these new versions to your phone. Keep in mind that the data may be erased.
