Android 14 public beta 1 rolling out with new features

Google has released the first public beta of Android 14 and its launch has achieved a new milestone in the Android 14 development roadmap. The initial public release also brings a handful of new additions, which we’ll explore below.

According to Google, Android 14 is built around privacy, security, performance, developer connectivity, and user customization while continuing to improve the large-screen device experience on tablets, foldable and more.

“We’ve been making steady progress refining the features and stability of Android 14, and it’s time to open the experience up to both developers and early adopters.” Google’s VP of Engineering, Dave Burke wrote on the official blog.

Here are some of the new Android 14 public beta features rolling out with the first release.

Back arrow:

The gestures are improved in this version, therefore, Android 14 get’s you a new arrow feature. This will make your Android phone’s interactions more interesting. The back arrow also syncs UI color changes with the dynamic theme scheme.

System share sheet:

Apps can now add custom actions to the system share sheet they trigger. This is an optimized use case for such a feature and could improve the user experience.

Graphics:

For developers, this version being immense capabilities to improve several aspects of apps. For instance, better graphics features.

Customizations:

New enhancements are made to per-app language, allowing dynamic customizations of a set of languages displayed in the Android settings per-app language list.

Privacy:

There’s a new data-sensitive API added for developers to allow apps to limit the visibility of specified views only to accessibility services to help users with disabilities. Play Protect is also improved to detect better what the developer has promised to the user.

Development:

You should know that this is just the first beta and there’s more to come with future beta builds.

As for the roadmap, Google will release a platform stability build in Jun. Therefore, the public beta will continue to rain throughout April and May. While the final stable rollout could start around August or September.