Android 13 is the latest version of Android that was just released by the company. However, Google is always one step ahead, and it’s not developing Android 14. Each version of Android brings its own requirements, and Android 14 is reportedly focused on AV1 codec and 64-bit-only apps. Satellite connectivity was already confirmed for the OS. According to Android Police (via Mishaal Rahman), the AV1 codec support is codified in the Android Open Source Project Gerrit. The related entry says, “As per android cdd 14, sec 2.2.2 and sec 2.6, Handheld and Tablet device implementations must support decoding AV1.” As a side note, cdd is the abbreviation of Android’s “Compatibility Definition Document” that defines the requirements for each device to be eligible to receive the latest version of Android.
AV1 codec will be a mandatory requirement on Android 14
AV1 is one of the newest video encoding methods that is 30% better than HEVC in terms of compression efficiency. It also saves up to 30% of bandwidth. YouTube is already using this codec for specific resolutions. But this is not the only notable change that Android 14 wants to bring in. As per the latest finding, all devices that run at Armv9 CPUs must support 64-bit apps only, and they should ditch 32-bit apps. It’s been a long since Google sought to ditch support for 32-bit apps, and Android 14 releases will be a start for it. Apple did this in 2017, and it helped the company to improve its software and hardware experience. Almost all new processors and devices should be prepared to support 64-bit apps only, including the Pixel Tablet from Google itself. Of course, most of the apps now available in the Play Store are built based on 64-bit architecture, and a few apps need to be updated.
