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

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

Google reports that developers Developer Preview 1 of Android 14 can install and the company light some changes in the version. Among other things, attention is paid to making Android more adaptable to individual wishes. For example, in Android 14 it becomes possible to scale text to a size of 200 percent; on the Pixel smartphones, that goes up to a maximum of 130 percent. To prevent text from becoming too large in Android 14, text that is already large enough is not 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. For example, better attention is paid to the use of services in the foreground; these are only used for the user-facing tasks with the highest priority, so that energy can be saved. Several optimizations have also been made to the internal broadcast system, which should improve battery life and responsiveness.

Several things are also 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 particular version was deliberately chosen because certain malware apps use targetSdkVersion 22 to bypass the permissions model introduced in 2015 as part of Android 6.0. It seems that Android 14 can block old apps from being installed, whether or not via sideloading. Users who upgrade their phone to Android 14 and already have apps installed on their device that use targetSdkVersion 22 or lower will still be able to use the apps.

Developers can use this preview through the Android Emulator, as well as on the Pixel 4a and all later Pixel devices. Google “expects” platform stability to be achieved in June and the first beta release should be out in April.