Android 14 ’s 2d developer preview is now useable for download . It ’s more feature - fulfill than theprevious interpretation , which came out last month , with a particular focus on features like being able to lumber into web site by read your face . Sound intimate ? And the serious news is that we ’re about a calendar month away from the Android 14 genus Beta , which is the prevue for the rest of us .
Android 14 has a particular accent on working across different form divisor . Google is count on the foldable vista to aid carry Android into this next level of the mobile platform state of war , and it ’s providing developer with certification on how to design for dissimilar concealment setups . But the most user - facing part of this waiver is the new privacy , security , and localization feature — they mostly meliorate upon what is already uncommitted in Android 13 , rather than introducing novel capableness alone .
If you ’re on Android 13 , you already know that apps ask you for permit before get at your exposure library . Android 14 will pull an iOS - style move by allow you to select which photos and charge an app can access individually . This is helpful if , for instance , you ’re using some wacky third - company app to make your latest selfie see like Godzilla . You should likely only allow that app to access code a few photos at a time . This feature of speech hastechnically been availablethrough Google Play Services for a while already , and is presently compatible with machine dating back to Android 4.4 . But only some apps have been utilizing it . Android 14 will have the feature formally establish - in throughout the operating organisation .
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
Android 14 will also offer a newcredentials manager , which Google hope will “ make sign - in easier ” for folks across the operating scheme . This builds upon an ability already available in Android and even the Chrome browser app . Once the update arrive at , it will make it easier to lumber in to any account you have stored in your password strand , besides a Google one , with your face or fingerprint . It ’s like to iOS letting you lumber into apps and website with Face ID . And it ’s going to make it easygoing to multitask between different business relationship .
As with every software system update , Android 14 will bid cosmopolitan usability improvement . Foreground apps — apps you are using or have recently accessed — can now more easily initiation activities in the background signal without completely taking over your screen . This 2nd developer prevue also include expert memory direction for the system , allowing the OS to immediately set an app into the cached land so that it ’s not eating up the battery .
I ’m specially excited about Android 14 ’s power to send away previously un - dismissable notifications in the free fall - down tincture . Think persistent image from background apps that wo n’t go away with a swipe . Google says you ’ll now be able to make them go away once you unlock the earphone . But anything “ important to machine functionality , ” like wearables and connected devices , will still pay heed out in the notification nicety .
A preview of what the photo picker will look like in Android 14.Screenshot: Google
Per - app spoken language ability are also pay off more robust in the next software update . Google will now volunteer regional preferences in the configurations menu . For exemplar , Americans can define their prefer unit for temperature to Fahrenheit , and the telephone set will keep expose it that way even if they call Europe . Prior to this , the temperature unit would automatically switch over if your phone saw you were in a neighborhood that expend Celsius .
There is more to the Android 14 developer preview . If you want to dig into it yourself , you canflashthe second Android 14 developer preview onto your Android gimmick . However , I apprize you against doing this on your daily number one wood . The developer preview is available forPixel 4adevices and up . Or , wait a calendar month until things are a shade more stable for the official Android 14 beta . Google says on its developer timeline that the genus Beta will shoot sometime in April .
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