Android 14 could bring visual notifications with screen and camera flash options

XDA

By Timi Cantisano

Published Mar 9, 2023

Android 14 Developer Preview 2 is giving Pixel users a new way to visually see incoming notifications with cues from the display and camera flash.

The Android 14 Developer Preview 2 dropped today and with it came a lot of new features and changes. But as you probably already know, there's always more to discover if you're willing to dig a bit deeper. And it looks like there could be some interesting changes in the accessibility menu, giving users more options when it comes to visual notifications. For now, there are two new ways to deliver notifications to Android handset users in the Developer Preview, with one being a toggle that can set the camera flash to go off when a notification is received and another that can activate the screen to flash.

While it's still just in the Developer Preview, if it comes to the public release, it could be a great option for anyone in need of a visual notification or someone that wants to simulate a notification LED that used to be present on older Android smartphones. Currently, there are two options, “Camera flash notifications” or “Screen flash notifications."

Now, as far as the camera flash notification, it's pretty self-explanatory but when you receive a notification, the user will be alerted with the camera flash firing off briefly. What makes this even better is that apparently, the flashlight icon on the quick settings area will also activate, giving users another visual cue when this mode is enabled.

As for the screen flash notification, the user will have a choice of 12 colors, which will then proceed to illuminate the display once a notification has been received. Nothing too fancy, but if a user would like, they can also enable both visual notifications to have them both fire off when a notification is received.

Of course, there are plenty of apps that already do this from third party developers, and some handset manufacturers like Samsung have also included the feature on handsets for quite some time as well, but it's good to see Google finally include it natively within Android for Pixel devices. If you want to give it a try, you're welcome to install the Android 14 Developer Preview. But be warned, this isn't anywhere near a complete product and shouldn't be installed on a primary device that's meant for daily use.

Source: 9to5Google, Mishaal Rahman (Twitter)