March 13, 2023
With the release of the second developer preview for Android 14, we are getting a better idea of what this year’s OS update will be like. This includes the arrival of some hidden features that were first seen in DP1 and are now being pushed by Google as official features in the DP2 announcement.
Google’s announcement for DP2 also talks about improving the Credential Manager API, which it announced last month. This should help us get closer to the future where we won’t need passwords. In the meantime, DP2 keeps working to improve how well the system works.
For example, it stops cached apps from running much faster than Android 13 could, which should help with battery life and managing resources. Non-dismissible notifications will also be much less annoying in the future, since you can now swipe away anything that has been marked as an ongoing event when your phone is unlocked that isn’t a critical task.
This only covers what Google has said officially, but there is more. Aside from these official announcements, Google has turned on predictive back gestures for the few apps that can use them, like Google News and the system settings. When predictive back gestures are turned on in the developer options, you can see a preview of the next screen you’ll go to. This works for views inside the same app, between apps, and from apps to the home screen.