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 digital camera and media, privateness and safety, system UI, and developer productiveness. We’re persevering with to enhance the large-screen machine expertise, and the Android 14 beta program is now out there for the primary time on choose companion telephones, tablets, and foldables.

Android delivers enhancements and new options year-round, and your suggestions on the Android beta program performs a key function 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 suppose, and thanks prematurely in your continued assist in making Android a platform that works for everybody.

Now out there on extra units

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

Premium digital camera and media experiences

Android units are identified for premium cameras, and Android 13 added help for recording vivid excessive dynamic vary (HDR) video supporting billions of colours, digital camera extensions that machine producers use to show capabilities comparable to evening mode and bokeh, stream use instances for optimized digital camera streams, and extra. Android 14 builds on these capabilities.

Extremely HDR for photographs

Android provides help for 10-bit excessive dynamic vary (HDR) photographs, 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 totally backwards suitable with JPEG, permitting apps to seamlessly interoperate with HDR photographs, displaying them in commonplace dynamic vary as wanted. Rendering these photographs 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 way of a Manifest entry or at runtime by calling Window.setColorMode.

It’s also possible to seize 10-bit compressed nonetheless photographs on supported units. With extra colours recovered from the sensor, modifying in publish may be extra versatile. The Gainmap related to Extremely HDR photographs can be utilized to render them utilizing OpenGL or Vulkan.

Zoom, Focus, Postview, and extra in Digicam Extensions

Android 14 upgrades and improves Digicam Extensions, permitting apps to deal with longer processing occasions, enabling improved photographs utilizing compute-intensive algorithms like low-light images on supported units. It will give customers an much more sturdy expertise when utilizing Digicam Extension capabilities. Examples of those enhancements embody:

In-sensor zoom

When REQUEST_AVAILABLE_CAPABILITIES_STREAM_USE_CASE in CameraCharacteristics incorporates SCALER_AVAILABLE_STREAM_USE_CASES_CROPPED_RAW, your app can leverage superior sensor capabilities to present a cropped RAW stream the identical pixels as the total discipline of view by utilizing 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 digital camera will give customers zoom management even earlier than different digital camera controls are prepared.

Lossless USB audio

Android 14 features help for lossless audio codecs for audiophile-level experiences over USB wired headsets. You possibly can question a USB machine for its most popular mixer attributes, register a listener for modifications in most popular mixer attributes, and configure mixer attributes utilizing a brand new AudioMixerAttributes class. It represents the format, comparable to channel masks, pattern charge, and conduct of the audio mixer. The category permits for audio to be despatched immediately, with out mixing, quantity adjustment, or processing results. We’re working with our OEM companions to allow this function in units 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 inside 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 combos. 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, comparable to place and shade, whereas the fragment shader can optionally outline the colour for the pixel, usually by utilizing 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 added 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 significantly helpful when your use case includes communication with the system compositor by way of SurfaceControl for low-latency drawing.

Privateness

Android 14 continues to deal with privateness, with new performance that offers 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 person 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 at present 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 units working Android 14+. Customers can entry Well being Join from the Settings of their machine, 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 have now a separate weblog publish 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’ll 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 to present a mechanism to move 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 modification can be rolling out shortly.

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

The brand new location information sharing updates web page can be accessible from inside machine settings.

Safe full display Intent notifications

With Android 11 (API stage 30), it was potential for any app to make use of Notification.Builder#sendFullScreenIntent to ship full-screen intents whereas the telephone is locked. You would 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 terribly high-priority notifications demanding the person’s fast consideration, comparable to an incoming telephone 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 telephone earlier than the person updates to Android 14. Customers can flip this permission on and off.

You should utilize the brand new API NotificationManager.canUseScreenIntent to verify 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 Part 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 transferring between actions inside an app.

With Android 14 Beta 2, all options of Predictive Again stay behind a developer choice. 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, after we’ll have the ultimate Android 14 SDK and NDK APIs and remaining app-facing system behaviors. Now that extra units can be working the Android 14 beta, Within the weeks forward, you may anticipate extra customers to be attempting your app on Android 14 and elevating points they discover.

To check for compatibility, set up your printed app on a tool or emulator working the Android 14 Beta and work by way of the entire app’s flows. Overview conduct modifications to focus your testing. After you’ve resolved any points, publish an replace as quickly as potential.

It’s additionally an excellent time to start out 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 the whole lot it’s essential strive the Android 14 options, take a look at your apps, and provides us suggestions. For testing your app with tablets and foldables, you may take a look at with units from our companions, however the best method to get began is utilizing the 64-bit Android Emulator system photographs for the Pixel Pill or Pixel Fold configurations discovered within the newest preview of the Android Studio SDK Supervisor. It’s also possible to enroll any supported Pixel machine right here to get this and future Android 14 Beta and have drop Beta updates over-the-air.

For the perfect growth expertise with Android 14, we advocate that you simply use the newest launch of Android Studio Hedgehog. When you’re arrange, listed below are a number of the issues you must 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 – study whether or not your app is affected by default conduct modifications in Android 14. Set up your app onto a tool or emulator working Android 14 and extensively take a look at it.

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

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

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