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
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.
...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.
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Since you can set a different wallpaper on the lock screen and home screen, the Wallpaper & style app in Android 14 on Pixels will let you change the color and intensity of the lock screen clock, in case the system-provided color doesn't mesh well with the wallpaper.
You can also choose from a "dynamic" and "small" clock size. This is equivalent to the "double-line clock" toggle in Settings > Display > Lock screen.
In Android 14 Beta 2, we only have access to a single lock screen clock design. But as Google announced at I/O, more clock options will be coming soon. You can see what they look like in this video.
You can also choose from a "dynamic" and "small" clock size. This is equivalent to the "double-line clock" toggle in Settings > Display > Lock screen.
In Android 14 Beta 2, we only have access to a single lock screen clock design. But as Google announced at I/O, more clock options will be coming soon. You can see what they look like in this video.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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You can now root your Pixel Watch following a guide by developer breaddisease, provided you get a special debug adapter that Google distributes "by invitation only."
Installing Magisk on the Watch follows the same process as on phones.
Installing Magisk on the Watch follows the same process as on phones.
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Google has updated the Android version distribution statistics shown in Android Studio to reflect the latest data as of May 30, 2023. Here's how the % of (GMS Android) devices has changed since January 2023 when the stats were last publicly updated.
- Android 13: 5.2% - 15%
- Android 12: 18.9% -> 16.3%
- Android 11: 24.4% -> 23.1%
- Android 10: 19.5% -> 17.8%
- Android 9: 13.2% -> 11.9%
- Android 8.1: 6.9% -> 6.1%
- Android 8: 2.6% -> 2.2%
- Android 7.1: 1.8% -> 1.5%
- Android 7: 1.9% -> 1.5%
- Android 6: 2.8% -> 2.3%
- Android 5.1: 1.8% -> 1.5%
- Android 5: 0.3% -> 0.3%
- Android 4.4: 0.7% -> 0.5%
The % of (GMS Android) devices running Android 13 has nearly tripled since January 2023. Android 13 was allegedly on 12.1% of devices according to data sourced from mid-April, though that data never appeared directly in Android Studio AFAIK.
—-
While we're on the subject of Android version distribution statistics, Reddit users noticed a pecularity with StatCounter's data.
The % of Android 10 users spiked from 16.65% in April to 47.84% in May 2023, but this can likely be attributed to how they collect their data as the rollout of Chrome's user-agent reduction was enabled for 100% of Android devices in May.
If you look at the UA string in Chrome on your Android phone, you'll likely see it reported as something like "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/98.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36." This is done to reduce passive fingerprinting of devices.
- Android 13: 5.2% - 15%
- Android 12: 18.9% -> 16.3%
- Android 11: 24.4% -> 23.1%
- Android 10: 19.5% -> 17.8%
- Android 9: 13.2% -> 11.9%
- Android 8.1: 6.9% -> 6.1%
- Android 8: 2.6% -> 2.2%
- Android 7.1: 1.8% -> 1.5%
- Android 7: 1.9% -> 1.5%
- Android 6: 2.8% -> 2.3%
- Android 5.1: 1.8% -> 1.5%
- Android 5: 0.3% -> 0.3%
- Android 4.4: 0.7% -> 0.5%
The % of (GMS Android) devices running Android 13 has nearly tripled since January 2023. Android 13 was allegedly on 12.1% of devices according to data sourced from mid-April, though that data never appeared directly in Android Studio AFAIK.
—-
While we're on the subject of Android version distribution statistics, Reddit users noticed a pecularity with StatCounter's data.
The % of Android 10 users spiked from 16.65% in April to 47.84% in May 2023, but this can likely be attributed to how they collect their data as the rollout of Chrome's user-agent reduction was enabled for 100% of Android devices in May.
If you look at the UA string in Chrome on your Android phone, you'll likely see it reported as something like "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/98.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36." This is done to reduce passive fingerprinting of devices.
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In order to declare support for Media Performance Class 14 in Android 14, devices will have to support AV1 encoding at up to 480p30 @ 1Mbps. This is not a high bar to meet, though: Using a SW encoder, a Pixel 5 can achieve 56fps and a Pixel 6 65fps, according to a Googler.
