Android 14 Developer Preview 2 contains a number of privateness enhancements

The Android improvement workforce has introduced the discharge of the second developer preview for Android 14. That is the ultimate developer preview earlier than the brand new model enters beta. 

This preview contains quite a lot of updates associated to privateness and safety. For instance, Picture Picker, which supplies an interface that exhibits a customers’ media library, is beneficial for all apps, however for apps that can’t use it for some motive, there’s a new dialog that may allow customers to decide on between three totally different permission ranges: permitting entry to all media, permitting entry to chose media, and blocking entry. 

Credential Supervisor is now obtainable as a platform API in Android 14 to make the sign-in course of simpler. The API helps passkeys in addition to passwords. Key updates on this developer preview embrace UI enhancements for the account selector and API modifications. 

Different safety updates in Android 14 embrace safer implicit intents and giving foreground apps extra management of the flexibility for different apps to start out background actions. 

There are additionally a number of updates meant to assist with efficiency. This preview features a new optimization to the reminiscence administration system, which is able to stop most background work from taking place as soon as an app goes right into a cached state. 

One other replace is that ongoing notification can now be dismissed by the person when their display is unlocked. Sure notifications, like system and machine coverage notification, will nonetheless be unable to be dismissed, nevertheless. 

Android 14 additionally options enhancements to the App Retailer expertise for builders. It contains new PackageInstaller APIs, together with:

• requestUserPreapproval(), which permits the obtain of APKs to be delayed till set up has been authorised
• setRequestUpdateOwnership(), which permits an installer to point it’s answerable for future app updates
• setDontKillApp(), which might set up non-obligatory options whereas the app is working. 

There are additionally new APIs and intents with regard to regional preferences, which allow customers to personalize issues like temperature items, numbering techniques, and the primary day of the week. “A European residing in america would possibly choose temperature items to be in Celsius moderately than Fahrenheit and for apps to deal with Monday as the start of the week as a substitute of the US default of Sunday,” David Burke, VP of engineering for Android, wrote in a weblog submit.