Second Beta of Android 14

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering

Right now, coinciding with Google I/O, we’re releasing the second Beta of Android 14. Google I/O contains periods overlaying a lot of Android 14’s new options intimately, and Beta 2 contains enhancements round digicam and media, privateness and safety, system UI, and developer productiveness. We’re persevering with to enhance the large-screen system expertise, and the Android 14 beta program is now out there for the primary time on choose accomplice telephones, tablets, and foldables.

Android delivers enhancements and new options year-round, and your suggestions on the Android beta program performs a key position in serving to Android constantly enhance. The Android 14 developer website has tons extra details about the beta, together with downloads for Pixel and the launch timeline. We’re trying ahead to listening to what you assume, and thanks prematurely in your continued help make Android a platform that works for everybody.

Now out there on extra gadgets

The Android 14 beta is now out there from companions together with iQOO, Lenovo, Nothing, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Tecno, vivo, and Xiaomi.

Premium digicam and media experiences

Android gadgets are identified for premium cameras, and Android 13 added help for recording vivid excessive dynamic vary (HDR) video supporting billions of colours, digicam extensions that system producers use to reveal capabilities similar to evening mode and bokeh, stream use instances for optimized digicam streams, and extra. Android 14 builds on these capabilities.

Extremely HDR for photos

Android provides help for 10-bit excessive dynamic vary (HDR) photos, retaining extra of the knowledge from the sensor when taking a photograph, enabling vibrant colours and larger distinction. The Extremely HDR format Android makes use of is absolutely backwards appropriate with JPEG, permitting apps to seamlessly interoperate with HDR photos, displaying them in customary dynamic vary as wanted. Rendering these photos within the UI in HDR is completed robotically by the framework when your app opts in to utilizing HDR UI for its Exercise Window, both by a Manifest entry or at runtime by calling Window.setColorMode.

You can too seize 10-bit compressed nonetheless photos on supported gadgets. With extra colours recovered from the sensor, modifying in submit may be extra versatile. The Gainmap related to Extremely HDR photos can be utilized to render them utilizing OpenGL or Vulkan.

Zoom, Focus, Postview, and extra in Digital camera Extensions

Android 14 upgrades and improves Digital camera Extensions, permitting apps to deal with longer processing instances, enabling improved photos utilizing compute-intensive algorithms like low-light images on supported gadgets. This may give customers an much more sturdy expertise when utilizing Digital camera Extension capabilities. Examples of those enhancements embody:

In-sensor zoom

When REQUEST_AVAILABLE_CAPABILITIES_STREAM_USE_CASE in CameraCharacteristics comprises SCALER_AVAILABLE_STREAM_USE_CASES_CROPPED_RAW, your app can leverage superior sensor capabilities to provide a cropped RAW stream the identical pixels as the total discipline of view through the use of a CaptureRequest with a RAW goal that has stream use case set to CameraMetadata.SCALER_AVAILABLE_STREAM_USE_CASES_CROPPED_RAW. By implementing the request override controls, the up to date digicam will give customers zoom management even earlier than different digicam controls are prepared.

Lossless USB audio

Android 14 features help for lossless audio codecs for audiophile-level experiences over USB wired headsets. You’ll be able to question a USB system for its most well-liked mixer attributes, register a listener for modifications in most well-liked mixer attributes, and configure mixer attributes utilizing a brand new AudioMixerAttributes class. It represents the format, similar to channel masks, pattern price, and habits of the audio mixer. The category permits for audio to be despatched instantly, with out mixing, quantity adjustment, or processing results. We’re working with our OEM companions to allow this function in gadgets later this yr.

Extra graphics capabilities

Android 14 provides superior graphics options that can be utilized to make the most of refined GPU capabilities from throughout the Canvas layer.

Customized meshes with vertex and fragment shaders

Android has lengthy supported drawing triangle meshes with customized shading, however the enter mesh format has been restricted to some predefined attribute mixtures. Android 14 provides help for customized meshes, which may be outlined as triangles or triangle strips, and may, optionally, be listed. These meshes are specified with customized attributes, vertex strides, various, and vertex/fragment shaders written in AGSL. The vertex shader defines the varyings, similar to place and shade, whereas the fragment shader can optionally outline the colour for the pixel, sometimes through the use of the varyings created by the vertex shader. If shade is offered by the fragment shader, it’s then blended with the present Paint shade utilizing the mix mode chosen when drawing the mesh. Uniforms may be handed into the fragment and vertex shaders for extra flexibility.

{Hardware} buffer renderer for Canvas

To help in utilizing Android’s Canvas API to attract with {hardware} acceleration right into a HardwareBuffer, Android 14 introduces HardwareBufferRenderer. It’s notably helpful when your use case includes communication with the system compositor by SurfaceControl for low-latency drawing.

Privateness

Android 14 continues to deal with privateness, with new performance that provides customers extra management and visibility over their information and the way it’s shared.

