The first beta of Android 14 allows you to activate a new feature from the settings: the possibility of forcing applications to use a transparent navigation bar by default.
Currently reserved for Google Pixel smartphone users, Android 14 Beta 1 contains a long-requested aesthetic novelty: the ability to force apps to use a transparent navigation bar by default.
This addition follows a persistent request from many Android users. The idea? Enable a more consistent visual experience regardless of the interface browsed. Currently, some applications simply use a black navigation bar, or match their colors, but without any real concern for uniformity.
However, this change is not necessarily easy to implement, notes XDA Developers. Developers need to manage visual overlap between important elements of their user interface and the navigation bar. Initially, Google had therefore chosen to make transparency optional, so as to never hide key elements of the UI in apps by default.
Unfortunately, some applications have never implemented this functionality… to the regret of many users. With beta 1 of Android 14, Google is therefore using drastic measures by allowing this time to make the background color of the navigation bar transparent by default. To do this, however, you have to go a little deeper into the settings to be able to activate the corresponding optional option there.
Source: XDA Developers
Source: XDA Developers
If you have a compatible Pixel smartphone and you take advantage of the Android beta program, here’s how to set up this new feature on your mobile:
- Go to settings and then to “System”
- Then go to “Developer options”, and activate them
- All that remains is to activate the “Transparent navigation bar” option.
As Google specifies, this novelty makes it very simple to “make navbar background color transparent by default“. Note, however, that this function is not guaranteed to be retained in the final version of Android 14.
Do you use Google News (News in France)? You can follow your favorite media. Follow Frandroid on Google News (and Numerama).