The world’s hottest cellular working system has one other new 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 some extent to enhance the expertise for bigger screens, like tablets and folding smartphones. Android 14 remains to be in improvement and is at the moment in beta, however the remaining model will doubtless land in your telephone on the finish of the summer season. Right here, we break down the options which have caught our eye up to now, and we’ll be including extra as the corporate shares further new options over the approaching months.
For those who’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 is 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.
Methods 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 geared toward builders, however the Android 14 beta is for Google Pixel homeowners who need to test-drive the newest options. We don’t suggest putting in the Android 14 beta in your predominant telephone, as a result of bugs and points are inevitable.
In case you are decided to strive it, you will have to have a Google Pixel smartphone (Pixel 4A 5G or later) and you need to enroll within the Android Beta for Pixel program. For those who go to that hyperlink and you’re signed into your Google account, your eligible units can be listed and you’ll merely click on Decide in. Ensure to again up your Android telephone first. There can be common Beta releases that must be moderately steady, however bear in mind that you’ll have to wipe your telephone if you wish to decide out of this system and return to the newest steady public Android model.
Prime Android 14 Options
We’re highlighting our favourite options and enhancements up to now, however there’s hypothesis about what’s going to make the ultimate lower. You’ll be able to be taught extra at Google’s developer website. 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 any headline function right here, however Google has put some critical effort into enhancing the effectivity of Android to cut back energy drain. Modifications to how the working system handles background duties, downloads, and uploads, alongside just a few different tweaks, ought to allow Android homeowners to squeeze a bit of extra life from their telephone batteries. It additionally seems to be 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 % on Google’s Pixel telephones, however Android 14 permits you to scale fonts as much as 200 %. To forestall wonky layouts, the system makes use of nonlinear scaling, which implies any phrases which might be already scaled up (reminiscent of headings) will not develop bigger, making the textual content extra readable for people with imaginative and prescient impairment.
Notification Flashes
Android 14 allows you to activate digicam flashes and display flashes for incoming notifications. This has been accessible on different Android smartphones (like Samsung units) and iPhones for years, nevertheless it hasn’t been baked into the working system itself. You’ll be able to activate one or the opposite, or each, and select the colour your show will flash. Primarily designed to assist individuals with listening to loss, it may possibly turn out to be useful for anybody who does not need their telephone to make a noise or buzz with each incoming notification.
Higher Assist 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 totally different display sizes. With extra instruments and design recommendation accessible for builders, we will count on apps that work effectively throughout smartphones, folding telephones, and tablets. This may mirror what Apple has carried out to make its app ecosystem transition seamlessly from iPhone to iPad to MacBook.
Courtesy of Google
Limiting 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 can be happy to be taught that Android 14 provides an choice to pick out the particular pictures and movies it’s allowed to entry. Apple launched the same function 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 just a few different behind-the-scenes tweaks to enhance safety, however maybe most notable is improved help for authentication with passkeys enabling biometric login as an alternative 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 may set these systemwide in Android 14 and they’ll persist by means of backup and restore. There may be additionally improved help for gendered languages like French, and higher language customization primarily based on area.
Satellite tv for pc Connectivity
There was some buzz about satellite tv for pc connectivity for telephones for some time now, particularly since Apple debuted Emergency SOS by way of Satellite tv for pc with the iPhone 14 final 12 months. Assist for such connectivity in Android 14 was confirmed by this tweet from Google’s senior vp for Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer. Exactly what this may imply remains to be unclear, nevertheless it may convey higher connectivity to distant areas that at the moment 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 again gestures, which afford you a glimpse of the display a swipe-back gesture will take you to, it must be simpler for people to know methods to navigate and the place they’ll land. It’s not at the moment 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
Of us with two accounts in the identical app will admire this one. A second occasion of an app allows you to 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 barely testing proper now, and it could not make the ultimate Android 14 launch.
Well being Join
You would possibly use one app to your good scales, one other for working, and yet one more to trace your sleep. Google’s Well being Join app provides a technique to centralize your well being and health information and share it throughout totally different apps and companies, although it’s nonetheless in beta. There’s hypothesis that the app might come preinstalled on all Android 14 units.
Improved Share Choices
The share menu in Android has lengthy been inconsistent throughout totally different Android units and apps. Google is now permitting apps so as to add customized actions to system sharesheets, and extra app information is getting used to find out the rating of your potential share targets. This could enable for a extra constant and helpful sharing menu that options the apps and contacts you truly need to share with.
The Android 14 Timeline
Android 14 is at the moment in beta. We’ll doubtless hear an important deal extra about new options throughout Google I/O, the corporate’s developer convention that takes place on Might 10. Count on a number of months of beta releases till Google unveils the ultimate model in late August or early September. Google Pixel telephones are often the primary to get the replace; you will must test your system’s software program coverage to see whether or not and while you’ll get it.