Google releases Android 14 Developer Preview 2

Android 14 Developer Preview 2 is now rolling out ahead of the first beta next month. It continues to work on a number of pillars of support with more capabilities taking shape in this release.

Work on Privacy and security Tentpole continues with a new dialog in Android 14 where “users can now give your app access to only selected photos and videos”

• Allow access to all photos: The entire library of all photos and videos on the device is available
• Select photos: Only the photos and videos chosen by the user will be temporarily available via the MediaStore
• do not allow: Access is denied to all photos and videos

This is what end users will see if the app doesn’t support Photo Picker, which is a Google recommended approach.

Meanwhile, Credential Manager has become a platform API in Android 14. It supports username/password, federated sign-in (eg Sign in with Google), and passkeys:

It is intended to make it easier for users to sign in with APIs that retrieve credentials and store them with user-configured credential providers.

There is, too:

• The safest implicit intentions: “For apps targeting Android 14, creating a mutable pending intent with an implicit intent will throw an exception, preventing it from being able to be used to run unexpected code paths. Apps need to either make the pending intent immutable or make the intent explicit. Learn more here. “

• Launch background activityTo further reduce unexpected interruptions, Android 14 gives foreground apps more control over the ability of the apps they interact with to start activities. Specifically, apps targeting Android 14 need to be given privileges to start activities in the background when a pending target is submitted or when a pending target is submitted. Connect service.

as part of Simplify background workDP2 “includes improvements to the Android memory management system to improve resource usage while apps are running in the background.”

Several seconds after the app enters the cached state, background work is not allowed outside of traditional Android app lifecycle APIs such as Provider Services, JobScheduler, or WorkManager – which is faster than what happens in Android 13.

Android 14 enables users to dismiss more notifications (including those with FLAG_ONGOING_EVENT) on unlocked mobile devices.

Notifications will remain non-dismissable when the device is locked, and notification listeners will not be able to dismiss these notifications. Notifications important to device functionality, such as system and device policy notifications, will remain completely undismissable.

under Improve App Store experiencesThere are new PackageInstaller APIs that benefit the end-user workflow:

• requestUserPreapproval (): Allows to postpone the download of APK files until after the installation is approved
• setRequestUpdateOwnership(): Allows the installer to indicate that it is responsible for future updates of the application it is installing
• setDontKillApp(): A method that can easily install optional features of an app by splitting APK files while using the app
• InstallConstraints API: It gives installers a way to ensure that app updates happen at the right time, for example when the app is not in use.

to improve personalizationCentralized Regional Preferences in System Settings will allow you to customize temperature units, the first day of the week, and even numbering systems. Apps will then be able to use this information. For example:

Europeans living in the US might prefer that temperature units be in Celsius rather than Fahrenheit and that apps treat Monday as the start of the week instead of the US default on Sunday.

Android 14 Developer Preview 2 system images Available for Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, Pixel 5a, Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, as well as Android Emulator. Google also had the following to say about the update from Android 13 QPR Beta:

If you intend to move from Android 13 QPR Beta If you’re in the Android 14 Developer Preview program and don’t want to have to wipe your device, we recommend that you move to Developer Preview 2 now. Otherwise, you may run into periods of time when the Android 13 Beta version has a more recent build date which will prevent you from going straight to Android 14 Developer Preview without doing a data wipe.

DP2 (UPP2.230217.004) with the March 2023 security patch officially “For developers only and not intended for everyday or consumer use.” It’s only available via manual download and flashing/sideloading today, with a public-facing Android Beta release later in April. If you need help, here is our complete guide on installing Android 14.

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