Google has announced that it’s releasing the latest preview build of its next Android version, Android 14 Beta 1. Unlike the two developer previews before it, you can easily install this release by joining the Android beta program with your Pixel phone. With the first beta now available, Google’s schedule sees three more beta launches until the final release sometime after July.

Graph showing Android 14's release schedule
Source: Google

Google is still tight-lipped about new features in Android 14 Beta 1, but we’re sure that experts like Mishaal Rahman will dig up tons of yet-to-be-announced capabilities in this Android 14 version. Officially, the company is only sharing a few details that we previously knew about.

Google says that you can look forward to a new, Material You-themed back arrow when you use gesture navigation. This is already available in Developer Preview 2. We’re expecting improvements to the predictive back gesture, which is an addition to back navigation that reveals the screen you’re about to visit as you navigate back.

The company also details its “superior” system share sheet, the interface that gets pulled up when you hit the share button in an app. As we detailed in our Developer Preview 2 coverage, this allows apps to add their own actions right to the system share sheet, making custom share sheets redundant. Custom share sheets are a stop-gap solution many apps like Chrome relied on in order to add custom sharing options like QR codes, printing, and more. Google also says that with Beta 1, the share sheet will listen to more app signals to determine the ranking of direct share targets. This should finally make them more useful, with relevant contacts showing up rather than a person you talked to on Twitter once two years ago.

Google additionally reiterates improvements to per-app languages, a feature first introduced with Android 13 that allows you to set different languages for different apps. Right now, app developers have to declare support for this feature manually, with the consequence that the option isn’t supported by many apps right now. With the latest pre-release versions of Android Studio (Giraffe Canary 7 and AGP 8.1.0-alpha07, to be specific), this is changing. The new versions can automatically generate the necessary file for projects in question, with more details available for developers over at Google’s documentation.

Another change highlighted in Google’s announcement is a new accessibilityDataSensitive attribute that is supposed to keep your sensitive data safer. With this attribute, apps can limit the visibility of their contents to only those accessibility services that are meant to help users with disabilities. This way, only screened apps from the Play Store will be able to have access to sensitive data.

Android 14 Beta 1 is now available, and you can get it by joining the official beta program or by installing it manually on your Pixel phone. Google says users running the Android 13 QPR3 beta will automatically get an update to Android 14 without having to take additional steps, or to enroll in a separate program.

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