Google launches “Android 14” to the public – Distribution begins on Google Pixel devices – Window Forest

On October 4 (local time), Google officially released its new mobile operating system “Android 14”. The source code has already been pushed to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and will be available to select Google Pixel devices starting today. It will gradually roll out to other devices from Samsung Galaxy, iQOO, Nothing, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Sony, Tecno, vivo, Xiaomi and others later this year.

Android 14 focuses on improving the platform’s performance and efficiency. For example, cached applications freeze instantly and do not consume any CPU. The streaming mechanism has also been improved to avoid waking up frozen applications as much as possible.

As a result of these improvements, the maximum number of cash applications, which had been limited for many years, has been relaxed. As a result, cold (uncached) app launches were reduced by 20% on 8GB devices and more than 30% on 12GB devices (during beta testing). In general, a cold startup is slower and consumes more power than a warm startup (with cache). Therefore, reducing cold startups of applications can improve battery life and application launch times.

In addition, the code size has also been reduced due to improvements to the Android Runtime (ART). In Android 14, ART includes optimizations that reduce code size by 9.3% without impacting performance. Some of these improvements will also be made available to devices running Android 12 and later via a Google Play system update.

One improvement that users will notice is the non-linear font size change. For example, “Android 14” supports 200% scaling, which is up from the previous 130%, but if you simply zoom in the title text, the text will become too large. Therefore, a mechanism is automatically implemented that changes the size of only lowercase letters while leaving uppercase letters as they are.

Other features include support for lossless USB audio, Ultra HDR photos, updated camera improvements, a Health Connect feature for tracking your health, and a zoom feature for visually impaired users.

Nonlinear scaling of fonts

Health Connect function to manage your health

In terms of security, premium features include Credential Manager, an API for managing login information that supports passkeys. Permissions management and control over how apps access user data (location, photos, videos, etc.) have also been improved.