What you need to know
- A new report suggests Google has delayed the stable Android 14 launch.
- The update was expected to arrive in September, but it may not arrive until early October.
- Google is expected to announce the new Pixel 8 series on October 4, which is the day the stable Android 14 build may launch.
Following last year's September launch of the stable Android 13 update, Google may have us waiting a bit longer for stable Android 14 to arrive on our phones as the update has reportedly been delayed at the last minute.
While Google never announced a firm date for the stable launch, Mishaal Rahman claims the update was originally set to arrive on September 5, but it seems a new release date may coincide with the Pixel 8 launch.
"OEMs are now being told that vulnerabilities detailed in the Android 14 Security Release Notes will be published on October 4, 2023, so that may be the new release date," Rahman notes in an X post. He says the decision was apparently made very late, to the point where OEMs still expected the update to arrive on Tuesday.
Hearing now that the source code release of Android 14 has been delayed to next month.This decision seems to have been made very late, as even OEMs were anticipating that the release would be today.OEMs are now being told that vulnerabilities detailed in the Android 14… pic.twitter.com/I137j0F0x5September 5, 2023
October 4 is notably the same day Google has scheduled the Pixel 8 launch, which, according to Rahman, would be the first time Google launches stable AOSP on the day of a new Pixel launch. For instance, the stable Android 12 update arrived for Pixels on October 19, 2021, which was notably the same day Google launched the Pixel 6 series and weeks after the update was available on AOSP.
It's not clear why the big update may have been pushed back, but it may affect the planned rollout for some OEMs who planned to update their phones this month. OnePlus is among those OEMs, as the company just announced a week prior that it would launch stable OxygenOS 14 on September 25. That may no longer be the case, but we have reached out to see if plans have changed.
Samsung is still in the midst of its Android 14 beta, so this would give it more time to prepare the update for its devices. That said, it's not clear if Google plans to continue releasing new beta builds beyond Beta 5.2 ahead of the stable release, assuming it has been pushed to October.
