Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering
As we speak, coinciding with Google I/O, we’re releasing the second Beta of Android 14. Google I/O contains classes 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 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 repeatedly enhance. The Android 14 developer website has heaps 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 on your continued help make Android a platform that works for everybody.
Now out there on extra units
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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 recognized for premium cameras, and Android 13 added help for recording vivid excessive dynamic vary (HDR) video supporting billions of colours, digital camera extensions that system producers use to show capabilities resembling evening mode and bokeh, stream use instances for optimized digital camera streams, and extra. Android 14 builds on these capabilities.
Extremely HDR for pictures
Android provides help for 10-bit excessive dynamic vary (HDR) pictures, retaining extra of the knowledge from the sensor when taking a photograph, enabling vibrant colours and higher distinction. The Extremely HDR format Android makes use of is absolutely backwards appropriate with JPEG, permitting apps to seamlessly interoperate with HDR pictures, displaying them in customary dynamic vary as wanted. Rendering these pictures within the UI in HDR is finished routinely by the framework when your app opts in to utilizing HDR UI for its Exercise Window, both via a Manifest entry or at runtime by calling Window.setColorMode.
You can too seize 10-bit compressed nonetheless pictures on supported units. With extra colours recovered from the sensor, modifying in publish will be extra versatile. The Gainmap related to Extremely HDR pictures 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 pictures utilizing compute-intensive algorithms like low-light images on supported units. 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 incorporates 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 complete subject 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 digital camera will give customers zoom management even earlier than different digital camera controls are prepared.
Lossless USB audio
Android 14 beneficial properties help for lossless audio codecs for audiophile-level experiences over USB wired headsets. You possibly can question a USB system for its most well-liked mixer attributes, register a listener for adjustments in most well-liked mixer attributes, and configure mixer attributes utilizing a brand new AudioMixerAttributes class. It represents the format, resembling channel masks, pattern price, and habits 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 12 months.
Extra graphics capabilities
Android 14 provides superior graphics options that can be utilized to benefit from subtle 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 will 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, resembling place and colour, whereas the fragment shader can optionally outline the colour for the pixel, usually through the use of the varyings created by the vertex shader. If colour is offered by the fragment shader, it’s then blended with the present Paint colour utilizing the mix mode chosen when drawing the mesh. Uniforms will 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 significantly helpful when your use case entails communication with the system compositor via 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 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 wish 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 will be up to date steadily, and your apps can depend on Well being Join being out there on units 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 will be visualized on a map. A route is outlined as an inventory of areas saved inside a window of time, and your app can insert routes into train classes, tying them collectively. To make sure that customers have full management over this delicate information, customers should enable sharing particular person routes with different apps.
That is not all that is new! Now we have 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 of present a mechanism to move alongside this data as properly. 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 transformation 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 system settings.
Safe full display Intent notifications
With Android 11 (API stage 30), it was attainable for any app to make use of Notification.Builder#sendFullScreenIntent to ship full-screen intents whereas the cellphone 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 very high-priority notifications demanding the consumer’s instant consideration, resembling 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 those 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 should use the brand new API NotificationManager.canUseScreenIntent to test 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 shifting 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 ultimate app-facing system behaviors. Now that extra units can be operating the Android 14 beta, Within the weeks forward, you possibly can count on extra customers to be attempting 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 via all the app’s flows. Assessment habits adjustments to focus your testing. After you’ve resolved any points, publish an replace as quickly as attainable.
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It’s additionally time to start out preparing on your app to focus on Android 14, by testing with the app compatibility adjustments toggles in Developer Choices.
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| App compatibility toggles in Developer Choices |
Get began with Android 14
As we speak’s Beta 2 launch has every part it is advisable to attempt the Android 14 options, check your apps, and provides us suggestions. For testing your app with tablets and foldables, you possibly can check with units from our companions, however the best approach to get began is utilizing the 64-bit Android Emulator system pictures 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 one of the best improvement expertise with Android 14, we suggest that you just use the newest launch of Android Studio Hedgehog. When you’re arrange, listed below are a few of the issues you need to do:
- Strive 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.
- Check your present app for compatibility – be taught whether or not your app is affected by default habits 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 habits 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 possibly can toggle the adjustments on and off individually.
We’ll replace the beta system pictures and SDK repeatedly all through the Android 14 launch cycle.
For full data on get the Beta, go to the Android 14 developer website.