The Android 14 Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) hasn't been published let alone finalized yet, but a recent AOSP code change suggests that requirement ID [2.2.7.1/5.1/H-1-19] will talk about Media PC's AV1 encoder requirement.
Android 14 will be including the "c2.android.av1.encoder" AV1 SW encoder, which isn't in AOSP yet. This is evidenced by the attached code snippet which comes from the media_codecs file in the SWCodec APEX module. I don't see the library for this AV1 encoder yet in Beta 2, though it will likely be the AOM reference AV1 encoder.
According to leaker Kamila Wojciechowska, Google's Tensor G3 will support hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding at up to 4K30. Qualcomm just implemented a HW AV1 decoder (at up to 8K60) in their Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. No word yet on whether they or MediaTek will implement a HW AV1 encoder as well.
The Android 14 Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) hasn't been published let alone finalized yet, but a recent AOSP code change suggests that requirement ID [2.2.7.1/5.1/H-1-19] will talk about Media PC's AV1 encoder requirement.
Android 14 will be including the "c2.android.av1.encoder" AV1 SW encoder, which isn't in AOSP yet. This is evidenced by the attached code snippet which comes from the media_codecs file in the SWCodec APEX module. I don't see the library for this AV1 encoder yet in Beta 2, though it will likely be the AOM reference AV1 encoder.
According to leaker Kamila Wojciechowska, Google's Tensor G3 will support hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding at up to 4K30. Qualcomm just implemented a HW AV1 decoder (at up to 8K60) in their Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. No word yet on whether they or MediaTek will implement a HW AV1 encoder as well.
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Google Clock 7.5 prepares to show a "local weather on clock" option when you have the
As 9to5Google reports and I can confirm with the screenshot above/my own analysis, Google Clock 7.5 will support showing weather info on the Clock screen. This info is provided by the
But is this package actually the new Weather experience that Google showed off recently? Weather is currently part of the Google App and can only be accessed by first searching "Weather" & then adding a homescreen shortcut (or by launching the activity directly if you know how).
Instead of a standalone app you interact with, though, I think this new app could just be a location-based weather provider for not just the Clock app but potentially other Google apps down the road. And the new experience would remain part of the Google App.
Adding location-based weather directly into Clock or other apps would require requesting location permissions. Having an external provider would avoid that. There's a lot of skepticism & concern lately around apps and location access.
Google's done this kind of thing before. Cough & snore detection, for example, is implemented by Android System Intelligence rather than the Clock or Digital Wellbeing apps.
Regardless, Google should still definitely release a "Weather" app on the Play Store, even if it's just a shortcut to the existing experience in the Google App (like they did with the Lens and Podcasts). It would be a lot more convenient and discoverable for users.
com.google.android.apps.weather package installed. This was first mentioned by 9to5Google, who believes this package will be a new, standalone Weather app. I have a different theory, though.As 9to5Google reports and I can confirm with the screenshot above/my own analysis, Google Clock 7.5 will support showing weather info on the Clock screen. This info is provided by the
com.google.android.apps.weather package, which isn't available yet.But is this package actually the new Weather experience that Google showed off recently? Weather is currently part of the Google App and can only be accessed by first searching "Weather" & then adding a homescreen shortcut (or by launching the activity directly if you know how).
Instead of a standalone app you interact with, though, I think this new app could just be a location-based weather provider for not just the Clock app but potentially other Google apps down the road. And the new experience would remain part of the Google App.
Adding location-based weather directly into Clock or other apps would require requesting location permissions. Having an external provider would avoid that. There's a lot of skepticism & concern lately around apps and location access.
Google's done this kind of thing before. Cough & snore detection, for example, is implemented by Android System Intelligence rather than the Clock or Digital Wellbeing apps.
Regardless, Google should still definitely release a "Weather" app on the Play Store, even if it's just a shortcut to the existing experience in the Google App (like they did with the Lens and Podcasts). It would be a lot more convenient and discoverable for users.
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Android's Private Compute Services app will soon show a log of all its own network activity through a new preference in Private Compute Core settings (AKA "Android System Intelligence" under Settings > Security & privacy > More security & privacy on Pixel). This isn't available yet.
