I can now corroborate this. A source has informed me that Google informed Android TV partners a few days back that they would no longer certify builds based on Android TV 13.

They didn't really give a reason why they're discontinuing Android TV 13, just that they're increasing their focus on Android TV 14, which could be a big release for the platform.

I have reached out to Google for comment on this news.

MORE DETAILS:

Google's requirement to support 2 OS upgrades* will mostly stay unchanged. That means, for example, a retail device that launched on Android TV 10 will now have to update to Android TV 14 as their its release, instead of ending at Android TV 13.

There are two exceptions:

1) Retail devices that launch with Android TV 11 can update directly to Android TV 14 as their final update.

2) Operator Tier devices that launch on Android TV 10 can stay on Android TV 12 as their final release.

The launch windows for Android TV 11 and Android TV 12 will remain unchanged, but devices can remain on Android TV 11 for longer as Google will be providing security patch backports throughout 2024.

—-

*What is Android TV's 2 OS upgrade requirement? It's not what you think: Instead of requiring makers of retail Android TV/Google TV products to go from N to N+2, they're required to go from N to N+3.

Huh?

The thing is, to get to N+3, they're allowed to skip a release. So they can start at N and go to N+1 then N+3, making that 2 OS upgrades, or they can start at N and go to N+2 then N+3.

In essence, this makes sure that retail TV products get 3 OS version upgrades though TV makers only actually have to do 2 OS updates.

I'm looking through the first Android TV 14 beta right now to find what's new! Here's what I've found so far 🧵

(Click the link to see my thread!)

According to multiple users (H/T Google News group), Google is rolling out an update to the Emoji Wallpaper app in Android 14 Beta 3.

The update shows up on Google Play as "Emoji Workshop Wallpaper" and enables you to use the emoji wallpaper feature in Wallpaper & styles.

The listing doesn't appear if you open Google Play on the web, but it does appear if you open it on a Pixel phone as it filters for devices that declare com.google.android.feature.PIXEL_EXPERIENCE.

There are two main differences between the prebuilt Emoji Wallpaper app in the firmware and the updated Emoji Workshop Wallpaper app.

1) "Emoji Labs" in Wallpaper & style has been renamed to "Emoji Workshop"

2) The emoji wallpaper is now interactive, as shown off at I/O.

The min SDK version of the Emoji Workshop Wallpaper app is 33, so it can be installed on Android 13+ devices. However, if you sideload it on a device without Google's Wallpaper & style app, you'll have to manually launch the activity to create/set the wallpaper.

If you're wondering whether it might be possible for third-party apps to provide their own custom lock screen clocks, my understanding is that no, this currently isn't possible.

From a cursory glance, these lock screen clock APKs seem to utilize the SystemUI Plugins API, which requires the APKs to declare the com.android.systemui.permission.PLUGIN permission. This is a "signature" permission, hence only platform apps can hold it, as they need to be signed by the same certificate used to sign SystemUI.

And since Android 14 reached Platform Stability already, that means a public API for this can't be added until at least Android 15. Not like I expect there to be one, given the security implications and the heavy constraints that would need to be added before opening this up.

Google may finally roll out the "Protected by Android" badge on permission prompts in Android 14.

This badge was introduced in Android 13, but it was disabled at the build level - until Android 14 Beta 3!

Shown above: Permission prompt w & w/o "Protected by Android" badge

In Android 14 Beta 3, the config value config_safetyProtectionEnabled is now enabled by default. Now, that by itself isn't enough to make the "Protected by Android" badge appear on permission prompts.

In order to make the badge appear, the DeviceConfig flag safety_protection_enabled under the privacy namespace must also be set to true. This can be set remotely by GMS, however, so Google could roll this change out at any time through a server-side update.

Another requirement is that the requisite resources (the "Protected by Android" icon and text shown in the permission dialog) exist. These are provided by the GoogleSafetyCenterResources app, which is part of the Permission Mainline module.

Obviously, displaying a little badge that says "Protected by Android" doesn't actually improve security in any way. But it does indicate the device should be running an official GMS Android build (...though I don't see what's stopping anyone from just ripping the resources).

The GoogleSafetyCenterResources app does more than just this, though, as it's also responsible for the configuration of the "Security & privacy" settings.

A spokesperson for Google told me that this was an "asset design error" made by the team, and that when using Reading practice now on devices, the nav bar should be the same as the one we're all already familiar with.

That's Google's statement on the matter, but seeing as how this new nav bar is already present in Android 13+ builds and can be activated right now...I'm reading "asset design error" as "we didn't mean to show this off yet".

Wouldn't be the first time that marketing assets accidentally showed off unreleased features, like how the new status bar chip charging animation was shown off in a video promoting the Pixel 7a before Beta 3 was released.

I wouldn't be surprised if, in a future release, Google not only makes ANGLE the default OpenGL ES driver on Pixel but also for select high-end Android devices. Android 14 Beta 3 already makes some inroads in that direction.

In Android 14 Beta 3, I noted that there's a new "enable ANGLE" developer option that "enable[s] ANGLE as [the] system OpenGL ES driver". Since Android 10, there's been a menu to selectively use ANGLE on a per-app basis, but Android 14's new toggle makes it be used system-wide.

While ANGLE isn't currently used as the default OpenGL ES driver on Pixel in Android 14 Beta 3, it probably will be in a future release. When Google built Beta 3, they included the new angle_supported.mk file in their build process, as evidenced by the inclusion of ANGLE binaries in /vendor/lib{64}/egl instead of the ANGLE APK in /product/priv-app, as well as the property ro.gfx.angle.supported being set to true.

