What you might want to know
- Google just lately launched the primary developer preview for Android 14.
- A hidden menu discovered within the construct permits customers to find apps put in within the background by carriers and OEMs.
- Steady Android 14 is anticipated to launch later this 12 months, seemingly in August.
The Android 14 developer preview is formally underway, and whereas Google did not spotlight any important adjustments, some customers have began uncovering some fascinating behind-the-scenes adjustments.
When diving into the Android 14 developer preview, Mishaal Rahman (by way of XDA-Builders) found a settings menu hidden behind some developer flags. The brand new model of Settings is dubbed “Spa” and gives entry to a service known as “Background Set up Management.” Right here, he discovered an “Apps put in within the background” characteristic that targets and tracks apps put in in your cellphone by OEMs and carriers.
Your machine producer could set up apps in your machine within the background, or permit your service and different companions to take action.
Any apps listed right here aren’t required on your machine to perform usually. You possibly can uninstall apps you don’t need.
This could possibly be a significant step in permitting customers to take away bloatware from their gadgets, an issue that has plagued Android telephones for fairly a while. Oftentimes, apps are downloaded within the background with out the person’s data, regardless of carriers usually giving customers the choice to incorporate some apps when organising a brand new cellphone. These apps often come within the type of random video games or service/OEM copies of Google apps. Normally, you possibly can simply uninstall many of those apps, however different instances you possibly can solely disable them from the app settings.
For Mishaal, the characteristic did not pull up any apps on his machine, however he notes that the characteristic apparently appeared within the AOSP a number of months again.
Sadly, it will not essentially preserve bloatware from being put in, however it could assist spot and take away it. That stated, given how early we’re in Android 14 developer testing, it is not clear if it will make it to the ultimate secure construct, however we have our fingers crossed.
The primary Android 14 developer preview is accessible to manually obtain and set up on Pixel smartphones from the Pixel 4a 5G to the Pixel 7 Professional. As that is an early developer construct, we do not suggest putting in it in your major smartphone.
If you happen to’re enthusiastic about Android 14, the Pixel 6a might be the cellphone for you. Not solely does it present nice efficiency and a really inexpensive value, however it will likely be among the many first to obtain the subsequent main replace when it drops.
