After a month, Android 14 Developer Preview 2 was released, which is more refined and also gives us a glimpse of the future Android features coming to Android. This update has a credential manager platform API that supports multiple sign-in methods. This is identical to apps like Passkeys and Dashlane, but it’s now integrated with Android.
Google also updated its Photo Picker. There is also improved system health, battery life, and optimized memory management. So let’s begin this article by discussing all the important features and a download guide.
New System
Finally, the company has started using the new system icon for Android 14, which appears across different locations. You might have seen this icon as the logo of Android 14 or in marketing material for Android 14. However, it doesn’t appear in the Android Easter Egg yet, but it will appear soon, so you can expect it to come with future beta updates.
Gesture
There have been slight adjustments made to the gestures where the back gesture has been housed within a pill-shaped container. It also adopts the Material-You design and picks a color based on your wallpaper. This looks better as you will now use it; with that appearance, it feels more native. To make things easier, the Navigation Mode has now been moved to Device Settings > System Navigation mode, where you can use Gesture mode.
Not to mention, you can still access this from the display settings section. The longer or predictive gesture has started appearing with this build, but it doesn’t seem well-cooked and looks like it needs more time to become stable. As it can only be seen in Device Settings, it is supposed to work across devices. You can find this under the SAS settings Menu, but as we mentioned, it’s not working as intended.
Improved Security and Privacy
Google introduced the Security & Privacy Menu with the launch of Android 13. With Android 14, it is expanding where it has a dedicated page for all the settings instead of previously being compiled with a drop-down menu. It has more security and privacy settings sections, which appeared with the previous build, now merged into this.
Material You
With the settings, there is a new touch highlight that is now more rounded and pill-shaped. This makes the UI more cohesive, and there is still a lot of space left for Google to work on Material You.
Launcher and Lockscreen
This time, the launcher, lock screen, and widgets received major improvements with features for years. Now there will be one line on the lock screen for the date and weather, and there is no option at this stage for switching.
Language and Input
As previously reported, this now comes to build from where you can make unique regional changes like temperature unit, the first day of the week, and number. This exists within in-app language settings so that users have similar experiences and give users more control.
Flash Notification
You can find this setting within the Accessibility option in Device Settings. By enabling it, you can use the LED as a notification alert, so when you receive a notification, your device’s LED will light up. Additionally, there is an option for Screen Notification, completely independent of the Camera Flash notification.
Media Player
There is a minor Media Player animation tweak. Now it slides down and expands on the lock screen. Also, in Quick Settings, when you interact with the Media Player, there is a glow-animation effect with a complimentary color added back with Android 13 but removed for some reason.
Things don’t end here. The Media Output switcher also works the same, and there is a new icon for users to know if audio is muted or not, along with a volume slider.
Wallpaper & Style
You can now view the full-screen preview of the wallpaper along with an Information toggle. There is also an option to choose Custom Clock, but it doesn’t work now. Also, there is a monochrome switch rather than quick settings, themed menu, or button; instead, it will now be an on-device system theme in preset.
AOD & Lockscreen
Now everything has been shifted higher, and it’s more towards the upper-right corner. There is now a bigger gap with everything, and it’s not consistent as when you move to the home screen, everything seems quite similar with the notification, weather info, time, etc.
Sound & Vibration
When you open Sound & Vibration from the Media Control Card and dismiss it or close it, it will now slide to the left where previously it used to go down.
Screenshot Detect
Now apps will be able to detect any screenshot activity and will notify users as well. This will allow apps to track, and in case any malicious activity happens, you will get a notification in case some other app has taken a screenshot without your knowledge.
Allow Dismissal of Non-dismissable Notifications
We have all faced this where we cannot dismiss some notifications. With Android 14, users can now dismiss non-dismissable notifications.
Apps Can Now Only Kill Their
Own Background Process Now, apps can only kill their background process. In contrast, previously, apps were allowed to kill other apps’ background processes, so apps that clean background processes will face some trouble with Android 14 devices.
Create Wallpaper with Emojis
You can now create custom emojis with Emoji Labs. From there, you can choose the number of emojis you want to create wallpaper with and then select patterns and background colors. You can also use a slider to adjust according to your preference. That’s it!
Download Android 14 Developer Preview 2
| Device | OTA Update Download | Factor Image Downlaod |
|---|---|---|
| Pixel 4a (5G) | Download | Download |
| Pixel 5 | Download | Download |
| Pixel 5a | Download | Download |
| Pixel 6 | Download | Download |
| Pixel 6 Pro | Download | Download |
| Pixel 6a | Download | Download |
| Pixel 7 | Download | Download |
| Pixel 7 Pro | Download | Download |
So if you are already enrolled in the preview, those users will receive an automatic OTA (Over-the-air) update. However, if you are not enrolled in the preview, you must do it manually by downloading the build from here. Do note that you should take a proper backup before proceeding, and we don’t recommend using this build with your primary device. Follow this guide to install Android 14 guide here.
To flash this build, users can use the Android Flash tool and then proceed with the installation by signing in with their Google Account and following the on-screen instructions; for this, users need to unlock OEM and enable USB debugging. Android 14 is expected to arrive with the final build in April.
