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After the significant design change two years ago, Google focused on filling the gaps and refining Android. Android 14’s developer preview brought a lot of quality-of-life features and better UX design in some menus.
The dessert name for Android 14 is Upside Down Cake. Google could announce more features at the official event since the current feature set is an iterative improvement over Android 13.
There’s a new predictive back gesture with Android 14. Many prefer Android’s universal back button approach, and gestures are getting better with Android 14. You’ll see a tiny preview of the app or page you’re returning to before you swipe.
Material You wallpapers have more basic color options, and bloatware uninstallation is much easier. This is useful if you buy phones from carriers who pre-load the phone with many useless applications that consume resources.
With Android 14, you also can check which applications are consuming resources in the background, and you can deny access. While these features are really useful additions, there are some problems with the first Beta of Android 14.
The announcement for Android 14 is nearly a month away, and stable betas are a long time away. Hence, this early software is prone to many inconsistencies and bugs. The code base isn’t very mature yet, and you won’t have a stable experience.
Google Pixels are the first to receive these major Android betas before any other company. However, according to several reports on Reddit and IssueTracker, there are a lot of bugs with the fingerprint scanner in the first Beta on many Pixel devices.
We’re not complaining about bugs in Beta software here. Developers and testers have to use the software and point out the bugs to make the final public rollout as stable as possible.
Android 14 Beta 1 Fingerprint Scanner Issue:
People report seeing errors when registering their fingerprints, and the message says, “Fingerprint sensor timed out.” Then, it asks you to visit a repair provider. There’s no way for you to register your fingerprint.
In other reports, you can’t unlock the phone with a pre-registered fingerprint. People had to enter their password or PIN Code to unlock the phone since the fingerprint scanner didn’t work.
This gets annoying with many applications since people use biometrics to open locked apps. Entering a passcode every time you want to unlock your phone or unlock an app gets particularly annoying since the new features aren’t worth this hassle.
On the bright side, Google developers are already aware of the problem. For further investigation, developers ask for screenshots or video recordings to find the root cause.
Android 14 Beta 1 Wallpaper & Style Crashing Issue:
There’s another bug with Android 14, and that’s with the Wallpaper and Style app. According to some reports, opening the app crashes it. If you clear the launcher cache and turn off the Material You icon theming, the issue doesn’t reappear.
However, this is not an ideal solution. Netizens on Reddit do not suggest updating to Android 14 in its current state since there are many app crashes and lags throughout the UI.
We have come to expect this sort of inconsistency with Beta software since reports of bugs will eventually help the company deliver a more finished software experience with better refinement.
We’ll inform you if there are any further developments with Android 14. We should see a public-wide rollout for most companies at the end of 2023.
