Mishaal Rahman
banner
mishaalrahman.bsky.social
Mishaal Rahman
@mishaalrahman.bsky.social
NO LONGER POSTING HERE

MAY RE-EVALUATE IN THE FUTURE
The update is now actually rolling out, btw. The factory images/OTA files for Pixels are up, as are the release notes.
July 11, 2023 at 6:15 PM
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
Tweet by @MishaalRahman
“Android 14 Beta 4 just dropped, so here’s my thread covering what’s new 🧵”
twitter.com
July 11, 2023 at 5:21 PM
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.)
July 10, 2023 at 3:12 PM
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.
July 10, 2023 at 3:11 PM
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
July 7, 2023 at 2:12 PM
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!
July 6, 2023 at 9:32 PM
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.
July 6, 2023 at 9:32 PM
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+
July 6, 2023 at 9:32 PM
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).
July 6, 2023 at 9:32 PM
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.
July 6, 2023 at 9:32 PM
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
Here’s how Android’s new Photo Picker can support apps that haven’t been updated
www.esper.io
July 6, 2023 at 9:31 PM
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
July 6, 2023 at 9:31 PM
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
How Project Mainline is solving Android's fragmentation problem
www.esper.io
July 6, 2023 at 8:28 PM
There were other modules, like Captive Portal Login, Conscrypt, DNS Resolver, and Network Stack, but these were only "strongly recommended".
July 6, 2023 at 8:28 PM
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
July 6, 2023 at 8:28 PM