It’s that time of the year! Well, this one’s a few days early but, hey, we are not complaining.
Google I/O, where Google traditionally details the next version of Android, is still months away. However, as has become the norm over the last few years, Google introduces the next version of Android a few months to I/O (some say it will be more like Google AI this year), its annual developer conference, to give developers across the board (from indie devs to those working with its OEM partners) to test system-level and app-level features and changes on their platforms and testbed before converging in San Francisco.
This year is not any different and, last night, Google just went ahead and gave us a sneak peek at what’s coming to Android in version 14 with the release of the first Developer Preview.
So, as usual, the features that we get to see in the first Developer Preview are not the entirety of what will entail Android 14 when we finally get to experience it on our devices at the end of this year but is the be-all and end-all. DP1, as we often call it, often comprises the bulk of what we will be seeing in the final build of the operating system as far as the core bits of the system are concerned.
When the beta versions of Android 14 roll in in a few months, we will get to see more of the consumer-facing features which are currently hidden behind all of the dev-centred implementations that need to happen first. There will be a couple of additions and removals here and there but that’s the minor stuff. This (see below) is the major stuff. The building blocks of all that we will either like or not like about the new version of Android.
- Google is continuing the streamlined approach to Android better supporting devices of different sizes now that we are in the age of foldable devices with displays all over the place doing various things. For keen readers and observers, we have entertained talk of a certain version of Android called Android 12L. Android 12L was a mid-cycle release based off Android 12L but better tweaked for large display devices like tablets and foldable. We have since had Android 13 and we are now talking about Android 14 so what happened to Android 13L? Easy. We never had Android 13L. This is simply because, with Android 13, Google brought to the main version of Android all the enhancements and improvements needed to better support foldable and tablets. It is those improvements it made in Android 13 that removed the need for an Android 13L that we are talking about here. Right off the bat, all devices, regardless of display and form factor, are supported.
- A more streamlined background app activity behaviour. “Android 14 continues our effort to optimize the way apps work together, improve system health and battery life, and polish the end-user experience,” says Google.
- Those mixes from your favourite DJ on YouTube, how do you usually get them for offline playback later, especially when your data is off for whatever reason (we have established that it’s really really hard to be in an area with no sufficient data signal in most of this country, especially if you are a Safaricom subscriber, so that’s out of the question for most of us)? If you’re like yours truly then you use an app called Tubemate (look it up). Now, Tubemate lets you quickly download YouTube videos and threads the download process so that it is faster – and Google obviously hates it for that. Why am I bringing up Tubemate? Because what it does, the download process, is usually handled in a funny way depending on which device I am using. Some devices, thanks to the many customizations device makers make, treat the download process as a foreground activity, thereby prioritizing it. Other times, I am not so lucky and, for some reason, the app gets delegated to the background as a background process. With Android 14, Google is looking to create some order and stop all those chaos. It is partly responsible for the chaos, though, since it went all harm in Android 12 and now the time has come to walk back that decision. Developers will be able to define the priority of the processes that their apps undertake and the overall system will respect that. I am keen to see how Android 14 dances around the task killing that most device makers do with their custom overlays. They tried last year but, here we are. Like Oppo’s ColorOS, for instance. Leave a Twitter Space running on your Oppo device and you haven’t manually whitelisted the Twitter app and you’ll be kicked out of the Space not long after.
- Google is also addressing the small matter of apps that are constantly waking up when they shouldn’t be and sipping your valuable battery juice.
- The same is happening for apps that regularly need to alert a user, for instance, those focus and meditation apps that everyone loves. Those Pomodoro apps you have, Google is going after them. Unless developers set such apps like the developers of calendar and clock alarm apps would set theirs – to anticipate users to want to be prompted at a specific time – all other apps that are not calendar or alarm clock apps are denied that kind of access. Details (if you code).
- One of the things that I like on my Oppo smartphones is being able to pinch and zoom, especially on the Messages application, to increase the font of the texts. You know, just incase the message I am reading is not dramatic enough. While that is generally a good experience, it is not standard across the board and everyone has their own implementation. Heck, some don’t have it at all. Not a problem anymore as Google is defining the parameters within which that can happen, providing a much-needed quality control to existing users of the device and introducing it to the hundreds of millions who probably rely on devices whose makers had not thought of such a thing – and the handful that stick to Google’s own Pixel devices.
- On the security front, Google is making it easy for developers to incorporate passkeys, what many of us believe to be the natural successor to the password. In short, with Android 14, Google is recognizing and encouraging the use of passkeys on its mobile platform and making it easier and safer for everyone involved – developers and end users.
- Still staying with security, in order to put a stop to malicious characters who target users of older devices that likely don’t receive newer versions of Android with the latest security safeguards as well as the monthly security updates that fix glaring holes that may plague older versions of Android and older software builds, Google is restricting developers when it comes to releasing apps targeted at older versions, just like we expected. At this time, Google won’t approve for publication on the Play Store apps that target users of devices running versions of Android released earlier than late 2015, i.e. running on any version of Android older than version 6.0, also known as Marshmallow. Why Android 6? Well, if you remember correctly, it is with Marshmallow that we got permissions on Android for the first time. For the first time, you could say no to an app requesting permissions that you don’t agree with. That makes it easy to have it as a cut-off point – and it is generous enough that no serious developer or user will be left behind. That was 8 years ago, for heaven’s sake!
There are lots of other minor housekeeping feature updates that are all over Android 14 at this early stage. We expect these, as well as the major updates highlighted above, to be fleshed out in detail in May at I/O and to be more pronounced when the first public betas start making the rounds.
For instance, we expect to see an overhaul of the gesture navigations on Android. Tecno devices, including the latest Phantom smartphones, have been arriving with gesture navigation enabled by default and, unless you have muscle memory from using a past device, it’s a pain. So, yeah, that needs fixing. There’s also talk of features like app cloning, which various device makers and independent app developers have offered for years (I wrote this 2 months after this site was founded, for instance, some 6 years ago), becoming standard on Android.
There’s that matter of finally ending support for 32-bit apps which appears to be happening this year. And many other features.
Gladly, what we need is just time. A little patience and all of this will be here.
If you are the impatient type then you better be having a Pixel smartphone with you since it is those that are usually (and indeed are, in this case) eligible to take a new version of Android for a spin this early in its pre-release cycle. There are instructions on how Pixel users can do that as well as system images necessary for the flashing process here. For the rest of us whose curiosity won’t let us be and know our way around the setup of Android Studio then getting our hands dirty with the Android Emulator is the only way to experience Android 14 at this time.
That, however, is too much of a hassle when we know for a fact that a handful of device makers will be lining up to let us test-drive their idea of Android 14 as soon as 3 months from now when Android 14 beta starts rolling out. Traditionally, in addition to the obvious Pixel battalion, we’ve had Nokia, Tecno, Xiaomi and others join the fray. Our fingers are crossed that one of the Camon 19 variants from Tecno, the most popular devices on Android Kenya over the last few months, makes the cut. Below is a timeline from Google that you can use to manage your anxiety in the meantime.
