Android 14 is here. Well, at least in beta form. After two developer-only previews earlier this year, Google released the first public beta for the upcoming Android update on Thursday, April 13. If you want to experience the new changes Google is bringing to Android, now you can.
Many of these features are for developers, so you won’t necessarily be able to take advantage of them as an end-user. However, you may notice them appearing in the apps and services you use now that the beta is live.
We covered Android 14’s new predictive back gesture when it was highlighted in Developer Preview 2, but now that it’s here in public beta, more people will be able to experience it. With predictive back gestures, you’ll now see a preview of which app or window you’re going back to before you make the jump. While Android’s back button/gestures are a great feature, you often don’t know 100% where you’re going until the new preview.
Even better, the arrows are designed with Material U in mind, so they’ll match the color scheme of your current wallpaper.
In previous versions of Android, the Share Sheet (the menu that appears when you go to share something) would rank the apps and contacts you can share with in alphabetical order. But with Android 14, developers are now able to customize share sheets to include unique functions applied to their apps.
Developers could customize the Share Sheet in the past, but this required them to create their own version of the Share Sheet rather than relying on Android’s built-in option.
Developers can now take advantage of graphical enhancements in Android 14, with paths now being queryable and interpolable. One of those benefits will be morphing effects, which will allow developers to apply animations that will seamlessly transform elements.
Per-app language preferences are important. For those of us who are bilingual or multilingual, you may not always want to use the same language on all apps. Android 14 makes it easier for developers to update their list of supported languages, which will hopefully inspire more developers to support a wider variety of languages.
One of the new privacy features of Android 14 is the “Accessibility Datasensitive” feature for developers. This allows them to implement features in their apps to limit the visibility of data to accessibility services, especially when those services claim to assist people with disabilities. Google’s goal is to protect user data such as personal information or plaintext passwords, as well as prevent users from accidentally making rash decisions, such as inadvertently sending money or buying something they didn’t want.
It’s time for the first Android 14 beta developers to test their apps with the latest version of the Google OS. Although you may experience some glitches in some apps while running Android 14, over time you will start to see more optimized versions without any issues.
As reported by Android Authority, there are some additional user-facing features that we already knew about from the first developer preview.
Android 14 focuses on accessibility, adding even larger fonts into the mix (up to 200%). The software also includes a new Notification Accessibility feature, which uses the camera flash, display flash, or both to light up whenever a new notification arrives.
We also see the return of “Screen time since last charged”, which shows you how much you’ve used since you last charged your phone to 100%. You won’t be able to install apps from Android 5.1 Lollipop API or older, but you can keep these apps on your device if they were installed before Android 14.
Google implemented an iOS-like permission to share select photos with an app instead of all or none. Plus, you can now turn off PIN animations, which will help prevent others from studying your PIN before stealing your phone.
Even without doing anything, small changes will increase the battery life of your device.
One caveat: Beta software is software in testing, and you shouldn’t expect a stable experience when using it. As such, installing beta software on your primary device is not recommended, as it may contain bugs or other issues that hinder your ability to use your phone. If you install Android 14 beta, take a proper backup of your device before proceeding.
The easiest way to install Android 14 on your phone is to enroll it in the Android Beta program. Right now, it’s only available for compatible Pixel devices, including:
If you have one of these devices, you can also flash or manually install the Android 14 system image. For all other devices, you can set up an Android emulator to run Android 14. Here are instructions on Google’s site. If you have already enrolled your device in the Android QPR program, it will automatically update to Android 14 beta 1.
[The Verge]
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