After pre-announcing late last month that the Nothing Phone (1) will be one of the first Android phones —besides the Pixel— to get early access to Android 14, Nothing officially announced today the launch of their Developer Preview Program.
The program will make Android 14 Beta available to Nothing Phone (1) users that choose to test, although with a catch. Unfortunately, the update requires a sideload and it’s not a straight OTA update, in addition to wiping all of your device’s data.
The Nothing website provides a detailed guide on how to proceed with the update, which requires the download of an update package directly on the phone and other manual steps. As the build is still in the early development stages, and is not as straightforward to install, it is not recommended that it be installed on a daily driver or by non-advanced users.
Additionally, as is usually the case with an early beta, there are certain known issues that you will encounter should you choose to proceed with the install. These are:
Known issues
- Fingerprints can’t be registered
- Face unlock unavailable
- Glyph features unavailable
- Battery sharing unavailable
- No Portrait Mode or slow motion feature in the camera app
- No pre-installed Nothing weather and Nothing X apps
- Screen cast to TV connection unavailable
The company is also providing a roll-back tool in case something goes wrong and you need to go back to a stable version of Android. However, please note that this tool will once again completely wipe your device, so a full backup is recommended.
Other than that, Nothing is welcoming feedback on this test build of Android 14 Beta 1 which can be submitted via a Google Form. It will be interesting to see how this rollout goes, as the last time the Nothing Phone (1) participated in a Beta (for Android 13) it went pretty smoothly.
