Android 14, the next iteration of the world’s most popular mobile operating system, has officially been announced. The major Android 14 OS update comes after the Android 13 update, which Google released last year, and runs on nearly 12 percent of Android devices currently. The latest Android update continues Google’s effort to build the OS around core themes of “performance, privacy, security, and user customization”. Google also continues to improve the experience on large-screen devices such as tablets, foldable, and more with the new OS.
Here’s a quick look at Android 14 update launch date, rollout schedule, supported devices, features, and more.
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Android 14 launch date
Android 14 was officially introduced at Google IO 2023 developer conference on May 10th. After releasing two developer previews of Android 14, the search giant released the first beta in April. Now, coinciding with the developer conference, the company has released the second beta update for the public to try out before the actual release later in the year. Android 14 Beta Program is now available for several devices from iQOO, Lenovo, Nothing, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi. You can check out the full device list on Android Developers Blog.
Android 14 release timeline
Android 14 is currently in active development. Google has released two developer previews and the first beta update for users to try out earlier this year, following a second beta release announced at Google IO 2023 developer conference on May 10th. This should follow with several betas in the upcoming months and the OS should reach the Platform Stability milestone sometime in Q3 of 2023. The final stable release should follow in late Q3, which we expect to be around August or September of this year.
Android 14 features
Bigger fonts with non-linear scaling
Android has always been about customisation, and Google continues to give us more features to get more control over how our smartphones look and behave. With Android 14, the fonts can now be scaled up to 200 percent, which was previously limited to just 130 percent. Google is also making sure the scaled font appears correctly by applying the non-linear font scaling curve on the text.
Per-app language preferences
Android 14 allows dynamic customisation of the set of languages displayed in Android settings in the per-app language list. Google says this should help with customising the language list per region and doing A/B experiments, as well as updating locales through server-side updates. Further, IMEs (Input Method Editors) can now easily get the UI language currently in use with the help of LocaleManager.getApplicationLocales.
Grammatical Inflection API
The new Grammatical Inflection API introduced in Android 14 lets developers easily support languages that use grammatical gender.
Customizable lock screen
Google is giving a serious boost to lock screen customisation with Android 14. At Google IO 2023, the company announced, the new OS will add a range of customisation options to the lock screen so users can personalize it the way they want – with personalized lock screen clocks, shortcuts, wallpapers, and more – all inspired by Material You.
Custom wallpapers
With Android 14, users don’t have to go search for wallpapers online, as Google introduced three new ways to create wallpapers on their device itself. The first one lets users create emoji-inspired wallpapers by selecting their favorite emojis, colors, and patterns. Based on these preferences, the OS will create a personalized wallpaper with emoji icons. The second one is the Cinematic Wallpaper feature which adds a parallax effect to the user-selected wallpaper.
When your device matches your energy >>> With just a few taps, you can create Generative AI wallpapers to customize your experience. Coming soon to Android. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/dJQLynq7rY
— Android (@Android) May 10, 2023
The last one is the Generative AI wallpapers. Google says this wallpaper generation feature is coming to Android soon.
Privacy and security improvements
Android 14 introduces safer implicit intents and safer dynamic code loading to improve the privacy and security of the users. Android 14 restricts the installation of older apps that haven’t been updated in a while. Now users can no longer install apps that target API level lower than 23 (apps targeting Android 6.0) on Android 14. Google says this should help with privacy and security since some malware apps used targetSdkVersion 22 (Android 5) to evade Android runtime permission restrictions introduced in Android 6.0.
Selected photos and videos access
The next privacy improvement to privacy Android 14 comes in the form of how the apps can access photos and videos stored on the device. To preserve users while granting apps access to photos and videos, Google has already introduced Photo Picker, which selectively grants access to an individual or a group of photos without granting access to the entire photo library stored on the device.
With Android 14 developers now get access to a ‘photo access’ feature, which the developers can use to selectively get access to photos and videos when they can’t use the Photo Picker. The new photo access permission dialogue lets the app access either all the photos and video on the device or just selected photos with Allow access to all photos and Selected photos permission, respectively. Selected photo access lets users deny access to photos and videos if they want the app not to access any media stored on the device to protect privacy.
