Google has been working onAndroid 14since February this year, and now, after an unscheduled extra beta,the company has announcedit is finally releasing it in stable alongside theGoogle Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. The big new release is coming to Pixel phones today, and once you’ve downloaded it, you’re in for some new lock screen customization options, improved PIN entry security, a much better system share sheet, and so much more. Let’s dive into it.
Customization
On Pixel phones, you may not notice the biggest visual difference in Android 14 at a glance. Instead, you first need to dive into theWallpaper & stylesection and use one of many different lock screen clocks to personalize your phone further. Android 14 also lets you switch out the two wallet and smart home shortcuts at the bottom for some other predefined actions, like the flashlight, the QR code reader, or the camera. Android 14 additionally introduces a new monochromatic theme that uses grayscale backgrounds for your apps rather than some inferred by your wallpaper. There are also some further refinements to the Material You engine.
Google is launching generative AI wallpapers with Android 14, which will allow you to create new backgrounds with text prompts. We’ve so far only seen this in action at Google I/O in May, when Google first demoed it. It wasn’t part of the Android 14 beta program, and we’re not sure if it will be available right after you upgrade. This new tool joins emoji wallpapers and cinematic wallpapers, which were introduced in the June Feature Drop earlier this year in Android 13.
Features and improvements
Some new features are also on board. Android 14 makes it possible for you to turn on an optional enhanced privacy toggle for your PIN. This will disable all keypad animations when you’re entering your lock screen credentials. Along with this, Google finally allows you to skip hitting enter when you input the correct PIN, though this only works when yours has six digits or more for security reasons.
The new Android release also brings a redesigned system share sheet to the table that can be updated independently from the system, just like many other mainline modules that are part of the Play Services. The new system share sheet gives you access to more share targets at a glance, listing five per row rather than only four, and apps can hook into it to provide their own custom actions. For example, Chrome will let you share website screenshots or QR codes with this menu, and you can also use it to print. This eliminates the need for custom share sheets, which were populated with custom options like this, and indeed, Chrome gets rid of its custom solution in Android 14.
Health Connect is another big upgrade for Android 14. The service is now a preinstalled part of the system (that’s still updateable without a full system release), which means that virtually all fitness apps on your phone can rely on it. Health Connect is a local syncing service for health apps, allowing them to privately and securely share your fitness data like heart rate, steps, calories, and more — with your explicit permission. Rather than forcing all apps to build their own solutions to work better with other services, this is supposed to provide one single simple solution.
Unfortunately, it looks like predictive back navigation will remain a developer feature in Android 14. Predictive back gestures first showed up in Android 13, adding a neat animation when you’re about to exit to the home screen with your next back move. Android 14 builds on top of that by enabling this same behavior when you move across different screens within one app or from app to app. Google called predictive back navigation a multi-year effort, so it’s possible that it still isn’t satisfied with the system yet.
This is just scratching the surface, though. There are tons more changes in Android 14. Be sure to read ourAndroid 14 reviewfor a much deeper dive.
Availability
The upgrade is coming to all Pixel phones starting today, with the Pixel 4a 5G the oldest to get it. This means you’re looking at the following devices, in reverse chronological release order:
Note that the Pixel 4awithoutthe 5G denominator is not receiving Android 14 at all. We suspected as much when the Android 14 developer previews first started, as the company left it out of the program from the get go.
It’s still unclear when exactly the update is going to start roll out today, but we hope it will happen any moment. Othergreat Android phoneswill get the update later on as other manufacturers ramp up efforts to make the required adjustments to their devices.
If history is any indication, Samsung flagships are going to be among the first to receive the Android 14 update following Pixel phones, but other manufacturers have also stepped up their game. Keep in mind that some of the features introduced here won’t make it to all other phones. For example, lock screen customization as it’s shown on Pixel phones has long been available on Samsung phones with a slightly different implementation. For what it’s worth, Google says it will be available “later this year will be available on more of your favorite devices from Samsung Galaxy, iQOO, Nothing, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Sony, Tecno, vivo and Xiaomi.”
