Google is now one step closer to kicking off the Android 14 beta program

Google is right on time and with the release of Android 14 Developer Preview 2 today, the next Android 14 related software released by the search giant (next next month) will start the beta program for the next Android build. To be clear, today’s release through Google is only for Android developers, so they can make any changes to their apps that they need to make sure they work with Android 14.

Android 14 Developer Preview 2, per Android Police includes some changes. For example, when an app requests permission to access a photo or video stored on the device, a pop-up prompts the user to allow the app to access all photos being stored, select photos, or whether access to photos should be denied. To improve battery life, apps are limited in what they can do in the background. This could give Android users a little more time between outlet hunts.

Photo picker popup in Android 14 DP2

With Android 14 Developer Preview 2, users can sign in to apps and websites with alternate passwords, such as password. And notifications that cannot be closed by the user will be restricted. Notifications that are “important to device functionality, such as system and device policy notifications” are still not swept away by the user. But aside from those notifications, device owners should be able to ignore all the others.

The update also adds an option that allows travelers to choose between seeing temperatures in apps in Celsius or Fahrenheit. Users can also customize which day is considered the first of the week and the numerical system to use in certain regions. This way, Android device owners can avoid having to make these changes on a per-app basis. On Android 14 DP1, this feature required enabling a flag, but should be ready to use in DP2.

In Android 14DP2, a new page allows users to set certain regional preferences

Android 14 Developer Preview 2 is available for the following Pixel models: Pixel 4a (5G), Pixel 5, Pixel 5a, Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, and Pixel 7 Pro. But the average smartphone user (Apple calls him Johnny Appleseed but we call such a Pixel user Peter Pixel) should avoid this and might even consider skipping the first few Android 14 beta releases. That’s because the Developer Preview versions of Android 14 are not made for consumers. And the beta versions, at least the early ones, are unstable.

You may want to wait for Platform Stability before installing an Android 14 beta. This will happen when all developer APIs and underlying system behaviors are finalized and could happen in June. With Platform Stability, developers assume there won’t be any more changes affecting their apps, although there’s no guarantee that installing the Android 14 beta with Platform Stability won’t cause problems once installed on your Pixel phone .

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