Android 14 Developer Preview appears with a focus on battery life and accessibility

Google has released the first Developer Preview of Android 14. This contains an early look at the next Android version and is intended for testing, further development and obtaining feedback. This preview focuses, among other things, on battery life and accessibility.

Google reports that developers Developer Preview 1 of Android 14 can install and the company light some changes in the version. Attention is paid, among other things, to making Android more adaptable to individual wishes. For example, in Android 14 it will be possible to scale up text to a size of 200 percent; on Pixel smartphones this goes up to a maximum of 130 percent. To prevent text from becoming too large in Android 14, text that is already large enough will not be enlarged by the same amount as text of a smaller size.

The next version of Google’s mobile operating system contains a number of improvements that should improve battery life. This means that better attention is paid to the use of services in the foreground; these are only used for the highest priority user-oriented tasks, so that energy can be saved. Several optimizations have also been implemented in the internal broadcast system, which should improve battery life and responsiveness.

Several things are also being implemented in the field of security. To prevent the spread of malware, apps with a targetSdkVersion lower than 23 can no longer be installed. This specific version was deliberately chosen because certain malware apps use targetSdkVersion 22 to bypass the permissions model that was introduced in 2015 as part of Android 6.0. It appears that Android 14 can block old apps from being installed, with or without sideloading. Users who upgrade their phone to Android 14 and already have apps installed on their device that use targetSdkVersion 22 or lower can continue to use the apps.

Developers can use this preview via the Android Emulator, but also on the Pixel 4a and all later Pixel devices. Google expects platform stability to be achieved in June and the first beta release should come in April.