Welcome to the Android 14 Beta! Please give us your feedback, and help us make Android 14 the best release yet.

Behavior changes: all apps

The Android 14 platform includes behavior changes that may affect your app. The following behavior changes apply to all apps when they run on Android 14, regardless of targetSdkVersion. You should test your app and then modify it as needed to support these properly, where applicable.

Make sure to also review the list of behavior changes that only affect apps targeting Android 14.

Core functionality

Schedule exact alarms are denied by default

Exact alarms are meant for user-intentioned notifications, or for actions that need to happen at a precise time. Starting in Android 14, the SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM permission is no longer being pre-granted to most newly installed apps targeting Android 13 and higher—the permission is denied by default.

Learn more about the changes to the permission for scheduling exact alarms.

Context-registered broadcasts are queued while apps are cached

On Android 14, the system may place context-registered broadcasts in a queue while the app is in the cached state. This is similar to the queuing behavior that Android 12 (API level 31) introduced for async binder transactions. Manifest-declared broadcasts aren't queued, and apps are removed from the cached state for broadcast delivery.

When the app leaves the cached state, such as returning to the foreground, the system delivers any queued broadcasts. Multiple instances of certain broadcasts may be merged into one broadcast. Depending on other factors, such as system health, apps may be removed from the cached state, and any previously queued broadcasts are delivered.

Apps can kill only their own background processes

Starting in Android 14, when your app calls killBackgroundProcesses(), the API can kill only the background processes of your own app.

If you pass in the package name of another app, this method has no effect on that app's background processes, and the following message appears in Logcat:

Invalid packageName: com.example.anotherapp

Your app shouldn't use the killBackgroundProcesses() API or otherwise attempt to influence the process lifecycle of other apps, even on older OS versions. Android is designed to keep cached apps in the background and kill them automatically when the system needs memory. If your app kills other apps unnecessarily, it can reduce system performance and increase battery consumption by requiring full restarts of those apps later, which takes significantly more resources than resuming an existing cached app.

Security

Minimum installable target API level

Starting with Android 14, apps with a targetSdkVersion lower than 23 can't be installed. Requiring apps to meet these minimum target API level requirements improves security and privacy for users.

Malware often targets older API levels in order to bypass security and privacy protections that have been introduced in newer Android versions. For example, some malware apps use a targetSdkVersion of 22 to avoid being subjected to the runtime permission model introduced in 2015 by Android 6.0 Marshmallow (API level 23). This Android 14 change makes it harder for malware to avoid security and privacy improvements. Attempting to install an app targeting a lower API level will result in an installation failure, with the following message appearing in Logcat:

INSTALL_FAILED_DEPRECATED_SDK_VERSION: App package must target at least SDK version 23, but found 7

On devices upgrading to Android 14, any apps with a targetSdkVersion lower than 23 will remain installed.

If you need to test an app targeting an older API level, use the following ADB command:

adb install --bypass-low-target-sdk-block FILENAME.apk

Media owner package names might be redacted

The media store supports queries for the OWNER_PACKAGE_NAME column, which indicates the app that stored a particular media file. Starting in Android 14, this value is redacted unless at least one of the following conditions is true:

  • The app that stored the media file has a package name that is always visible to other apps.

  • The app that queries the media store requests the QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission.

Learn more about how Android filters package visibility for privacy purposes.

User experience

Grant partial access to photos and videos

On Android 14, the user can grant partial access to their photos and videos when an app requests any visual media permissions that were introduced in Android 13 (API level 33): READ_MEDIA_IMAGES or READ_MEDIA_VIDEO.

The new dialog shows the following permission choices:

  • Select photos and videos: New in Android 14. The user selects the specific photos and videos that they want to make available to your app.
  • Allow all: The user grants full-library access to all photos and videos on the device.
  • Don't allow: The user denies all access.

To handle this change more gracefully in your app, consider declaring the new READ_MEDIA_VISUAL_USER_SELECTED permission. Learn more about how to support the case where the user grants partial permission to their media library.

Secure full-screen Intent notifications

With Android 11 (API level 30), it was possible for any app to use Notification.Builder.setFullScreenIntent to send full-screen intents while the phone is locked. You could auto-grant this on app install by declaring USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT permission in the AndroidManifest.

Full-screen intent notifications are designed for extremely high-priority notifications demanding the user's immediate attention, such as an incoming phone call or alarm clock settings configured by the user. Starting with Android 14, apps allowed to use this permission are limited to those that provide calling and alarms only. The Google Play Store revokes default USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT permissions for any apps that don't fit this profile.

This permission remains enabled for apps installed on the phone before the user updates to Android 14. Users can turn this permission on and off.

You can use the new API NotificationManager.canUseFullScreenIntent to check if your app has the permission; if not, your app can use the new intent ACTION_MANAGE_APP_USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT to launch the settings page where users can grant the permission.

Changes to how users experience non-dismissable notifications

If your app shows non-dismissable foreground notifications to users, Android 14 has changed the behavior to allow users to dismiss such notifications.

This change applies to apps that prevent users from dismissing foreground notifications by setting Notification.FLAG_ONGOING_EVENT through Notification.Builder#setOngoing(true) or NotificationCompat.Builder#setOngoing(true). The behavior of FLAG_ONGOING_EVENT has changed to make such notifications actually dismissable by the user.

These kinds of notifications are still non-dismissable in the following conditions:

  • When the phone is locked
  • If the user selects a Clear all notification action (which helps with accidental dismissals)

Also, this new behavior doesn't apply to non-dismissible notifications in the following use cases:

  • Notifications tied to real calls using CallStyle
  • Notifications created using MediaStyle
  • Device policy controller (DPC) and supporting packages for enterprise

Data safety information is more visible

To enhance user privacy, Android 14 increases the number of places where the system shows the information you have declared in the Play Console form. Currently, users can view this information in the Data safety section on your app's listing in Google Play.

We encourage you to review your app's location data sharing policies and take a moment to make any applicable updates to your app's Google Play Data safety section.

Learn more in the guide about how data safety information is more visible on Android 14.

Accessibility

Non-linear font scaling to 200%

Starting in Android 14, the system supports font scaling up to 200%, providing low-vision users with additional accessibility options that align with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

If you already use scaled pixels (sp) units to define text sizing, then this change probably won't have a high impact on your app. However, you should perform UI testing with the maximum font size enabled (200%) to ensure that your app can accommodate larger font sizes without impacting usability.