12 Top New Android 14 Features (2023): How to Install, Features, Release Date Leave a comment
The world’s most common 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 some extent to enhance the expertise for bigger screens, like tablets and folding smartphones. Android 14 remains to be in beta, however the last model will probably land in your telephone on the finish of the summer time. 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.
If you happen to’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 April 13, 2023: The primary Android 14 beta is right here, and we have added particulars.
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 house owners who need to test-drive the most recent options. We don’t advocate putting in the Android 14 beta in your principal telephone, 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 you could enroll within the Android Beta for Pixel program. If you happen to 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. Be certain that to back up your Android phone first. There can be common beta releases that ought to be fairly steady, however remember that you’ll have to wipe your telephone 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 up to now, however there’s hypothesis about what’s going to make the ultimate minimize. You possibly can be taught extra at Google’s developer site. From what we have seen, Android 14 is basically trying like a small improve over its predecessor, with no main developments.
Improved Battery Life
There isn’t a headline characteristic right here, however Google has put some critical effort into bettering Android’s effectivity to cut back energy drain. Modifications to how the working system handles background duties, downloads, and uploads, alongside a couple of different tweaks, ought to allow Android house owners to squeeze just a little 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 p.c on Google’s Pixel telephones, however Android 14 means that you can scale fonts as much as 200 p.c. To forestall wonky layouts, the system makes use of nonlinear scaling, which suggests any phrases which can be already scaled up (equivalent 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 possibly can activate one or the opposite, or each, and select the colour your show will flash. Primarily designed to help people with hearing loss, it will possibly turn out to be useful for anybody who would 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 completely different display sizes. With extra instruments and design recommendation obtainable for builders, we will count on apps that work nicely throughout smartphones, folding telephones, and tablets. This is able to mirror what Apple has accomplished to make its app ecosystem transition seamlessly from iPhone to iPad to MacBook.
Courtesy of Google
Proscribing Picture 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 possibility to pick out 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 couple of different behind-the-scenes tweaks to enhance safety, however maybe most notable is improved help 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 may set these systemwide in Android 14 and they’re going to persist via backup and restore. There’s additionally improved help 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 yr. Assist for such connectivity in Android 14 was confirmed by this tweet from Google’s senior vice chairman for Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer. Exactly what it will imply remains to be unclear, but it surely 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 back gestures, which afford you a glimpse of the display {that a} swipe-back gesture will take you to, it ought to be simpler for folk to know find out how to navigate and the place they may land. It isn’t 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
People with two accounts in the identical app will admire this one. A second occasion of an app lets you use two accounts concurrently. Some smartphone producers supply methods to do that with choose apps, and there are workarounds, however an official Android possibility within the settings menu will probably work higher. That is one thing Google is only testing proper now, and it could not make the ultimate Android 14 launch.
Well being Join
You would possibly use one app on your good scales, one other for working, and one more to trace your sleep. Google’s Health Connect app gives a method to centralize your well being and health knowledge and share it throughout completely different apps and providers, 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 the moment in beta. We’ll probably hear an important 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 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.