Well being Join

Well being Join is an on-device repository for consumer well being and health information. It permits customers to share information between their favourite apps, with a single place to regulate what information they need to share with these apps.

Well being Join is presently out there to obtain as an app on the Google Play retailer. Beginning with Android 14, Well being Join is a part of the platform and receives updates through Google Play system updates with out requiring a separate obtain. With this, Well being Join may be up to date continuously, and your apps can depend on Well being Join being out there on gadgets operating Android 14+. Customers can entry Well being Join from the Settings of their system, with privateness controls built-in into the system settings.

We’re launching help for train routes in Well being Join, permitting customers to share a route of their exercise which may be visualized on a map. A route is outlined as a listing of places saved inside a window of time, and your app can insert routes into train periods, tying them collectively. To make sure that customers have full management over this delicate information, customers should permit sharing particular person routes with different apps.

That is not all that is new! We now have a separate weblog submit with extra element on Well being Join and extra in What’s new in Android Well being.

Knowledge Sharing Updates

Customers will see a brand new part within the location runtime permission dialog that highlights when an app shares location information with third events, the place they will get extra data and management the app’s information entry. This data is from the Knowledge security type of the Google Play Console. Different app shops will be capable of present a mechanism to cross alongside this data as nicely. We encourage you to evaluation your apps’ location information sharing insurance policies and make any relevant updates to your apps’ information security data to make sure that they’re updated. This alteration will likely be rolling out shortly.

As well as, customers will get a periodic notification if any of their apps with the situation permission change their information sharing practices to begin sharing their information with third events.

The brand new location information sharing updates web page will likely be accessible from inside system settings.

Safe full display Intent notifications

With Android 11 (API degree 30), it was doable for any app to make use of Notification.Builder#sendFullScreenIntent to ship full-screen intents whereas the cellphone is locked. You might auto-grant this on app set up by declaring the USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT permission within the AndroidManifest.

Full-screen intent notifications are designed for very high-priority notifications demanding the consumer’s rapid consideration, similar to an incoming cellphone name or user-configured alarm clock settings. Beginning with Android 14, we’re limiting the apps granted this permission on app set up to people who present calling and alarms solely.

This permission stays enabled for apps put in on the cellphone earlier than the consumer updates to Android 14. Customers can flip this permission on and off.

You need to use the brand new API NotificationManager.canUseScreenIntent to examine in case your app has the permission; if not, your app can use the brand new intent ACTION_MANAGE_APP_USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT to launch the settings web page the place customers can grant the permission. 

System UI

Predictive Again

Materials Element Search Animation

With the Android 14 Beta 2 launch, we have added a number of enhancements and new steering for builders to have extra seamless animation when shifting between actions inside an app.

With Android 14 Beta 2, all options of Predictive Again stay behind a developer possibility. See the developer information to migrate your app to predictive again, in addition to the developer information to creating customized in-app transitions.

App compatibility

With Beta 2, we’re only a step away from platform stability in June 2023, once we’ll have the ultimate Android 14 SDK and NDK APIs and closing app-facing system behaviors. Now that extra gadgets will likely be operating the Android 14 beta, Within the weeks forward, you possibly can anticipate extra customers to be making an attempt your app on Android 14 and elevating points they discover.

To check for compatibility, set up your revealed app on a tool or emulator operating the Android 14 Beta and work by all the app’s flows. Evaluate habits modifications to focus your testing. After you’ve resolved any points, publish an replace as quickly as doable.

It’s additionally time to begin preparing in your app to focus on Android 14, by testing with the app compatibility modifications toggles in Developer Choices.

App compatibility toggles in Developer Choices

Get began with Android 14

Right now’s Beta 2 launch has all the things it is advisable to strive the Android 14 options, check your apps, and provides us suggestions. For testing your app with tablets and foldables, you possibly can check with gadgets from our companions, however the best solution to get began is utilizing the 64-bit Android Emulator system photos for the Pixel Pill or Pixel Fold configurations discovered within the newest preview of the Android Studio SDK Supervisor. You can too enroll any supported Pixel system right here to get this and future Android 14 Beta and have drop Beta updates over-the-air.

For the most effective improvement expertise with Android 14, we suggest that you simply use the most recent launch of Android Studio Hedgehog. When you’re arrange, listed here are a few of the issues it’s best to do:

Attempt the brand new options and APIs – your suggestions is essential as we finalize the APIs. Report points in our tracker on the suggestions web page.

Take a look at your present app for compatibility – be taught whether or not your app is affected by default habits modifications in Android 14. Set up your app onto a tool or emulator operating Android 14 and extensively check it.

Take a look at your app with opt-in modifications – Android 14 has opt-in habits modifications that solely have an effect on your app when it’s focusing on the brand new platform. It’s vital to grasp and assess these modifications early. To make it simpler to check, you possibly can toggle the modifications on and off individually.

We’ll replace the beta system photos and SDK often all through the Android 14 launch cycle.

For full data on methods to get the Beta, go to the Android 14 developer website.