Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering
Making Android work effectively for each one of many billions of Android customers is a collaborative course of between us, Android {hardware} producers, and also you, our developer group.
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Immediately we’re releasing the primary Developer Preview of Android 14, and your suggestions in these previews is a important a part of making Android higher for everybody. Android 14 continues our work to enhance your productiveness as builders, together with enhancements to efficiency, privateness, safety, and consumer customization. This preview is only the start, and we’ll have tons extra to share as we transfer via the discharge cycle.
Android continues to ship enhancements and new options year-round, and your Android 14 developer preview and Quarterly Platform Launch (QPR) beta program suggestions performs a key position in serving to Android repeatedly enhance. The Android 14 developer web site has tons extra details about the preview, together with downloads for Pixel and the discharge timeline. We’re wanting ahead to listening to what you suppose, and thanks prematurely to your continued assist in making Android a platform that works for everybody.
Working throughout gadgets and kind components
Android 14 builds on the work completed in Android 12L and 13 to help tablets and foldable kind components. That will help you construct apps that adapt to completely different display screen sizes, we have created window measurement lessons, sliding pane structure, Exercise embedding, and field with constraints and extra, all supported in Jetpack Compose. With each launch, our objective is to make it simpler so that you can optimize your app throughout all Android surfaces.
To assist streamline getting your apps prepared we’ve up to date our app high quality steering for big screens, and supplied further studying alternatives round constructing for big screens and foldables. The massive display screen gallery incorporates confirmed design patterns together with design inspiration round the markets that your app helps similar to social and communications, media, productiveness, buying, and studying apps.
Multi-device experiences are an enormous a part of the way forward for Android. You may get began right this moment with the Cross machine SDK preview, permitting you to construct wealthy experiences that intuitively work throughout completely different gadgets and kind components, and there is extra to come back.
Streamlining background work
Android 14 continues our effort to optimize the way in which apps work collectively, enhance system well being and battery life, and polish the end-user expertise.
Updates and additions to JobScheduler and Foreground Companies
It is extra sophisticated than essential to carry out some background work, similar to downloading massive information when WiFi is out there. We’re creating a typical path for this work to simplify your app improvement and probably enhance the consumer expertise. We’re additionally being extra opinionated about how foreground providers must be used, reserving them for under the best precedence user-facing duties in order that Android can enhance useful resource consumption and battery life.
In Android 14, we’re making adjustments to present Android APIs (Foreground Companies and JobScheduler) together with including new performance for user-initiated knowledge transfers, together with an up to date requirement to declare foreground service varieties. The user-initiated knowledge switch job will make managing consumer initiated downloads and uploads simpler, notably once they require constraints similar to downloading on Wi-Fi solely. The requirement to declare foreground service varieties means that you can clearly outline the intent of the background work of your app whereas making it clear which use-cases are acceptable for foreground providers. As well as, Google Play will likely be rolling out new insurance policies to make sure the suitable use of those APIs, with extra particulars coming quickly.
Optimized broadcasts
We’ve made a number of optimizations to the interior broadcast system to enhance battery life and responsiveness. Whereas a lot of the optimizations are inside to Android and shouldn’t influence your apps, we’ve adjusted how apps obtain context-registered broadcasts as soon as the app goes right into a cached state. Broadcasts to context-registered receivers could also be queued and solely delivered to the app as soon as it comes out of the cached state. Moreover, some repeating context-registered broadcasts, similar to BATTERY_CHANGED, could also be merged into one closing broadcast earlier than it’s delivered as soon as the app comes out of the cached state.
Actual alarms
The invocation of tangible alarms can considerably have an effect on the machine’s assets, similar to battery life. So in Android 14, newly put in apps concentrating on Android 13+ (SDK 33+) that aren’t clocks or calendars should request the consumer to grant them the SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM particular permission earlier than setting precise alarms. Apps can direct customers to the settings web page through an intent to toggle this permission, however we encourage you to judge your use circumstances and select extra flexibly scheduled options when doable.
Clock and calendar apps concentrating on Android 13+ (SDK 33+) that depend on precise alarms as a part of their core app workflow will be capable of declare the USE_EXACT_ALARM regular permission as a substitute (granted on set up). Apps will be unable to publish a model of their app to the Play retailer with this permission within the manifest except they qualify based mostly on the coverage language.
Customization
We’re persevering with to make it possible for Android customers can tune their expertise round their particular person wants, together with enhanced accessibility and internationalization options.
Greater fonts with non-linear scaling
Beginning in Android 14, customers will be capable of scale up their font to 200%. Beforehand, the utmost font measurement scale on Pixel gadgets was 130%.
To mitigate points the place textual content will get too massive, beginning in Android 14, a non-linear font scaling curve is mechanically utilized. This ensures that textual content that’s already massive sufficient doesn’t improve on the similar charge as smaller textual content.
 In Android 14, you need to check your app UI with the utmost font measurement utilizing the Font measurement choice inside the Accessibility > Show measurement and textual content settings. Be sure that the adjusted massive textual content measurement setting is mirrored within the UI, and that it doesn’t trigger textual content to be lower off. Our documentation has extra on greatest practices. |
Per-app language preferences
You possibly can dynamically replace your app’s localeConfig with LocaleManager.setOverrideLocaleConfig to customise the set of languages displayed within the per-app language listing in Android Settings. This lets you customise the language listing per area, run A/B experiments, and supply up to date locales in case your app makes use of server-side localization pushes.
IMEs can now use LocaleManager.getApplicationLocales to know the UI language of the present app to replace the keyboard language.