Credential manager API
On Android 14 Credential Manager is now available as a Platform API, which will now make sign-in easier — bringing users a level of convenience when they want to sign in to various services on Android. The Credential Manager supports multiple sign-in methods such as logging in by using the combination of username and password and even federated sign-in methods such as ‘Sign-in with Google’. Credential Manager also supports passkey, a new industry standard for passwordless sign-in.
Passkeys are also stored and synced with the Google Password Manager and will be available across devices when users sign in with the same Google account. Android 14 Credential Manager also brings all the sign-in methods available for the app into one list for users, so users can focus on quickly signing into the app. If you want to learn more about how Android 14 is helping users move to a passwordless future, you can head over to the Google blog (here and here) that dives deeper into the inner workings of the Credential Manager.
New back arrow
Google has added a new distinct back arrow to Android 14 to improve user interaction with the apps. The new Material You-themed back arrow also matches the device’s wallpaper’s accent colour.
Further, Google is expected to use this new back arrow introduced in Android 14 to guide app navigation with the upcoming predictive back gestures. The predictive back gestures aim to make how users interact with the apps and OS even more intuitive by letting users know where the system back gesture will take them beforehand.
Predictive Back
Following the testing phase in Android 13, Google continues the improvements to the predictive back gestures system with Android 14. The company has added a new feature for developers where they can control predictive back gesture animations per Activity instead of the entire app.
Android 14 also adds new APIs to support custom in-app transition animations to apps. Developers also get new Material Component animations for Bottom sheets, Side sheets, and Search to create seamless predictive back gesture animations for the apps.
The predictive back gesture system still remains beside developer settings as Google continues to build the new gesture system for apps. Google may finally introduce the predictive back gestures with Android 14 later this year.
Improved system share sheet
The system share sheet has been a long-standing pain point of the Android OS and Google knows it. That’s why it’s been making continuous improvements to the Android share sheet over the course of various Android updates. In Android 14, Google is now adding ‘actions’ to the share sheet. Apps can now add custom actions to the system share sheet, and additionally, the share sheet now uses more signals to decide the app ranking.
Further, according to the Esper blog by Mishaal Rahman, the system share sheet could be decoupled from the Android system and could appear as an independently updatable component through a mainline module on Android 14. If this is the case, it could eliminate the need for a custom-designed share sheet that we see across Android OEMs. A more updatable and consistent share sheet would definitely be a welcome move for an improved user experience.
App cloner
Many OEMs have an app cloning feature, which lets users have two copies of the same app on the device. This makes it easy to sign in with two different accounts on the same device, say, for a social media or an instant messaging app. Google seems to be working on a similar feature on Android 14 according to 9to5Google, which will make it easy to have cloned apps on the device.
Bloatware Finder
Bloatware on Android devices has been a problem since the earliest day of Android. Now Google seems to be finally doing something about it. According to a report from XDA Developers Android 14 is adding a hidden settings menu called “apps installed in the background” which uses the new system service called “Background Install Control” in AOSP (Android Open Source Project). Indicating Google is working on the feature. This settings menu essentially collects apps that have been silently installed in the background (say when users switch on the new device for the first time) so users can uninstall them from the system if they don’t need them.
Android 14 could kill third-party task managers
Android is now a mature operating system. In the earlier days of the OS, task managers that claimed to boost the system performance by killing the background processes of other apps were quite popular. These task killers actually do more harm than good as Android keeps the frequently used apps in the memory to help system performance. So, these task killers are essentially making Android work harder as the system tries to reload the killed apps in the memory — using more system resource bandwidth and precious battery. The Esper blog suggests Google could finally kill task killers/system boosters by restricting the APIs used by these apps on Android 14.
Separate sliders for ring and notification volume
While the system notification and ringtone volume control sliders are separate on many Android OEM custom skins, the stock Android still features a single slider for both. The commit changes seen by 9to5Google, this will soon change with Android 14, and the Android system will finally feature two separate sliders for notification and ring volume. This is another welcome addition by Google as more customisation is always better.
Enhanced lock screen PIN entry
PIN entry on every system restart is mandatory on most Android devices now. So, it is increasingly likely that one would experience a shoulder surfing attack. To avoid this, Google is now disabling the PIN entry animations (via) starting with Android 14. This should hopefully help users keep their PINs secure.
