All New Features in the First Android 14 Beta
Android 14 is here . Well, at least in beta. Google released the first public beta of the upcoming Android update on Thursday, April 13, after two developer-only previews earlier this year. If you want to experience the new changes that Google is bringing to Android, now you can.
Many of these features are intended for developers, so the end user will not necessarily take advantage of them. However, you may notice that they appear in the apps and services you are using now that the beta is running.
New arrow and back gesture
We covered the new smart gesture back in Android 14 when it was highlighted in Developer Preview 2 , but now that it’s in public beta, more people will be able to try it out. With the predictive back gesture, you will now see a preview of which application or window you will return to before you jump. While the Android back button/gesture is a great feature, you often didn’t know 100% where you were going until the new preview.
What’s more, the arrow is designed with your material in mind, so it will match the color scheme of your current wallpaper.
Developers can now update the exchange sheet
In previous versions of Android, the sharing sheet (the menu that appears when you want to share something) ranked the apps and contacts you could share with in alphabetical order. But with Android 14, developers can now customize share sheets to include unique actions that apply to their apps.
In the past, developers could customize the share sheet, but to do so they needed to create their own version of the share sheet rather than relying on Android’s built-in option.
Graphic improvements
Developers can now take advantage of the graphical improvements in Android 14 as paths can now be queried and interpolated. One of these benefits will be morphing effects, which will allow developers to implement animations that smoothly transform elements.
Per-app language settings improvements
The language settings for each application are important. For those of us who speak two or more languages, you don’t always want to use the same language across all apps. Android 14 makes it easy for developers to update their list of supported languages, which will hopefully inspire more developers to support more languages.
Android 14 limits the visibility of accessibility features targeted at people with disabilities.
One of the new Android 14 privacy features is the “accessibilityDataSensitive” attribute 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 help people with disabilities. Google’s goal is to protect user data, such as personal information or unencrypted passwords, and prevent users from accidentally making drastic decisions, such as inadvertently sending money or buying something they didn’t want.
It’s time to test the application
This first Android 14 beta is the time for developers to test their apps with the latest version of Google’s OS. While you may experience some crashes in some apps when running Android 14, over time you should start seeing more optimized versions without issue.
Android 14 features we already knew about
As reported by Android Authority , there are a few additional custom features that we already knew about from previous developer previews.
Android 14 is focused on accessibility, adding even larger fonts (up to 200%) to the mix. The software also includes a new notification accessibility feature that uses the camera flash, display flash, or both to light up whenever a new notification arrives.
We’re also seeing the return of “Screen Time Since Last Full Charge,” which shows how much you’ve used your phone since it was last charged to 100%. You won’t be able to install apps from Android 5.1 Lollipop API or earlier, but you can leave those apps on your device if they were installed prior to Android 14.
Google has implemented an iOS-like permission to share selected photos with the app, rather than all or none. In addition, you can now turn off the PIN animation, which should help prevent others from learning your PIN before stealing your phone.
Small changes should also improve your device’s battery life without doing anything.
How to Install Android 14 Beta on Your Device
Warning: The beta version of the software is under testing and you should not expect stable performance when using it. Thus, it is not recommended to install beta software on your primary device as there may be bugs or other issues that prevent you from using your phone. If you’re installing the Android 14 beta, back up your device before moving on.
The easiest way to install Android 14 on your phone is to register it in the Android beta testing program . This is currently only available for compatible Pixel devices, including:
- Pixel 4a (5G)
- Pixel 5 and 5a
- Pixel 6 and 6 Pro
- Pixel 6a
- Pixel 7 and 7 Pro
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. Instructions are on the Google site here . If you have already enrolled your device in the Android QPR program, it will automatically update to Android 14 beta 1.
[ Fringe ]