2y ago

Pixel owners, what are your first impressions of Android 14?

I've been using the Android 14 Beta for a while now so nothing really new to me for now, but what I liked since the beta is that the battery life got better.

The ability to give apps permissions on a per-file basis is also cool, although it made some apps unusable probably because they aren't supporting that right now (but maybe that changed or will change soon now that the stable release is out).

So what are the changes you noticed the most and which ones do you like or hate so far?

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I'm super glad we have volume controls of notifications and phone separated again.
- it doesn't look like everyone is happy about the change though: https://lemmy.world/post/6390596 👀
  
  There's always one...

GrapheneOS Android 14 will be dropping this month. I don't know what new features there will be but looking forward to it
- I've considered this swap. You got some experience with it, what do you miss?
  
  Switched a month or two ago. Pretty good, no really complaints, setting up the Google services I need is easy to do. Battery life took a hit but still a full day, some hiccups like one bank app that just doesn't work. Overall I'm happy with it.

P6 and all I noticed was the lock screen customizations. Everything else feels exactly the same.
- I feel like they have tweaked the haptics, could just be my imagination. There are a few little visual things like the change to the numbers when inputting your PIN.
  
  Ok I'm glad someone said it because the haptics, to me, feel even better than before. Pixel 7a checking in.. Transitions using gestures feel better as well.

No major changes, which in my opinion is a good thing. I like the new lock screen customisation options.

- I also haven't noticed much. I am surprised with how little the platform updates change from the users perspective. Everything major has been mostly app updates
- Is there any good reason why they flipped the camera switcher and photo library around? I've been constantly hitting the camera switcher by accident since the update to the camera app. Minor gripe, but I can't see the point of the switch.
- Regular P7 here, and yeah, I noticed the camera update too which actually annoyed me a bit at first. I do like how they moved the camera and video buttons from the slidey menu down to dedicated toggles at the bottom though, but I was on a photo spree yesterday and the amount of times I clicked the photo button instead of the shutter button is astounding.
  Also I have noticed some apps are a lot slower now. I was reading a long Wikipedia page yesterday and about halfway through it started jittering a lot and would take a few seconds to scroll after I actually scrolled, which isn't something that was happening in even longer pages than that one before the update

Things I've noted:
My news app now crashes on launch, making it useless. Goes to show what happens when you ignore repeated warnings about making your app compatible with the new OS update.
At a glance can finally show both weather information and a notification at the same time. We finally have the technology!
The back gesture indicator looks a little bit different. I have no strong opinions on it, maybe slightly better looking.
The color scheme seems a little bit darker, maybe? Again, no strong opinions.

pretty boring, same as android 13 with some bug fixes and extra buttons in places

What changed ?
- Android Police did a nice write-up about the Android 14 changes: https://www.androidpolice.com/android-14/
  Or if you prefer a nerdier version: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/14/summary
  But yeah, as others pointed out in the comments, the visual changes are rare, it's mostly incremental QoL improvements, battery optimizations (mostly for Pixel phones as there were lots of those in the Beta changelogs), and a few security features (e.g. you can choose to let an app only see the image you're about to upload, but I found that it breaks uploading on the Tumblr app, so gotta wait for apps to fully support that).
  
  So not much aye.
  Looked for battery information. Couldn't find it. About as useful as I could see.
  What pixel need to do is stop breaking functions. Display out and such. Stop breaking software
- Haven't noticed anything apart from a few minor visual changes. And the new easter egg
  
  Where's the Easter egg ? I liked when it was dessert themed. I used to look forward to new updates. Watch the show. Now it's just not worth it. I'm less than interested.

Without dealing with side loading, is there a trick to force a pixel 6 to update OTA on Google Fi?
I know in the past you could clear the storage for certain Google services on the device and it would magically find an update that it claimed wasn't available 10 seconds prior. But I've been out of the game for a bit. Do those tricks still work? My Google Fi pixel 6 doesn't show an update is available and I'm still on 13. I've only tried rebooting and trying again so far.
- OnePlus had an app called oxygen updater that you could use OTA files with. sad that Google doesn't have something similar because it was really useful
- Have you tried this? I'm curious if it takes less time than OTA. It's an actual Google-made site.
  https://pixelrepair.withgoogle.com/
- You can apply the OTA image over ADB if you're technical enough. Doesn't require too much.
- It should hopefully not be long for you to get it - I got mine yesterday p6 pro on fi
- I got mine a couple days ago and I'm on a Pixel 5.
  Google rolls out updates in tiny batches and eventually increases the size of them.

Pixel 7 PRO here and seems that battery take more time to be discharged than in android 13
Is it my sensation or someone else has the same sensation?

I've also been on the beta. Overall Android doesn't seem to have really change though, aside from maybe better battery life and minor aesthetic changes.

Is there any additional customization for the notification shade or does it still black out the entire screen below it?
- no extra customisation from what I can see. mostly the same as android 13

Nothing of value changed other than the lock screen customizations. What is nice about that is that it changes the always on display look too.
- New colours are neat and webcam feature
  
  Webcam feature depends on someone implementing it in an app right? So yeah I'm looking forward to this usecase but it's not something anyone can use today unless some app already supports?
  I didn't notice the new colours, what changed?

I like it, seems more refined with some nice QoL tweaks.
The haptics are broken though. Swiping between recent apps has gone and sometimes pressing back it doesn't vibrate.

Still waiting for calyx to do the update. Honestly, I doubt much will really change for me.

was really hoping it would fix the biometric settings bug introduced at the last update of 13 but apparently not

Nothing I hate. I'm on a Pixel 5, so super outdated but will be making a leap for the Pixel 8 Pro. I think it's quick and snappy though. No real complaints here.

In developer options you can enable "Predictive back animations" buried towards the bottom. It doesn't work anywhere except the settings app (yet) and some Google apps when back would take you to the launcher.

My pixel stand works again, so I'm over the moon with it.
- I have one from like 5 years ago. It works with my Pixel 5. I'm getting the 8 so I hope it works with that too
  
  From everything I could gather, there was some sort of issue that broke the pixel stand in Android 13 for some users. It would still connect, but not charge. All other wireless chargers I had worked fine. I did the usual delete data and cache, pair and setup again, reboot, etc. Once Android 14 installed, it's been back to normal functionality for me.

7a battery life seems to have improved somewhat.
- Safari feels snappier
  
  Every time I get an update, I think of this quote and I haven't had an iPhone since the 4 lol
- 7 pro battery life on standard battery saver mode is brilliant! it tanks if you have any pop out video players on though

Android 14 is what the quarterly feature drops should be.

I hope they keep this trend of releasing android updates with fixes / polish more than new functionalities. Especially the functionalities that put extra background services like when they released digital wellbeing.
In the battery menu It would have been nice if they added the standby time next to the screen on time. "Standby time since last full charge" something like that. Now you need to calculate it and it sucks.

I really like the Easter Egg game, it's fun trying to land on each of the bodies, tricky though.

Wish the clocks for home screen were better designed :( there's a lovely rounded one but for some reason it goes horrible and slim upon locking

54 comments