Regional Preferences
Android 14 is adding region preferences to let users select their desired regional settings for things such as “temperature units, the first day of the week, and numbering systems” for added user convenience. And Google is adding new Android Settings menus for that purpose as well. The company notes these personalised settings also persist in a system backup and restore.
Ultra HDR support for images
Android 14 now supports 10-bit high dynamic range (HDR) images. The Ultra HDR format is also backward compatible with the JPEG image format. Apps can also dynamically adjust the SDR and HDR images as needed. Further, Android 14 allows capturing 10-bit compressed still images on supported devices.
Health Connect
Health Connect tracks a wide range of fitness and health data and acts as a central hub where various health apps can access this data. Further, Health Connect lets users control what data third-party apps can access. Currently, it is available as an app from the Google Play Store. With Android 14 and above, Health Connect is built into the system, allowing users to share vital health data with a wide range of apps while still being in control of their data.
Google is also adding exercise routes in Health Connect, which can also be accessed on a visualized map. Moreover, apps can also add routes to exercise sessions. To preserve privacy, Google says, users have to grant access to each individual route with the apps.
Lossless USB audio
While wireless audio is all the rage these days, the Android maker hasn’t forgotten about the audiophiles who prefer wired audio. Android 14 brings support for lossless audio formats while using USB-wired headsets for a premium audio experience. Google notes the company is working with OEM partners to support the new audio feature later this year.
Data sharing updates
While dealing with apps that access the location data, users now get more information about whether the app shares the critical location data with other apps in the location runtime permission itself. The information about the apps’ location data-sharing behavior is pulled from the Data safety form of the Google Play Console, says Google.
Additionally, users also get periodic notifications about whether any of the apps change their location-sharing practices with third parties so users always stay informed about how the critical location data is being used.
Satellite connectivity support
Wild to think about user experiences for phones that can connect to satellites. When we launched G1 in ’08 it was a stretch to get 3G + Wifi working. Now we’re designing for satellites. Cool! Excited to support our partners in enabling all of this in the next version of Android!
— Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) September 1, 2022
Android 14 now supports satellite connectivity, letting users communicate emergency information via satellite when there is no cellular connectivity. The feature will be similar to the Apple iPhone satellite connectivity for emergency communication.
Camera flash for notifications
A notification LED has been missing on most Android devices in recent times. With Android 14, users can use the camera flash as the notification LED. Whenever you receive notifications on Android 14 camera flash will turn on and off to indicate a notification has been received. 9to5Google notes, the flashlight toggle will also be highlighted in Android’s Quick Settings to notify users of the notification status.
Improved experience on tablets and foldables
Google is continuing its work to improve the user experience on tablets and foldable devices. To that end, the company is introducing new window Size classes, Sliding pane layout, Activity embedding, Box with constraints, and many other helpful features for developers (all in the Jetpack Compose) so they can make optimised apps that work across the form factors and screen sizes.
More app background behavior tweaks
Apps continuously running in the background draining precious battery life has been a long-standing issue on Android devices. Google has been making tweaks to the inner working of Android and has been introducing new standard behaviors for the background services and activity launching limitations for apps, especially from Android 10 and up. Now, the apps running in the foreground also get more control over unexpected interruptions while interacting with other apps.
Android 14 also continues to improve system performance and battery life with memory management optimisations so that apps can efficiently use system resources while running in the background.
Improvements to the JobScheduler and Foreground Services
Google has introduced improvements to the Job scheduler and Foreground services. The Android OS maker says it is now restricting the foreground service usage to only the “highest priority user-facing tasks” so that resources and battery consumption usage could be improved. Google is also adding ‘user-initiated data transfers’ functionality to run downloads and uploads even more efficiently, especially when set to download/upload on Wi-Fi conditions. In addition, Google will be introducing policy changes to Google Play to make sure these new APIs are used appropriately.
Improved graphics capabilities
Android 14 adds support for more advanced graphics features to take full advantage of the GPU capabilities “from within the Canvas layer”. In the past Android has supported drawing triangle meshes with custom shading, but the mesh format was limited to “a few predefined attribute combinations”. Now Android 14 adds support for Custom meshes with vertex and fragment shaders. Developers also get support for the Hardware buffer renderer for Canvas, which is useful when “the use case involves communication with the system compositor through SurfaceControl for low-latency drawing.”
