Android will add a new developer option to enable ANGLE as the system OpenGL ES driver. ANGLE currently ships on Pixel not as the default OpenGL ES driver but as a data driver, but that could change in a future release.

ANGLE is an open source, cross-platform OpenGL driver that translates OpenGL ES calls to one of the hardware-supported APIs available for that platform.

Currently most Android devices ship with native OpenGL ES drivers developed by the GPU vendor.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

A few folks have asked me if Pixels will still get that "battery health" feature I spotted in the Android 13 QPR betas.

While the feature was removed from the SettingsIntelligence app in Android 14 Beta 1, there's a chance it could be brought back.

Android 14 adds new public APIs to get the battery charging cycle count and the battery charging status (normal, static threshold, adaptive threshold, always on power).

There are also new system APIs to get the battery manufacturing date, date of first usage, and state of health (remaining estimated full charge capacity relative to the rated capacity in %).

My guess (or rather hope) is that Google implements these directly into Android's Settings app, so that any device (not just Pixel) that adds support for reporting this information to the OS will have this data readily available to users.

I think this would be a better solution than having a standalone, proprietary battery health app. OEMs/Google could still add to this by providing custom recommendations and charging/power management features.

There's still time for this feature to make it into Android 14, since it wouldn't involve tweaking any of the APIs. But it's probably too late, and if they add it, it might be something we'll see in Android 15 (I hope).

In this video posted by the official Made by Google account, we can see a little chip animation play in the status bar when the device starts charging.

This isn't enabled yet in the current Android 13 QPR or Android 14 betas, but we could see this in Android 14 Beta 3. A concept of this status bar charging chip animation was shown in a Google I/O 2021 session two years ago.

As part of Google's latest Android Feature Drop, the company has announced 7 new features for phones, tablets, and Wear OS smartwatches. These features aren't limited to Pixel devices, either! Here's what's new!

Quick summary: New widgets for Google TV, Finance, and News; reading practice; new emoji kitchen stickers; updates to the Spotify, Wallet, and Keep apps for Wear OS; and expansion of dark web reports in Google One.

1) Google TV's new widget lets you quickly find personalized movie & TV show suggestions. The Google Finance widget helps you track selected stocks. Finally, Google News has a revamped widget to show curated headlines.

2) Reading practice helps kids improve their vocabulary & comprehension. It's available on thousands of children's ebooks marked with a "Practice" badge on Play Books. They'll hear the pronunciation of unknown words, practice mispronounced words & receive feedback in real time.

3) Emoji Kitchen now has new aquatic-themed emoji (🦈🐬🐋) combinations you can turn into stickers via Gboard.

4) Spotify for Wear OS is adding new tiles (podcasts, heavy rotation, and DJ). The "AI DJ" delivers a personalized lineup of music and podcasts.

5) Google Wallet for Wear OS now lets commuters in D.C. and the San Francisco Bay Area import SmarTrip and Clipper cards.

6) Meanwhile, Google Keep for Wear OS now lets you add a tile for a single note or to-do list.

7) Dark web reports in Google One are now available for everyone in the U.S. with a consumer Google Account and will expand to 20 more countries in the coming months. However, only paying subscribers get automatic monitoring & monitoring for more personal info like SSNs.


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Availability:

- Widgets for Google TV, Finance, and News: Globally on Android 6+

- Reading practice: U.S. only in English on Android 8+

- Emoji Kitchen stickers - Summer edition: Globally on Android 6+

- Spotify DJ for Wear OS: U.S., Canada, U.K., and Ireland in English for Spotify Premium users on Wear OS 2+

- Wallet on Wear OS: Washington, D.C. and San Francisco Bay Area in all languages on Wear OS 2+

- Keep for Wear OS: Globally on Wear OS 3+

Here's Google's blog post on these announcements; their YouTube video teasing the announcement; and finally, the page highlighting these features.

One interesting thing I noticed from this announcement is the navigation bar in the reading practice assets: It's totally different than the regular nav bar! In fact, it matches the "kids mode" navigation bar I discovered in Android 13.

Google Wallet will soon:

* Let you add any pass that contains a barcode or QR code by taking a photo of it
* Let you digitize your Humana health insurance card (private pass)
* Let you add your U.K. National Insurance Number through the HMRC app (private pass)
* Let residents of Arizona, Colorado, and Georgia add their driver's licenses
* Let you use your ID in Wallet to book a car with Turo or verify your online accounts
* Let you complete your travel check-in entirely in the Messages app (RCS required). You'll receive your boarding pass or train ticket directly in Messages. This will roll out with Vietnam Airlines and Renfe in Spain.
* Let you add your corporate badge

Starting today, Google Wallet can:

* Let people in Maryland add their driver's licenses to the app
* Let people in Germany save a Deutschlandticket purchased at select transit agencies to their Wallet.

(Private passes are labeled as such in the card details and require you to verify your ID through fingerprint, PIN, or other methods before you can add, view, or use them.)

Full details in Google's blog post.

When I found out Google's adding support for setting a different live wallpaper on the lock screen and home screen in Android 14, I thought "about damn time!"

...though I bet this was finally added because they have fancy new live wallpapers this year for Pixel users.

It's a given that Cinematic Wallpapers is a live wallpaper because, you know, it intrinsically involves motion. Emoji Wallpapers can be interacted with, as shown at I/O. AI Wallpapers, while not shown to be interactive, may still be implemented as a WallpaperService.

Android has supported live wallpapers since Android 2.0 Eclair was released in 2009, for context. But until Android 14, the OS only let you set a single live wallpaper for both the home and lock screens.

If you're wondering how you can set a separate live wallpaper on the home and lock screen, you'll need to be on Android 14 on your Pixel and you'll need root access to change the system property persist.wm.debug.lockscreen_live_wallpaper to true. Then just reboot!

Sometimes when I find a change in Android, I have to think "what is this for? What's going to use it?" More often than not, everything goes in the square hole, ie. it's related to some Pixel product lol.

Ooh, according to a new report from Kamila Wojchiechowska for Android Authority, the Tensor G3 will apparently support AV1 encoding, but not only that, it'll expose Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) to the bootloader.

I discovered a hidden "advanced memory protection beta" feature in Android 14 - now we know why it's there. For more details on Android 14's "advanced memory protection" feature and MTE, refer to this article.

Google has published the June 2023 Android Security Bulletin, which lists the security vulnerabilities patched on builds that report the 2023-06-01 and 2023-06-05 security patch levels. Patches are available for AOSP versions 11-13.

This month, there were 3 vulnerabilities in AOSP components with a severity level of "critical". It's worth noting that since March 15, 2023, Android no longer assigns CVEs to most moderate severity issues.

The June 2023 ASB doesn't provide any real details on any of the vulnerabilities beyond the type and component they affect. If you're an Android Partner, you can get a summary for the vulnerabilities impacting AOSP components from the Partner Preview bulletin.

Once AOSP has been updated with the new tags, we can see what exactly the patches do. I'll post a changelog as always. Note that this month's release should also bring Android 13 QPR3 to the fold, so there should be a lot more than just security fixes in the source code drop.