We are already halfway through the month of February 2023, and do you know what that means for Android enthusiasts? Well, Google makes the alpha versions of its new operating system, Android 14, available to developers, so that they have enough time to acclimatize with the platform and adapt their applications to it. With all that said, if you are interested in learning about the news that comes with Android 14 Developer Preview, you have come to the right place; In the same way, we will list the Pixel devices that are compatible with it.
What’s new in Android 14 Developer P: Personalization
The Android team wants users to be able to customize the experience to their individual needs, so the following features await us:
- Larger fonts: In Android 14 the maximum font size will be 200%. It is currently 130% on Pixel devices.
- Language preferences: You can dynamically update your app’s local settings (LocaleManager.setOverrideLocaleConfig), which is used to customize the set of languages displayed in the per-app language list in Android settings.
- Grammatical inflection API: Basically an API is added that makes it easier to add support for languages that have grammatical gender, such as Spanish.
Privacy & Security
- Runtime Receivers: Apps targeting Android 14 must indicate whether dynamic use of Context.registerReceiver() should be treated as “exported” or “not exported”.
- Safer Implicit Intents: A new feature to counter malicious apps, which works by restricting apps from sending internal intents without a specific package.
- App installation blocking: To prevent malware from taking advantage of old APIs, starting with Android 14 apps with a targetSdkVersion lower than 23 cannot be installed.
- Support for Credential Manager and Passkeys: To simplify the user authentication process, Android 14 brings to the table a credential manager, as well as introducing Passkeys as a replacement for passwords. With passkeys, users can log in to apps and websites using biometric, PIN, or pattern authentication.
Better adaptation to the type and format of the screen
Following the example of Android 12L and Android 13, Android 14 will make it easier to create apps that adapt to different types of screens. To achieve that goal, classes were created that control window size, slider layout, activity embedding, and many more.
Application Compatibility
The Android team works to make updates faster and smoother with each release of the platform by prioritizing app compatibility.
- JDK17 support: Added access to more than 300 OpenJDK17 classes.
- Simplified testing and debugging of changes: To make opt-in changes easier to test, many of them will be activated through Toggles, as can be seen in the image below.
Other news in Android 14 Developer Preview
- Various optimizations to the internal drive system to improve battery life and responsiveness.
- exact alarms.
- Updates and additions to JobScheduler and Foreground Services.
Supported Devices and Android 14 Developer Preview Release
The Android 14 Developer Preview will be available to developers starting on February 14, 2023 . As always, the only compatible devices are Google phones, starting with the Pixel 4a up to the Pixel 7 Pro.