Camera Extension updates
Google continues to offer improvements to Camera2 and CameraX extensions. This includes allowing apps to handle longer processing times to capture improved low-light images on Android 14. Some of the improvements the company is including with Camera Extensions updates for developers include Dynamic still capture processing latency estimation, support for capture progress callbacks, extension-specific metadata, Postview Feature for Still Capture, support for SurfaceView, and support for tap to focus and zoom during Extension usage.
In-sensor zoom
In-sensor allows apps “leverage advanced sensor capabilities to give a cropped RAW stream the same pixels as the full field of view”. Google Further notes, “By implementing the request override controls, the updated camera will give users zoom control even before other camera controls are ready.”
Android 14-supported devices
No other manufacturer besides Nothing has announced the rollout schedule for the Android 14 update for their smartphones yet. But if we go by the past, most flagships released in 2023 and 2022 should be eligible for the next major Android update. Meanwhile, several manufacturers including iQOO, Lenovo, Nothing, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi have announced the Android 14 Beta Program. That said, we expect the below devices to get the Android 14 update.
Google Pixel
Google’s Pixel devices are always first in line to receive the latest major Android updates. Android 14 Beta Program is currently supported on the below devices, which means these devices should receive the final Android 14 update when it releases later this year.
- Pixel 7 Pro
- Pixel 7
- Pixel 6a
- Pixel 6 Pro
- Pixel 6
- Pixel 5a
- Pixel 5
- Pixel 4a (5G)
Samsung
Most of Samsung’s latest flagship and mid-range devices launched in 2023 and 2022 should be eligible for the Android 14 update. However, we expect the below devices to get Android 14.
Samsung Galaxy S series
- Samsung Galaxy S22
- Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
- Samsung Galaxy S23
- Samsung Galaxy S23+
- Samsung Galaxy S3 Ultra
- Samsung Galaxy S21
- Samsung Galaxy S21+
- Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
- Samsung Galaxy S21FE
Samsung Galaxy A series
- Samsung Galaxy A73
- Samsung Galaxy A72
- Samsung Galaxy A53
- Samsung Galaxy A52
- Samsung Galaxy A33
- Samsung Galaxy A23
- Samsung Galaxy A14
- Samsung Galaxy A13
- Samsung Galaxy A04s
Samsung Galaxy M series
- Samsung Galaxy M53 5G
- Samsung Galaxy M33 5G
- Samsung Galaxy M23
Samsung Galaxy Tab series
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S8
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and Flip series
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3
OnePlus
OnePlus flagships like the OnePlus 11 series/10 series/9 series should get the Android 14 update. And the OnePlus Nord midranges like OnePlus Nord 2T/CE 2 Lite 5G/CE 3 Lite 5G should also be eligible for the Android 14 update. The recently launched flagship tablet OnePlus Tab should also receive the next major Android 14 update.
Meanwhile, OnePlus has announced the Android 14 Beta Program for OnePlus 11. Users who want to install the new OS can go to OnePlus Community and follow the instructions to install the Android 14 Beta update. OnePlus is also providing a rollback ROM to make it easy to exit the Android 14 Beta Program.
OnePlus Flagships
- OnePlus 11
- OnePlus 11R
- OnePlus 10 Pro
- OnePlus 10T
- OnePlus 10R
- OnePlus 9 Pro
- OnePlus 9
- OnePlus 9R
- OnePlus 9RT
- OnePlus Pad
OnePlus Midrangers
- OnePlus Nord 2T
- OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G
Nothing
Nothing Phone (1) is set to receive the Android 14 update in the near future. Similarly, Nothing Phone (2), which is set to launch sometime in 2023 will also get Android 14. Meanwhile, the company has announced Nothing Phone (1) users can install the Android 14 Beta on their devices by heading over here and flashing the early build of the OS.
- Nothing Phone (1)
Asus
Asus Zenfone 9 and Asus ROG Phone 6 should receive the Android 14 update. The Asus Zenfone 8 has already received the Android 13 update, which is the last major Android upgrade promised by the company.
- Asus Zenfone 9
- Asus ROG Phone 6
OPPO
Oppo’s latest flagship Reno series should receive the Android 14 update along with the Find X and N series. However, OPPO Find N2 Flip users can access the Android 14 Beta by flagship the ROM made available by the company. Follow the instruction from the Oppo Developers website to get the early builds of Android 14 on your OPPO Find N2 Flip. That said, here are the Oppo smartphones that we expect to receive Android 14 in the near future.