What network activity can you expect to see in the log? ML model downloads for:
- App Suggestions
- Cinematic wallpaper
- Live Caption
- Live Translate
- Notification Auto Expiration
- People & Conversations Service
- Quick Tap
- Speech recognition
- Suspicious Message Alerts
- Smart Copy/Paste
- Smart Text Selection
- Text classification
- Universal search
as well as Android Key Attestation nonce challenges (new) and any contributions to analytics for numerous services.
Most of the features/services I mentioned aren't new, except for 3: Cinematic wallpaper, Notification Auto Expiration, and Android Key Attestation in PCC.
1) Under the hood, the new Cinematic Wallpaper feature uses an "on-device convolutional neural network to estimate depth, and then a generative adversarial network for in-painting as the background moves," according to Dave Burke at I/O.
2) I have never heard of a Notification Auto Expiration feature before, but it sounds like a feature that might automatically dismiss certain notifications based on certain criteria/time? If you know more info, let me know!
3) It looks like Private Compute Core will be handling Android Key Attestation, and anytime a nonce challenge is requested, this will also be logged in the network usage log mentioned before.
What network activity can you expect to see in the log? ML model downloads for:
- App Suggestions
- Cinematic wallpaper
- Live Caption
- Live Translate
- Notification Auto Expiration
- People & Conversations Service
- Quick Tap
- Speech recognition
- Suspicious Message Alerts
- Smart Copy/Paste
- Smart Text Selection
- Text classification
- Universal search
as well as Android Key Attestation nonce challenges (new) and any contributions to analytics for numerous services.
Most of the features/services I mentioned aren't new, except for 3: Cinematic wallpaper, Notification Auto Expiration, and Android Key Attestation in PCC.
1) Under the hood, the new Cinematic Wallpaper feature uses an "on-device convolutional neural network to estimate depth, and then a generative adversarial network for in-painting as the background moves," according to Dave Burke at I/O.
2) I have never heard of a Notification Auto Expiration feature before, but it sounds like a feature that might automatically dismiss certain notifications based on certain criteria/time? If you know more info, let me know!
3) It looks like Private Compute Core will be handling Android Key Attestation, and anytime a nonce challenge is requested, this will also be logged in the network usage log mentioned before.
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The upcoming release of v2.2.0 of the Nearby SDK for embedded systems will bring support for Google's new Find My Device network, which will let billions of Android devices and accessories find one another when lost!
This SDK enables accessory makers to support Fast Pair and soon FMD Network!
Nearby SDK for embedded systems release notes
v2.2.0-embedded
New features:
* Find My Device Network added
* Added micro-ecc component
(Changelog was live briefly but was reverted, and new documentation isn't up yet.)
The upcoming SDK release also seems to add support for unknown tracker alerts. There are mentions of requesting a ringing volume (default, low, medium, high), pressing a physical button to enter "EIK (Ephemeral Identity Key) recovery mode", etc. When the EIK is cleared for a locator tag, the device is reset to factory defaults.
"If you're still concerned about your safety, you'll be able to view instructions to physically disable the tracker and stop it from updating its location," Google said in its announcement.
If the platform supports "interleaving [Bluetooth] LE advertisements", then it can be configured to send both FP [Fast Pair] and SPOT [Find My Device Network] advertisements at different intervals. Otherwise, it'll alternate them.
Other info I can glean is that there's different thresholds for low battery and critically low battery alerts (20% and 10% respectively) and that Find My Device network advertisements can be turned off for buds when they're in the case so the case can advertise its location.
(The release might actually be version 2.0.0 now that I'm looking at newer commits that reverted all these changes. Still, it's open source so we can see what's coming!)
This SDK enables accessory makers to support Fast Pair and soon FMD Network!
Nearby SDK for embedded systems release notes
v2.2.0-embedded
New features:
* Find My Device Network added
* Added micro-ecc component
(Changelog was live briefly but was reverted, and new documentation isn't up yet.)
The upcoming SDK release also seems to add support for unknown tracker alerts. There are mentions of requesting a ringing volume (default, low, medium, high), pressing a physical button to enter "EIK (Ephemeral Identity Key) recovery mode", etc. When the EIK is cleared for a locator tag, the device is reset to factory defaults.
