New Features In Android 14

Android 14 has been released for supported Google Pixels (Pixel 4a 5G and newer). I’m uncertain whether other manufacturers have yet released Android 14 for any of their Android devices.

This topic is not an attempt to document all of the new features in Android 14. That would be a worthy effort for Tips & Tricks. Meanwhile, perhaps, this topic might serve as a place to share those new Android features as they are discovered by Community members.

As a start, I’m pleased to report with Android 14, it’s now possible to reset one’s mobile network settings without wiping saved WiFi network settings or Bluetooth device pairings.

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https://9to5google.com/2023/10/30/samsung-galaxy-android-14-list/
ETA; Samsung Galaxy S20 and Note 20 series will not see Android 14.
A rumor started from a Samsung support page suggested these phones might get One UI 6, even though they weren’t scheduled to.

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For dual sim users there’s a new switch mobile data automatically feature if the primary data sim loses coverage. This might be a Pixel only feature.

I may have discovered an unwelcome “feature” a/k/a a bug impacting my Google Pixel 6a since updating to Android 14.

It appears the phone is not falling back to LTE coverage when 5G is unavailable resulting in no service. I’m reasonably confident the phone not the network is the issue because I run dual SIMs on the Pixel and both SIMs are affected.

A network settings reset did not sort things.

Anyone having trouble between Android 14 and your car’s Android Auto?

I’m having 2 problems:

  • My car’s clock is supposed to automatically sync to my phone, and it’s off by an hour and a minute. :exploding_head:.

  • Google Maps, when displayed on the car screen, isn’t automatically switching to night mode. :dark_sunglasses:

I haven’t seen this on my Android 14 Pixel 6a on Google Fi. It seems to go back and forth between 5G and LTE as needed.

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Same with me with my Android 14 Pixel 6a with Mobi. No issues at all switching from 5G to LTE and vice versa.

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I don’t know about the minute, but does your car system read time off of radio sources? You might want to poke around and see if the car system is set to the wrong time zone. My car system pulls time off of one form or another of satellite. Could be SiriusXM, more likely from GPS as it has internal navigation I don’t use as map updates are $150 each. Waze is cheaper. It does not sync the time from my phone. I have the car set to Eastern time. It doesn’t correct for my location, so when I cross time zone boundaries, the time remains Eastern.

As for night mode, I had a problem in my car with Android Auto never using night mode on the screen. After re-reading the owners manual a few times, I found that using the detent lock in the max position on the display light levels prevented night mode entirely. I had to back off from the detent and I got night mode.

I don’t know if either of these situations applies to you, but it’s something to look for.

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My vehicle’s infotainment system apparently doesn’t sync to the paired phone. When the phone’s screen is projected via Android Auto (or Apple CarPlay), I see the time from the phone. Otherwise, the infotainment system’s time is syncing to something else. I expect similar to @mwgardiner’s experience, it’s the internal navigation system offered by the manufacturer to which I do not subscribe.

Mine was off by exactly an hour because I had yet to hunt down the setting for turning off Daylight Savings Time (since corrected).

Tested this as well and it’s working as expected for me, which I appreciate doesn’t help you. :disappointed:

Given these reports, I changed my focus to a possible issue with running dual SIMs or, perhaps, the Helium Mobile eSIM specifically.

I first turned off dual SIM functionality (not an ideal solution). Then, I tested running both the Mobi pSIM and Helium eSIM is single SIM mode. Both worked as expected. Next, to see if dual SIM could be stabilized.

There is a new Android 14 setting “Switch mobile data automatically” when running dual SIMs. I reenabled dual SIM but turned that setting off for both SIMs. Things remained stable.

This configuration, however, is also not ideal because that setting, which allows for use of the SIM not active for data when it has better availability than the SIM active for data also controls the ability to use voice and data simultaneously when the SIMs for voice and data are different and backup calling. In Android 13, these were two discrete settings.

Backup calling is a Pixel feature allowing for VoIP calls using the active SIM for data when the SIM being used for voice has no signal. Think of it as WiFi calling over the active data SIM. Apple actually calls the equivalent iPhone feature WiFi calling even when using a different SIM enabled for data rather than actually using WiFi. Dual SIM phones allow for multiple SIMs to be active for voice and text but, generally, only one SIM at a time may be active for data. Backup calling is most useful for international travel as one’s U.S. service can be used for voice and text messaging over a local (in country) SIM active for data while out, about and away from WiFi.

Here’s the current state of affairs. I’ve reenabled “Switch mobile data automatically” for the Mobi pSIM but not the Helium eSIM. I’ve also disabled WiFi calling and Vo5G (more technically referred to as VoNR) on the Helium eSIM and 2G on both the Mobi pSIM and Helium eSIM. So far, this configuration is stable with coverage switching between 5G and LTE as expected on either SIM active for data at the time.

As an aside, I’m losing nothing by disabling calling features on the Helium eSIM as both calling and text messaging are disabled at the network level. Talk and text is available on Helium at no extra cost but requires a separate Helium pSIM. The Helium eSIM provides 30 GB of high speed data per month on T-Mobile’s network but also is intended to offload to Helium’s network of hotspot devices (currently available nowhere near me). I guess Helium/T-Mobile do not want voice running over those hotspot devices. Bottom line, I get 30 GB per month on T-Mobile’s network from Helium for $5/month while keeping my primary service (unlimited talk and text plus 1 GB of data) on Mobi for roughly $10 per month.

If I were to travel internationally, I’d activate a local (in country) eSIM and temporarily deactivate the Helium eSIM. Deactivating an eSIM on a phone does not, in and of itself, deactivate service.

I don’t have Android auto. I’ve had no issues with my Pixel 7a upgrade to Android 14 except that… it installed the update twice for someone reason. I updated to Android 14, then a week or so later I got a notification that it was time to upgrade to Android 14, with a 2+ GB update. I even double-checked the version info and it said I was already on 14.