The primary Android 14 beta lets apps add customized sharing options

You not should be a developer to see the good thing about an Android 14 preview. Google has launched the primary Android 14 beta, and there are a couple of slight however significant enhancements for early adopters. Apps can now add customized actions and shortcuts to Android’s share sheets. In different phrases, cross-app performance needs to be significantly extra highly effective as soon as sufficient software program takes benefit of the function.

You may additionally see a “extra outstanding” again arrow within the gesture-based navigation interface. The arrow additionally enhances your machine theme or wallpaper. It is a minor contact, nevertheless it theoretically helps customers perceive how gestures work.

Extra upgrades are behind the scenes. Apps can now restrict accessibility providers’ potential to see delicate knowledge. This prevents malicious providers from peeking at data, and reduces the probabilities of performing important actions by mistake. Android 14 Beta 1 additionally helps new vector-based visible results in apps, comparable to interpolation and morphing.

Earlier Android 14 previews improved accessibility, battery life and safety. There’s additionally stronger help for foldable telephones and tablets in addition to regional personalization on a per-app foundation.

You may nonetheless want both Android Studio’s emulator or a recent-enough Pixel machine (the Pixel 4a and newer) to attempt the Android 14 beta. It is simpler to put in, nevertheless, as you now simply should enroll your Pixel within the Android Beta Program to obtain this and future updates. We nonetheless would not use the beta on a mission-critical telephone, nevertheless it’s now dependable sufficient that you simply would possibly need to attempt it on a secondary handset the place glitches are tolerable.

Google might not have revealed every little thing there’s to learn about Android 14. It usually waits till its I/O convention within the spring to share the main function units for upcoming Android launches, and you will not see the primary launch candidates till June. The finished OS is more likely to arrive late in the summertime. Consider this as Google slowly drawing a curtain open — it is not fairly prepared for the total reveal.

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