The world’s most standard cell working system has a brand new model improve—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 is rolling out in the present day to supported units. Right here, we break down the options which have caught our eye.
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 yr’s Android 13 was Tiramisu, so this yr’s U letter dessert is known as Upside Down Cake. Let’s dig in.
Up to date October 2023: We added information of the Android 14 launch and a few new options, together with extra customization and higher listening to help help.
Methods to Obtain and Set up Android 14
When you’ve got a Google Pixel phone (Pixel 4A 5G and newer) you possibly can obtain Android 14 now. Merely go to Settings > System > System replace and faucet Examine for replace.
Google’s Pixel telephones are all the time the primary to get the brand new Android model. When you’ve got a tool from one other producer like Samsung, Asus, HMD (Nokia telephones), iQOO, Lenovo, Motorola, Nothing, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sony, Tecno, Vivo, or Xiaomi, you possibly can count on to get the replace later this yr. If you cannot wait, it is price noting that a few of these units are eligible for the Android 14 beta program (Google has a list of manufacturers here). We don’t suggest putting in the Android 14 beta in your foremost telephone, as a result of bugs and points are inevitable. Ensure that to back up your Android phone first or it’s possible you’ll lose one thing treasured.
Updates will possible pop up mechanically, however you possibly can all the time examine whether or not you will have the most recent model by going to Settings > System > System replace and tapping Examine for replace. Wish to get off the beta and return to Android 13? Go to Google’s Android Beta page, scroll down to search out your gadget, and hit Decide out. It will wipe all regionally saved information, so be sure to again up your gadget. You will get an replace immediate so you possibly can return to the older model.
If you do not have a Pixel or a tool within the beta program, control your producer’s web site, boards, or social media to be taught when you possibly can count on to see Android 14.
High Android 14 Options
We’re highlighting our favourite options and enhancements in Android 14, and from what we have seen, it is largely wanting like a small improve over its predecessor. You’ll be able to be taught extra straight at Google’s developer site.
Extra Customization
You may have lengthy been in a position to customise your own home display, however with Android 14, you get extra instruments to customise your lock display. There is a lock display picker, lock display templates, a monochromatic theme, and help for Extremely HDR photographs. You may also create parallax impact wallpapers utilizing your individual photographs, cartoon-style wallpapers along with your favourite emoji, and even generative AI wallpapers based mostly on textual content prompts.
Improved Battery Life
There isn’t any headline function right here, however Google has put some severe effort into enhancing Android’s effectivity to scale back energy drain. Adjustments to how the working system handles background duties, downloads, and uploads, alongside just a few different tweaks, ought to allow Android homeowners to squeeze just a little extra life from their telephone batteries. It additionally seems as if the choice to examine “display time since final full cost” within the battery settings menu (eliminated in Android 12) is again.
Bigger Fonts and Smarter Scaling
Courtesy of Google
Switching to a bigger font in Android 13 was restricted to 130 % on Google’s Pixel telephones, however Android 14 means that you can scale fonts as much as 200 %. To stop wonky layouts, the system makes use of nonlinear scaling, which suggests any phrases which can be already scaled up (comparable to headings) will not develop bigger, making the textual content extra readable for folks with vision impairment.
Notification Flashes
Android 14 lets you activate digicam flashes and display flashes for incoming notifications. This has been obtainable on different Android smartphones (like Samsung units) and iPhones for years, but it surely 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 help people with hearing loss, it may turn out to be useful for anybody who would not need their telephone to make a noise or buzz with each incoming notification.
Higher Listening to Support Help
Extra excellent news for people with listening to loss, as Android 14 will cease lumping listening to aids in with different Bluetooth units. There’s a new devoted web page for listening to units, and you may select which sounds ought to go to your listening to aids and what ought to come via the gadget’s audio system. And to assist forestall listening to harm, Android 14 will warn you when you will have been listening to loud music for too lengthy with a pop-up notification.
Higher Help for Giant 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 obtainable for builders, we are able to count on apps that work nicely throughout smartphones, folding telephones, and tablets. This might mirror what Apple has executed to make its app ecosystem transition seamlessly from iPhone to iPad to MacBook.
Proscribing Photograph and Video Entry
Courtesy of Google
If you’re uncomfortable with the all-or-nothing nature of granting an app entry to your photographs and movies, you’ll be happy to be taught that Android 14 provides an choice to pick out the particular photographs 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 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.
Protected PIN
There’s one other safety and comfort enhancement in Android 14 for the standard PIN. Now you can flip off the animations that seem whenever you enter your PIN to make it more durable for folks to spy your digits. In case your PIN is six characters or longer, you may as well eliminate the OK button on the finish and simply have it unlock whenever you enter the ultimate quantity.
Information Safety
Keeping track of what apps and games are doing with your data is far harder than it must be. You may grant apps entry to some information based mostly on their coverage whenever you set up, however what if they’re acquired by one other firm or change their coverage for another purpose and determine to promote your information to advertisers or different third-parties? Android 14 will ship you a month-to-month warning when apps have modified their information sharing habits.
Regional Preferences
Courtesy of Google
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’re going to persist via backup and restore. There may be additionally improved help for gendered languages like French, and higher language customization based mostly on area.
Predictive Again Gestures
Google has added a outstanding 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 people to know find out how to navigate and the place they’ll land. It’s not at present apparent the place a again swipe will take you in Android; generally it’s the residence display, generally a earlier display, or an app.
Well being Join
You may use one app in your sensible scales, one other for operating, and one more to trace your sleep. Google’s Health Connect app presents a method to centralize your well being and health information and share it throughout completely different apps and providers, although it’s nonetheless in beta. The app comes preinstalled on all Android 14 units and can replace mechanically.
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 share sheets, 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 really need to share with.
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