Mishaal Rahman

Hi there! Sorry to my followers here, but I'll no longer be posting on Bluesky for the time being. It's tough to cross-post between so many different places. If Bluesky's popularity picks up again, I'll reconsider. In the meanwhile, you can find me here:

The update is now actually rolling out, btw. The factory images/OTA files for Pixels are up, as are the release notes.

Android Developers Blog News and insights on the Android platform, developer tools, and events.

Google's blog post: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2023/07/android-14-beta-4.html

Tweet by @MishaalRahman “Android 14 Beta 4 just dropped, so here’s my thread covering what’s new 🧵”

Since Android 14 reached Platform Stability with Beta 3, Beta 4 doesn’t introduce any new APIs or app-facing system behaviors. However, there are some user-facing changes in this release, including the new Easter egg!

https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1678802671291998208

Google has announced Android 14 Beta 4! Beta 4 is available for the Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold as well.

This is the fourth Android 14 beta release available for users in the Android Beta program! There should be one more beta before the stable release.

Android 14 Beta 4 just dropped, so here’s my thread covering what’s new, including a first look at the new Easter egg!

https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1678802671291998208

They're even making articles titled "Best Coffee Maker Reddit 2023" and linking to them in the Reddit comments, lmao.
RIP, the best way to search for products on Google. (I'm exaggerating, it's going to be a bit more annoying to deal with, but appending Reddit is still useful.)

Welp, can't say I didn't expect this, but SEO spammers are hijacking the "Google search query + reddit" trick to sell products. 2/3 of the first Reddit posts were made by spammers (there are more if you scroll down). Even in the comments of the first (authentic) post, there's spam.
It's Joever.

When I first joined Bluesky a few months back, you couldn't post from the web. I just reinstalled it last week, though, and found out it was added in the interim.

Google should bring Samsung’s Maintenance Mode to Pixel phones And here’s how they could do it.

Factory resetting your phone before you bring it in for repair is a huge pain, but Samsung’s Maintenance Mode lets you avoid that hassle. Here’s how Google could bring this feature to Pixel:

https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/google-should-bring-samsungs-maintenance-mode-to-pixel-phones

I recommend following the Rboard Themes group if you want to keep up-to-date specifically about the Gboard app! Here's a link: https://t.me/rkbdigboard

Mishaal Rahman on Twitter “FINALLY! Gboard is preparing to add an "undo" function so you can recover deleted words/sentences. Here's a demo of the feature in the latest beta release. Credits go to Akos Paha from the Rboard ...

FINALLY! Gboard is preparing to add an "undo" function so you can recover deleted words/sentences. Here's a demo of the feature in the latest beta release: https://twitter.com/i/status/1677318930753286146

Credits go to Akos Paha from the Rboard Themes Telegram group for discovering this!

Source: https://groups.google.com/g/android-building/c/c2wv8FUxdok/m/78e_OX_qAAAJ

Google has renamed AOSP's "master" branch to "main" today, in accordance with the company's commitment to using inclusive language in their products and services.
The legacy "master" branch will be a read-only replica of "main" but will be deleted in the future.

As for other devices that support the framework Photo Picker - ie. Android 11-12L - I'm not sure if the GET_CONTENT takeover has also been enabled by default for them with the July 2023 GPSU. Will follow up when I find out!

Note that although Google backported the Photo Picker to Android 4.4+ through GMS, I don't think they've implemented this "GET_CONTENT" takeover behavior yet in GMS. Hence users on older versions will continue seeing the old DocumentsUI when that intent is invoked.

If your app invokes the GET_CONTENT intent with an image or video mimetype in order to let the user select files through the system file picker, then be aware that they'll now instead see the new Photo Picker on Android 13+

Some devices with the June 2023 GPSU are also seeing this change, though I believe that's only the case for devices that ship with the UPB3.230519.008 version of MediaProvider (AKA the one preinstalled with Android 14 Beta 3).

So what's actually changed in the July 2023 GPSU? Did Google just flip the server-side DeviceConfig flag again? Nope!

Instead, MediaProvider's PhotoPickerGetContentActivity is now enabled by default. Previously it was disabled until the take_over_get_content flag was set to true.

Here’s how Android’s new Photo Picker can support apps that haven’t been updated

The technical explanation for how the Photo Picker is able to intercept apps' calls to the system file picker (AKA DocumentsUI) can be found in this article: https://www.esper.io/blog/android-photo-picker-rollout

This change is a bit tough to explain in a thread, but back in December, I discovered that Google rolled out a Play System Update that enabled this change once a server-side flag was flipped. However, the flag was reverted one month later: https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1603137751787995142

The July 2023 Google Play System Update quietly enabled the Photo Picker for more apps on Android 13+.

In certain apps like Google Chat & Keep, the new Photo Picker will now be invoked instead of the old system file picker.

Here's a demonstration: https://twitter.com/i/status/1677064968204681224

How Project Mainline is solving Android's fragmentation problem

If you want to learn more about Project Mainline, this blog post I co-wrote with Jonathan Levin is the best resource on it: https://www.esper.io/blog/what-is-project-mainline

There were other modules, like Captive Portal Login, Conscrypt, DNS Resolver, and Network Stack, but these were only "strongly recommended".

When Google first launched Project Mainline with Android 10, only a handful of modules were required for newly launched devices:

- DocumentsUI
- ExtServices
- Media Codecs
- Media Framework components
- Module Metadata
- Permission Controller
- Time Zone data

Curiously, I checked with users on my Telegram group, some of whom report that they have Android 10 devices on the May 2023 Google Play System Update version. Not all modules have had their min SDKs bumped yet, so they may have still gotten some updated modules.

This is not surprising, as Feb. 2023 is also when Google ended security patch backports for Android 10. Theoretically, Google could support Android 10 devices for longer since these modules are decoupled from the OS. But that would just mean they'd only be partially protected.

The min SDK versions of the DNS Resolver, CaptivePortalLogin, Connectivity, and NetworkStack modules have all recently been bumped to '30' (Android 11) from '29' (Android 10), with the reason being that "Mainline push to Q was stopped in February 2023."

Google debuted Project Mainline alongside Android 10, modularizing various system components so they can be updated through the Play Store instead of through regular OTA updates. However, it seems Mainline support for Android 10 devices is winding down.

The projected EOL for Linux 4.14 is Jan. 2024 anyways, so it makes sense to drop support in V. Still, RIP the Pixel 4a, which runs Linux 4.14 but won't be getting Android 14 (at least not officially).