Android 14 wants to make app clones possible

Owners of a smartphone with the Android operating system are currently eagerly awaiting the update to Android 14. More and more upcoming features become known. Google has now revealed in a developer preview that the latest version will open up the possibility of cloned apps. That sounds exciting and is certainly useful in many cases.

Android 14 lets you create app clones

The new feature definitely sounds exciting. But what’s the point of being able to use it? Here, you should think about your messenger and social media apps for once. If the app appears multiple times on your smartphone, you can use different accounts at the same time. This is ideal for self-employed people in the creative industry, for example, who want to manage not only a private but also a professional account. But also couples who like to use the smartphone of their partner can access their own accounts via another device.

Samsung as inspiration?

Connoisseurs in the industry will possibly know that the feature with the cloned apps is not really new. Rather, this is already known from Samsung. The South Korean tech company has offered the so-called Dual Messenger feature for quite some time. Here, you can create a duplicate of Messenger apps to ultimately use multiple accounts on one device. Apparently, Google also liked this small but nice feature, which is why cloning is supposed to be a permanent feature on all Android devices. What has so far been exclusively reserved for a few manufacturers is to be firmly built into the Android interface with Android 14.

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Android 14 makes exceptions to cloning

With all apps, meanwhile, cloning should not be possible. At least, that’s according to a report from Android experts at Googlewatchblog. In the article, you can find a list of apps that are supposed to not support the clone feature. However, these seem to be apps where a clone would be more of a hindrance than a help anyway. Android Auto, for example. The app is considered the interface between the car and the smartphone and lives from its uncomplicated handling, among other things.

As soon as you start your car, the device automatically connects to the vehicle. However, if there are two versions of the app on the smartphone, the car does not know which account Android Auto should connect to. This affects the user’s comfort and is simply not useful. Basic apps such as the clock, file manager or phone are also supposed to be left out. The clone feature should also not be implemented in apps that allow the creation of multiple accounts anyway. For example, Google’s own apps Gmail and YouTube. Cloning would be of little use here.

Android 14 will launch in the fall of 2023

The developers of Android 14 currently seem to be on the home stretch. Thus, the first version of the operating system is supposed to be rolled out as early as this summer. According to experience, however, this will initially only serve to test the stability and troubleshoot. The final version will probably be available in the fourth quarter of 2023.