Changing the default OpenGL ES driver to ANGLE would require a lot of testing by Google/OEMs/app developers. Currently, for example, Google's own Camera app crashes when you enable ANGLE.

Another graphics-related change that appears to be in the works is the switch to the Vulkan backend for Skia. In a future release, Android may use SkiaVK for HWUI and SurfaceFlinger. (I'm basing this off of various changes Google's made in Android 14 that appear to just be testing, as well as my own assumptions.)

EDIT: At the Vulkanised 2023 developer conference, Samsung's Director of GPU software did a presentation on "Using ANGLE as a System Graphics Driver" that's highly relevant here.

By the way, I've added a lot more posts to this thread over the last 24 hours, so I recommend giving it another scroll if you want to see what's new in Android 14 Beta 3!

The June 2023 Pixel Feature Drop is rolling out today! This update also brings Android 13 QPR3 to supported Pixel phones. The build IDs for the Pixel 4a and later are as follows: TQ3A.230605.0XX. The update brings numerous bug fixes and improvements in addition to the new Feature Drop changes.

One thing to note: Google Home's new "home panel" accessed through the Device Controls interface is only available in Android 13 on Pixel phones but should become available on other devices in Android 14. See this thread for more details on why.

For those of you still on the Android 13 QPR3 beta: If you want to receive the Android 13 QPR3 stable update, Google says to opt-out of the Beta program. You will not receive a downgrade OTA so your device will not get wiped. Otherwise, if you stay enrolled in the beta, you'll automatically receive the next Android 14 beta release.

Here's a chart summarizing the availability of each feature per device, courtesy of Google.

In addition, here are the AOSP tags that correspond to each build ID:

Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a (5G), Pixel 5, Pixel 5a (5G)
TQ3A.230605.011
android-13.0.0_r51

Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a
TQ3A.230605.010
android-13.0.0_r50

Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a
TQ3A.230605.012
android-13.0.0_r52

I've generated changelogs for each new tag you can view here.

The moderators of /r/Android, Reddit's largest community centered around the Android OS, have decided to extend their blackout until 20:00 EDT on June 20th, 2023. They will "continue to monitor the situation" and are ready to further extend the blackout if necessary and even join other subreddits in an "indefinite blackout".

Here's the statement I was given:

"r/Android will be extending our blackout, and will be private until June 21st, 2023 UTC / June 20th, 2023 20:00 EDT / June 20th, 2023 17:00 PDT. r/Android has not ruled out an indefinite blackout, but also is not opposed to joining the indefinite blackout. r/Android will continue to monitor the situation and is prepared to continue to extend our blackout if the situation does not show positive improvements. This is not the first time Reddit has shown a continued lapse in judgement, and communication, for volunteers who do their work essentially for free. Reddit is a community that thrives off community itself.

We sympathize with those who want to see the subreddit. We've gotten many requests to open back up, but truth of the matter is, is that Reddit is just a secondary community. For those upset, we encourage you to listen and understand why we're protesting. Secondly, to the sites that contribute a plethora of content to the subreddit, we thank you.

We stand with communities like r/blind who need third party apps for accessibility and developers whose hard work has provided essential tools that the official app lacks for moderation. If the mod team is forcibly replaced, then Reddit admins will have shown their true colors.

We encourage the readers to visit other content creators on the internet, and we hope to see you when Reddit is back."

Update: I'm told that since the moderators of /r/Android coordinated with the moderators of /r/GooglePixel and /r/AndroidApps on the blackout, the latter two subreddits will also extend their blackouts until 20:00 EDT on June 20, 2023.

Google officially ends support for the AOSP Dialer and Messaging apps and will remove them from the source manifest.

I spotted this change last week but didn't think it was a big deal (because it isn't), but since it's now being picked up on by news sites, let me explain why.

Last week, Google added a README file to the Dialer & Messaging apps' source code that says the following:

"This app is not actively supported and the source is only available as a reference. This project will be removed from the source manifest sometime in the future."

This means that:

a) Google is no longer actively supporting these apps, so in a future release, they could stop working if any breaking changes are made.

b) Once they're removed from the source manifest, AOSP builds by default won't include a Dialer or Messaging app.

While that sounds like a big deal, it won't impact AOSP-based projects ("custom ROMs") much at all. The AOSP Dialer & Messaging apps were barely being updated already, so most AOSP-based projects forked them long ago and developed their own improvements on top.

Not only that, but improvements submitted upstream to these projects were rejected on multiple occasions, according to some members of the LineageOS project, who maintain their own Dialer & Messaging apps upon which many "custom ROMs" use instead.

So Google's README just states something the custom ROM community has been expecting to happen for a while. Not that it makes the news any less disappointing, though, because it means that AOSP will soon be an operating system without a default dialer or messaging app.

It's been clear that Google's focus is on its first-party Phone & Messages apps distributed as part of GMS. OEMs are expected to either include Google's apps or build their own, and anyone forking AOSP has been expected to do the same - before informally now formally.

The Pixel Tablet reviews are out, and according to multiple outlets, the new Google Weather experience is available on it. However, it's not provided by a new app, rather the same Google App that already provides the existing experience, as I suspected.

Google has started to publish Pixel Watch Security Bulletins, starting with June 2023.

Furthermore, I've heard that Google now also publishes a Wear OS Security Bulletin - but this isn't public yet & is only available to Android Partners. The first one covers the 2023-07-01 SPL.

I'll let you know if/when the Wear OS Security Bulletin goes public!