Oppo Reno series
- Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G
- Oppo Reno 8 5G
- Oppo Reno 7 5G
- Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G
- Oppo Reno 6 5G
- Oppo Reno 6 Pro 5G
- Oppo Find X5
- Oppo Find X5 Lite
- Oppo Find X5 Pro
- Oppo Find N2 Flip
- Oppo F21 Pro
- Oppo A78 5G
- Oppo A77
Realme
Realme has also released the Android 14 update for realme GT 2 Pro for Indian users. Interested users can try out the Android 14 beta release following the instructions on the realme community. That said, here are the Realme smartphones we expect to receive the Android 14 update.
Realem GT series
- Realme GT 2 Pro
- Realme GT Neo 3 150W
- Realme GT Neo 3 80W
- Realme GT 2
- Realme GT Neo 3T
- Realme 10 Pro+
- Realme 10 Pro
- Realme 10 5G
- Realme 9 Pro+ 5G
- Realme 9 Pro 5G
- Realme 9i 5G
- Realme 9 5G
- Realme 9 5G Speed Edition
- Realme Narzo 50 Pro 5G
- Realme Narzo N55
Vivo
Vivo is also expected to update its range of devices with Android 14. The Android 14 Beta Program is currently available for the flagship device Vivo X90 Pro. That said, here is the list of devices we expect to be updated with the latest Android release.
Vivo X series
- Vivo X90 Pro
- Vivo X90
- Vivo X80
- Vivo X80 Pro
- Vivo X70
- Vivo X70 Pro+
- Vivo V27 Pro
- Vivo V27
- Vivo Y75
iQOO
iQOO has released the Android 14 Beta 2 update iQOO 11. Users can head over here to join the Android 14 Beta Program for the device. This means that the below devices are set to receive the official Android 14 update.
- iQOO 11
Xiaomi
Xiaomi has made available the Android 14 Beta Program for these devices — Xiaomi 13 Pro, Xiaomi 13, and Xiaomi 12T — which means these are the first to get the stable Android 14 update later this year. That said, these are the Xiaomi device we expect to will get Android 14.
Xiaomi flagship series
- Xiaomi 13 Pro 5G
- Xiaomi 13
- Xiaomi 12T
- Xiaomi 12 Pro
- Redmi Note 12 5G
- POCO X5
- POCO X5 Pro
- POCO X4 Pro 5G
- POCO M5
- POCO F4 5G
Lenovo
Lenovo has also released the Android 14 Beta 2 update for Lenovo Tab Extreme, so the tablet will probably get the Android 14 update in the near future. Interested users who want to try the early versions of the new OS out can head over here to take part in the Android 14 Beta Program.
- Lenovo Tab Extreme
TECHNO
Techno has confirmed the Android 14 updater for the TECHNO CAMON 20 series this fall. Meanwhile, interested users can try the Android 14 Beta release by following instructions the on the TECHNO Android 14 Beta website.
- TECHNO CAMON 20 series
Android 14 codename
While Google has stopped naming Android releases after dessert names publically, the practice still continues internally. The Android 14 is currently codenamed internally as “Upside Down Cake” (via 9to5Google). Previously, Android 13 was codenamed “Tiramisu”, Android 12 “Snow Cone”, Android 11 “Red Velvet Cake”, and Android 10 “Quince Tart”.
Android 14 news
Android 14 second beta released (May 10th)
Coinciding with the annual Google IO developer conference on May 10th, Google has released an Android 14 second beta with several new features including Ultra HDR images support, Lossless USB Audio, Health Connect, Predictive Back, and more.
Separate sliders for ring and notification (May 1st)
According to 9to5Google, Android 14 is all set to introduce separate sliders for ring and notification volume. Previously stock Android had a single slider for both ring and notification volume.
Nothing Phone (1) to get Android 14 Beta update soon (April 29th)
Nothing has confirmed that the Phone (1) is set to be one of the first smartphones to receive the Android 14 Beta 1 update. While the exact roll-out date hasn’t been announced, the company could soon start accepting applications for the beta update right after Google officially unveils Android 14 during I/O 2023 on May 10th.
