The first beta of Android 14 has been released. It builds on our fundamental themes of privacy, security, speed, developer productivity, and user personalization while continuing to enhance the experience on large-screen devices, such as tablets and foldable. It’s time to let developers and early adopters access Android 14 now that we’ve been steadily improving its reliability and feature set.
Every year, Android releases updates and new features, and your feedback on the Android beta program is crucial to helping Android advance. Further details regarding the beta, including download links for Pixel and the release schedule, are available on the Android 14 developer site. We appreciate your ongoing support in ensuring that Android is a platform that works for everyone and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
using multiple form factors
The support for tablets and foldable form factors in Android 14 builds on the work done in previous versions, and we have been developing tools and resources, such as design inspiration and development manuals, to help you improve your app experience.
Smarter system user interface
The framework, which offers services, and the System UI, which allows the user control over those services, are two independent but equally significant packages that work together to deliver features in the Android operating system. These are some changes you could notice in Beta 1’s system UI, which are improved with each subsequent Android version.
updated back arrow
To enhance back gesture awareness and use, the gesture navigation experience provides a more noticeable back arrow when using your app. The back arrow blends in nicely with the user’s device theme or wallpaper.
Share sheet for a better system
Apps may now add unique actions to the system share sheets they call on Android 14. Choose a list of your custom ChooserActions as the Intent when creating your own ChooserAction using the ChooserAction.Builder. the Intent produced with Intent’s EXTRA CHOOSER CUSTOM ACTIONS. createChooser.
The ranking of the direct share objectives is now determined by the algorithm using other app indications as well. To send the signal and report shortcut usage with the appropriate capability bindings, execute pushDynamicShortcut.
increased graphic capabilities
You may utilize the new graphical options included in Android 14 to truly make your app stand out.
Paths may now be modified and inspected.
The Path API for Android is a powerful and adaptable tool for designing and producing vector graphics. You may query paths to see what is inside of them as of Android version 14. The updated APIs allow for morphing effects, interpolation between pathways whose structures perfectly match, and backward compatibility with API 21 through the AndroidX library. Here are more details.
Personalization
Language choices per application
By enabling dynamic modification of the list of languages shown in the Android Settings per-app language list and providing IMEs with a mechanism to learn the UI language of the currently open app, Android 14 improves per-app language preferences. With AGP 8.1.0-alpha07 and Android Studio Giraffe Canary 7, you may set up your app to support per-app language options automatically. The Android Gradle plugin produces the LocaleConfig file based on your project resources and includes a reference to it in the created manifest file, eliminating the need for you to manually create or update the file if your language support changes. For more information and to submit comments, see Automatic per-app language support.
Privacy
limiting focus to accessibility services targeted at disabled individuals
The accessibilityDataSensitive property is a new feature of Android 14 that enables apps to restrict the presentation of certain views to just those accessibility services that advertise their ability to assist users with impairments. Apps downloaded from the Play Store are verified by Play Protect to be accurate in their promises. This feature will not have an impact on TalkBack or other services that advertise that they assist users with impairments.
App compatibility
Now is the moment to test your app’s compatibility with Android 14 if you haven’t already! We’re giving early adopter consumers and developers access to Android 14 now that it’s in beta. You should anticipate more customers testing your app on Android 14 in the coming weeks and reporting any bugs they discover.
Install your published app on an Android 14 Beta-powered device or emulator, then go through each of the app’s flows to check for compatibility. Examine the behavior alterations to concentrate your testing. Immediately after you’ve fixed any problems, post an update. Moreover, now is a good opportunity to test the app compatibility toggles in Develop to get your app ready for Android 14 compatibility.
Start using Android 14
You may test your apps, try out Android 14’s features, and provide feedback using today’s Beta release. The simplest approach to get started testing your app on tablets and foldable is to use the Android Emulator in a tablet or foldable configuration in the most recent beta of the Android Studio SDK Manager. Now that the beta stage has begun, you can sign up here to get future Android 14 Beta and feature drop Beta updates over the air on any compatible Pixel smartphone. You may utilize the 64-bit system images using the Android Emulator in Android Studio if you don’t own a Pixel device.
Use the most recent preview of Android Studio Giraffe (or more recent Giraffe+ versions) for the greatest Android 14 development experience. Here are some things you should do after you’ve set up. Throughout the Android 14 release cycle, we’ll periodically update the preview and beta system images and SDK.
If your device is compatible and you are already registered for the Android 13 QPR Beta program, Android 14 Beta 1 will be made accessible to you without any more action from you.
Pixel users with a Pixel 4a (5G), Pixel 5, Pixel 5a, Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, and Pixel 7 Pro can install the Android 14 Beta 1 update with some caveats which we will get to.
Visit the Android 14 developer site for more instructions on how to obtain the Beta.
