The world’s most widespread cell working system has one other model improve within the works—Android 14—which guarantees enhancements to privateness, safety, and efficiency. Google, the corporate that manages the OS, has additionally made it a degree to enhance the expertise for bigger screens, like tablets and folding smartphones. Android 14 remains to be in beta, however the last model will doubtless land in your cellphone on the finish of the summer season. Right here, we break down the options which have caught our eye, and we’ll add extra as the corporate shares further options over the approaching months.
Should you’re questioning, Google formally dropped the alphabetical Android dessert names with Android 10, however the variations are nonetheless codenamed internally with the identical system. Final 12 months’s Android 13 was Tiramisu, so this 12 months’s “U” letter dessert known as Upside Down Cake. Let’s dig in.
Up to date April 13, 2023: The primary Android 14 beta is right here, and we have added particulars.
Tips on how to Obtain and Set up Android 14
After launching two developer previews of Android 14, Google has launched the primary official beta model. The previews have been aimed toward builders, however the Android 14 beta is for Google Pixel house owners who need to test-drive the most recent options. We don’t advocate putting in the Android 14 beta in your most important cellphone, as a result of bugs and points are inevitable.
In case you are decided to attempt it, you have to to have a Google Pixel smartphone (Pixel 4A 5G or later) and it’s essential to enroll within the Android Beta for Pixel program. Should you go to that hyperlink and are signed in to your Google account, your eligible units can be listed and you may merely click on Choose in. Make sure that to back up your Android phone first. There can be common beta releases that must be fairly steady, however remember that you’ll have to wipe your cellphone if you wish to decide out of this system and return to the most recent steady public Android model.
High Android 14 Options
We’re highlighting our favourite options and enhancements thus far, however there may be hypothesis about what is going to make the ultimate lower. You may be taught extra at Google’s developer site. From what we have seen, Android 14 is essentially wanting like a small improve over its predecessor, with no main developments.
Improved Battery Life
There isn’t a headline function right here, however Google has put some severe effort into enhancing Android’s effectivity to cut back energy drain. Adjustments to how the working system handles background duties, downloads, and uploads, alongside a number of different tweaks, ought to allow Android house owners to squeeze a little bit extra life from their cellphone batteries. It additionally seems as if the choice to test “display time since final full cost” within the battery settings menu (eliminated in Android 12) is again.
Courtesy of Google
Bigger Fonts and Smarter Scaling
Switching to a bigger font in Android 13 was restricted to 130 p.c on Google’s Pixel telephones, however Android 14 permits you to scale fonts as much as 200 p.c. To forestall wonky layouts, the system makes use of nonlinear scaling, which suggests any phrases which might be already scaled up (corresponding to headings) will not develop bigger, making the textual content extra readable for folks with vision impairment.
Notification Flashes
Android 14 lets you activate digital camera flashes and display flashes for incoming notifications. This has been out there on different Android smartphones (like Samsung units) and iPhones for years, nevertheless it hasn’t been baked into the working system itself. You may activate one or the opposite, or each, and select the colour your show will flash. Primarily designed to help people with hearing loss, it could come in useful for anybody who would not need their cellphone to make a noise or buzz with each incoming notification.
Higher Help for Massive Screens
The very first thing Google introduced within the preliminary developer preview was assist for builders making an attempt to construct apps that adapt gracefully to completely different display sizes. With extra instruments and design recommendation out there for builders, we are able to anticipate apps that work effectively throughout smartphones, folding telephones, and tablets. This is able to mirror what Apple has carried out to make its app ecosystem transition seamlessly from iPhone to iPad to MacBook.
Courtesy of Google
Proscribing Photograph and Video Entry
In case you are uncomfortable with the all-or-nothing nature of granting an app entry to your pictures and movies, you’ll be happy to be taught that Android 14 provides an choice to pick the precise pictures and movies it’s allowed to entry. Apple launched a similar feature in iOS 14.
Enhanced Safety
Since malware tends to focus on older variations of Android to keep away from safety enhancements in newer variations, Android 14 will not allow you to set up older apps from Android 5.1 and earlier. There are a number of different behind-the-scenes tweaks to enhance safety, however maybe most notable is improved assist for authentication with passkeys enabling biometric login as a substitute of utilizing passwords for extra apps.
Courtesy of Google
Regional Preferences
Whether or not you like the temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit, Monday or Sunday as the beginning of your week, or particular calendars or numerals, you possibly can set these systemwide in Android 14 and they’ll persist by backup and restore. There’s additionally improved assist for gendered languages like French, and higher language customization based mostly on area.
Satellite tv for pc Connectivity
There was some buzz about satellite connectivity for phones for some time now, particularly since Apple debuted Emergency SOS via Satellite with the iPhone 14 final 12 months. Help for such connectivity in Android 14 was confirmed by this tweet from Google’s senior vice chairman for Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer. Exactly what this may imply remains to be unclear, nevertheless it may carry higher connectivity to distant areas that at present lack cell service.
Predictive Again Gestures
Google has added a distinguished again arrow that matches your wallpaper or theme for clearer gesture navigation. Coupled with predictive back gestures, which afford you a glimpse of the display {that a} swipe-back gesture will take you to, it must be simpler for folk to know how one can navigate and the place they are going to land. It’s not at present apparent the place a again swipe will take you in Android; typically it’s the residence display, typically a earlier display, or an app.
App Cloning
People with two accounts in the identical app will recognize this one. A second occasion of an app lets you use two accounts concurrently. Some smartphone producers provide methods to do that with choose apps, and there are workarounds, however an official Android choice within the settings menu will doubtless work higher. That is one thing Google is only testing proper now, and it might not make the ultimate Android 14 launch.
Well being Join
You may use one app in your sensible scales, one other for working, and yet one more to trace your sleep. Google’s Health Connect app presents a technique to centralize your well being and health knowledge and share it throughout completely different apps and companies, although it’s nonetheless in beta. There’s hypothesis that the app could come preinstalled on all Android 14 units.
Improved Share Choices
The share menu in Android has lengthy been inconsistent throughout completely different Android units and apps. Google is now permitting apps so as to add customized actions to system sharesheets, and extra app knowledge is getting used to find out the rating of your potential share targets. This could permit for a extra constant and helpful sharing menu that options the apps and contacts you really need to share with.
The Android 14 Timeline
Android 14 is at present in beta. We’ll doubtless hear a fantastic deal extra about new options throughout Google I/O, the corporate’s developer convention that takes place on Could 10. Anticipate a number of months of beta releases till Google unveils the ultimate model in late August or early September. Google Pixel telephones are normally the primary to get the replace; you may need to test your gadget’s software program coverage to see whether or not and whenever you’ll get it.
