Google announced it yesterday: its I/O conference, dedicated to developers, will take place on May 10. It is on this occasion that the Mountain View company will unveil the new version of its mobile operating system, Android 14. But like every year, the American giant is getting ahead of its event, and offers from the first months of the year Developer Previews, early versions of the OS that allow developers to adapt their applications to future software. Android 14 Developer Preview 2 makes its appearance today, and allows you to discover some of the options to be integrated into the OS.
We first note that Google intends to adapt Android 14 to all types of formats, that is to say to traditional smartphones, but also to folding models and tablets; understand here that we will no longer have to wait for “L” (for “Large”) versions dedicated to large screens. A choice that is all the more logical since Google’s first folding smartphone, the Pixel Fold, is expected this year, and it could be made official during the I/O.
Google Pixel Fold
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On the functions side, the Developer Preview 2 of Android 14 invites application developers to emphasize respect for user data. The OS makes it possible to provide applications with access to a selection of images from its gallery; it remains possible to grant the title full access to the photos, or to refuse it entirely. Still in the area of private data management, Android 14 allows applications to be secured either through passwords or through the passkeys system. Personalization is also on the menu, since the user can now, with the new version of the system, define his “regional” preferences so that his applications use his metric systems and other temperature units.
All of these new features are in addition to the first elements unveiled when the first Developer Preview of Android 14 was made available. Remember that if it is possible to install this new version on Pixel smartphones from the Pixel model 4a 5G, it is still too unstable to be used on a daily basis. Beta versions (from April) and platform stability (June) will be launched over the months, prefiguring a final version expected in the fall.