Grammatical Inflection API
The Grammatical An infection API means that you can extra simply add help for customers who converse languages which have grammatical gender. For instance,
Masculine: “Vous êtes abonné à…”
Female: “Vous êtes abonnée à…”
Impartial: “Abonnement à…activé”
Grammatical gender is inherent to the language and can’t be simply labored round in some non-English languages. This new API lowers the hassle to help viewer gender (who’s viewing the UI; not who’s being talked about) as in comparison with utilizing the SelectFormat in ICU which should be utilized on a per string foundation.
To indicate customized translations, you simply want so as to add translations inflected for every grammatical gender for impacted languages and combine the API.
Privateness and Safety
Runtime receivers
Apps concentrating on Android 14 should point out if dynamic Context.registerReceiver() utilization must be handled as “exported” or “unexported”, a continuation of the manifest-level work from earlier releases. Study extra right here.
Safer implicit intents
To forestall malicious apps from intercepting intents, apps concentrating on Android 14 are restricted from sending intents internally that do not specify a bundle. Study extra right here.
Safer dynamic code loading
Dynamic code loading (DCL) introduces shops for malware and exploits, since dynamically downloaded executables may be unexpectedly manipulated, inflicting code injection. Apps concentrating on Android 14 require dynamically loaded information to be marked as read-only. Study extra right here.
Block set up of apps
Malware usually targets older API ranges to bypass safety and privateness protections which were launched in newer Android variations. To guard in opposition to this, beginning with Android 14, apps with a targetSdkVersion decrease than 23 can’t be put in. This particular model was chosen as a result of some malware apps use a targetSdkVersion of twenty-two to keep away from being subjected to the runtime permission mannequin launched in 2015 by Android 6.0 (API degree 23).
On gadgets that improve to Android 14, any apps with a targetSdkVersion decrease than 23 will stay put in.
You possibly can check apps concentrating on an older API degree utilizing the next ADB command:
adb set up --bypass-low-target-sdk-block FILENAME.apk
Credential Supervisor and Passkeys help
We just lately introduced the alpha launch of Credential Supervisor, a brand new Jetpack API that means that you can simplify your customers’ authentication journey, whereas additionally growing safety with help of passkeys. Passkeys are a considerably safer alternative for passwords and different phishable authentication components and extra handy for customers (they require only a biometric swipe to securely register on any machine). Learn extra right here.
App compatibility
We’re working to make updates sooner and smoother with every platform launch by prioritizing app compatibility. In Android 14 we’ve made most app-facing adjustments opt-in to offer you extra time to make any essential app adjustments, and we’ve up to date our instruments and processes that can assist you prepare sooner.
OpenJDK 17 Help – This preview contains entry to 300 OpenJDK 17 lessons. We’re working exhausting to completely allow Java 17 language options in upcoming developer previews. These embody document lessons, multi-line strings and sample matching instanceof. Due to Google Play system updates (Mission Mainline), over 600M gadgets are enabled to obtain the newest Android Runtime (ART) updates that embody these adjustments. That is a part of our dedication to offer apps a extra constant, safe setting throughout gadgets, and to ship new options and capabilities to customers impartial of platform releases.
adb. Try the main points right here.
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| App compatibility toggles in Developer Choices |
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Get began with Android 14
The Developer Preview has all the pieces you must attempt the Android 14 options, check your apps, and provides us suggestions. For testing your app with tablets and foldables, the best approach to get began is utilizing the Android Emulator in a pill or foldable configuration within the newest preview of the Android Studio SDK Supervisor. For telephones, you will get began right this moment by flashing a system picture onto a Pixel 7 Professional, Pixel 7, Pixel 6a, Pixel 6 Professional, Pixel 6, Pixel 5a 5G, Pixel 5, or Pixel 4a (5G) machine. If you happen to don’t have a Pixel machine, you should use the 64-bit system photographs with the Android Emulator in Android Studio.
For one of the best improvement expertise with Android 14, we advocate that you simply use the newest preview of Android Studio Giraffe (or more moderen Giraffe+ variations). When you’re arrange, listed below are a few of the issues you need to do:
- Attempt the brand new options and APIs – your suggestions is important through the early a part of the developer preview. Report points in our tracker on the suggestions web page.
- Check your present app for compatibility – study whether or not your app is affected by default conduct adjustments in Android 14; set up your app onto a tool or emulator operating Android 14 and extensively check it.
- Check your app with opt-in adjustments – Android 14 has opt-in conduct adjustments that solely have an effect on your app when it’s concentrating on the brand new platform. It’s necessary to grasp and assess these adjustments early. To make it simpler to check, you’ll be able to toggle the adjustments on and off individually.
We’ll replace the preview system photographs and SDK usually all through the Android 14 launch cycle. This preliminary preview launch is for builders solely and never meant for day by day or client use, so we’re making it out there by handbook obtain solely. When you’ve manually put in a preview construct, you’ll mechanically get future updates over-the-air for all later previews and Betas. Learn extra right here.
If you happen to intend to maneuver from the Android 13 QPR Beta program to the Android 14 Developer Preview program and do not need to should wipe your machine, we advocate that you simply transfer to Developer Preview 1 now. In any other case chances are you’ll run into time durations the place the Android 13 Beta can have a more moderen construct date which is able to forestall you from going on to the Android 14 Developer Preview with out doing a knowledge wipe.
As we attain our Beta releases, we’ll be inviting customers to attempt Android 14 as effectively, and we’ll open up enrollment for the Android Beta program at the moment. For now, please word that the Android Beta program isn’t but out there for Android 14.
For full data, go to the Android 14 developer web site.
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