Android 14 review: there’s always next year

Does anybody care about Android 14?

This year's release of the world's most popular operating system feels like one of the smallest ever, bringing just a handful of new features. Even during the Android portion of Google's big I/O keynote, Google spent most of its time showing off a new generative AI feature that creates wallpapers for you, as if there aren't enough wallpapers in the world.

Last year's Android 13 release felt small, but that was because it was the second major Android OS release that year. Android 12L-the big tablet and foldable release-came out earlier. What's Android 14's excuse? We're not really sure. We still have a few things to go over, though, like new lock screen customizations, genuinely exciting changes to the way the back button works, and a pile of under-the-hood changes.

Android 14 is definitely the smallest version number update I remember from Android history. I'm not entirely sure why this wasn't called Android 13.1.