"If you're still concerned about your safety, you'll be able to view instructions to physically disable the tracker and stop it from updating its location," Google said in its announcement.
If the platform supports "interleaving [Bluetooth] LE advertisements", then it can be configured to send both FP [Fast Pair] and SPOT [Find My Device Network] advertisements at different intervals. Otherwise, it'll alternate them.
Other info I can glean is that there's different thresholds for low battery and critically low battery alerts (20% and 10% respectively) and that Find My Device network advertisements can be turned off for buds when they're in the case so the case can advertise its location.
(The release might actually be version 2.0.0 now that I'm looking at newer commits that reverted all these changes. Still, it's open source so we can see what's coming!)
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Here is what's new in Android 14 Beta 3 - My Twitter thread is live!
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Android 14 Beta 3 is here! With this release, Android 14 has reached Platform Stability. This means that all APIs & app-facing system behaviors are finalized. The SDK version in the build now reports 34, and developers can now publish their apps targeting 34 on Google Play.
Yes, it's actually, really here: Google has just sent out emails to the press with the announcement as well as a link to the blog post. Here's a summary of what they announced via email:
Android 14 Beta 3 brings support for the Pixel 7a.
That's it, what did you expect? :P
JK, you know where to go if you want the best coverage of what's actually new in the latest Android beta 😉
(Google also highlighted several features and changes they previously announced, such as non-linear font scaling up to 200%, grant partial access to photos and videos, data safety information in location permission dialogs, and OpenJDK 17 updates.)
Yes, it's actually, really here: Google has just sent out emails to the press with the announcement as well as a link to the blog post. Here's a summary of what they announced via email:
Android 14 Beta 3 brings support for the Pixel 7a.
That's it, what did you expect? :P
JK, you know where to go if you want the best coverage of what's actually new in the latest Android beta 😉
(Google also highlighted several features and changes they previously announced, such as non-linear font scaling up to 200%, grant partial access to photos and videos, data safety information in location permission dialogs, and OpenJDK 17 updates.)
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Here are the issues that have been fixed in Android 14 Beta 3:
* Fixed issues that prevented Wi-Fi calling from being enabled for some devices and carriers. (Issue #277964472)
* Fixed an issue that caused Direct My Call interactions to fail in some cases where they would normally work. (Issue #278252154)
* Fixed system issues that caused unnecessary power consumption in some cases.
* Fixed system stability issues that caused UI jank in some cases.
* Fixed an issue that caused the system Settings app to crash while setting the wallpaper.
* Fixed an issue with the system UI that could cause a GPU hang, leading to "Application Not Responding" (ANR) errors.
* Fixed a system issue that could sometimes cause a device's GPS services to stop working until the device was rebooted.
* Fixed issues with the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) that could prevent devices from being able to make Wi-Fi calls in some cases.
* Fixed an issue where a blank screen displays after selecting the "Message" option for a recent caller in the Google Phone app.
* Fixed an issue where while 3-button navigation was enabled for a device, putting Google Maps into picture-in-picture mode made the picture-in-picture window disappear.
* Fixed an issue where locking and unlocking a device while playing a video in the Google TV app could cause the device to freeze.
* Fixed an issue with Android Auto where some users could be asked to re-pair Bluetooth.
* Fixed issues with Health Connect, including the following issues and other API and system behaviors:
* An issue where the system back button stopped working while Health Connect integration was in progress.
* An issue where the Route Permissions screen would sometimes freeze.
* An issue where Health Connect sometimes couldn't be accessed in system settings.
* An issue where the data category page of Health Connect was missing some permission types when a filter was applied.
Here are the known issues with Android 14 Beta 3:
* An issue with the Credential Manager platform APIs causes instability in apps that use them. A fix is available in the latest preview version of the Android 14 SDK, which developers can install using Android Studio. Developers who previously installed a preview version of the Android 14 SDK should completely uninstall the previous version and then reinstall the SDK to apply the fix.
* An issue with the system UI sometimes causes the screen to flicker when a video is playing or an app is using in picture-in-picture mode.
* In some cases, video continues playing in the background even after closing an app if the video was playing in picture-in-picture mode when it was closed.
* A video that is playing in picture-in-picture mode stops playing abruptly if the back gesture is used within the PiP settings screens.
* A system issue can sometimes cause the Android System Intelligence service to crash.
* When using a device with a work profile, the Google Play Store app in the work profile hangs or crashes when launched.
* Fixed issues that prevented Wi-Fi calling from being enabled for some devices and carriers. (Issue #277964472)
* Fixed an issue that caused Direct My Call interactions to fail in some cases where they would normally work. (Issue #278252154)
* Fixed system issues that caused unnecessary power consumption in some cases.
* Fixed system stability issues that caused UI jank in some cases.
* Fixed an issue that caused the system Settings app to crash while setting the wallpaper.
* Fixed an issue with the system UI that could cause a GPU hang, leading to "Application Not Responding" (ANR) errors.
* Fixed a system issue that could sometimes cause a device's GPS services to stop working until the device was rebooted.
* Fixed issues with the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) that could prevent devices from being able to make Wi-Fi calls in some cases.
* Fixed an issue where a blank screen displays after selecting the "Message" option for a recent caller in the Google Phone app.
* Fixed an issue where while 3-button navigation was enabled for a device, putting Google Maps into picture-in-picture mode made the picture-in-picture window disappear.
* Fixed an issue where locking and unlocking a device while playing a video in the Google TV app could cause the device to freeze.
* Fixed an issue with Android Auto where some users could be asked to re-pair Bluetooth.
* Fixed issues with Health Connect, including the following issues and other API and system behaviors:
* An issue where the system back button stopped working while Health Connect integration was in progress.
* An issue where the Route Permissions screen would sometimes freeze.
* An issue where Health Connect sometimes couldn't be accessed in system settings.
* An issue where the data category page of Health Connect was missing some permission types when a filter was applied.
Here are the known issues with Android 14 Beta 3:
* An issue with the Credential Manager platform APIs causes instability in apps that use them. A fix is available in the latest preview version of the Android 14 SDK, which developers can install using Android Studio. Developers who previously installed a preview version of the Android 14 SDK should completely uninstall the previous version and then reinstall the SDK to apply the fix.
* An issue with the system UI sometimes causes the screen to flicker when a video is playing or an app is using in picture-in-picture mode.
* In some cases, video continues playing in the background even after closing an app if the video was playing in picture-in-picture mode when it was closed.
* A video that is playing in picture-in-picture mode stops playing abruptly if the back gesture is used within the PiP settings screens.
* A system issue can sometimes cause the Android System Intelligence service to crash.
* When using a device with a work profile, the Google Play Store app in the work profile hangs or crashes when launched.
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Alongside the new Android 14 Beta 3 builds, Google has also quietly released the first builds of Android TV 14 based on Android 14! Only emulator builds are available now. Alongside this, Google seems to be retiring Android TV 13 (!)
The documentation for Android TV 14 isn't available yet and neither are ADT-3 builds. Speaking of the ADT-3, I reached out to Google about the status of its successor, the ADT-4, earlier today and will let you all know if I hear back.
A new code change noscriptd "don't recommend Android TV Tiramisu" was just merged in AOSP with the denoscription "we are retiring T as a version in Android TV. Moving the T image to the non-recommended menu should dissuade developers from creating a T images
if not required."
This code change was spotted by 9to5Google. In an upcoming release of Android Studio Canary with the latest AVD Manager, when you select an Android TV 13 image, you'll see that "Tiramisu is an unsupported Android TV version."
The documentation for Android TV 14 isn't available yet and neither are ADT-3 builds. Speaking of the ADT-3, I reached out to Google about the status of its successor, the ADT-4, earlier today and will let you all know if I hear back.
A new code change noscriptd "don't recommend Android TV Tiramisu" was just merged in AOSP with the denoscription "we are retiring T as a version in Android TV. Moving the T image to the non-recommended menu should dissuade developers from creating a T images
if not required."
This code change was spotted by 9to5Google. In an upcoming release of Android Studio Canary with the latest AVD Manager, when you select an Android TV 13 image, you'll see that "Tiramisu is an unsupported Android TV version."
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