Your Fairphone is about to get a brand, new Android experience. With Android 14, your device is more customizable, more secure, and more privacy-focused than ever before. At Fairphone, we are always listening to our community and exploring how we can incorporate their feedback with the latest updates. To that extent, there are a few value-additions we have made with this update. Here’s what you can expect with our latest iteration of Android on your Fairphone.
New look, new layouts: Android 14 comes with a new look and feel for your device. Dark mode is now the new default. Swap the Back and Recent buttons on your home screen navigation bar as per your liking. Make your device more you.
Make your lowest volume setting even lower: With the introduction of Android 14’s split sliders for ring and notification volumes, we have revisited our sound levels, and lowered the minimum volume on your device. So now, you get even more control on how loud (or not) you want to go.
Enhanced PIN security: With the Android 14, you now have the option to set a PIN of up to six digits instead of four. This means even more security for your device, locking it away from unwelcome eyes. Type in your new PIN and the phone will automatically unlock as well, making the experience that much more seamless.
App data permissions*: Ever wondered how much of your personal data is being shared with your apps? You can stop wondering. With Android 14, you will get comprehensive information about how your apps are collecting data. This way, you can make an informed decision on whether you want to allow the app data permission or not. That means if an app wants to access your location, your camera, or your media, or anything else, it has to go through you. *Works with compatible apps
Flash notifications: Going into a meeting but expecting an urgent message. Switch on flash notifications from your Accessibility and Notifications settings. This way, your phone stays on silent or Do Not Disturb mode, while giving you visual light flashes from your screen and camera flash for new notifications.
Font size scaling: Scale up your font size to 200% for better readability if needed. The scaling is non-linear, which means smaller font sizes will be increased exponentially more than larger font sizes, keeping your screen layout in mind. Nobody likes oversized text spilling out of their screen, after all.
Improved magnification: Magnifying the screen is now more intuitive, with the ability to pinch to zoom in and out from 100%. Customize the magnifier size with the new Magnifier Settings panel and choose how much of the screen you’d like to be magnified. You can also permanently switch on magnification, so it doesn’t revert when switching apps.
No more Always Show Time and Info: We removed the Always Show Time and Info feature on the Fairphone 5, as it was a major battery drainer, as per our data. With this removed, your Fairphone will now last longer than before on a single charge.
The latest update comes with a security patch level from July 5th, 2024, and will start rolling out to Fairphone 5 users shortly. And if you’re using a Fairphone 4, we haven’t forgotten about you. Expect to hear from us by mid-September.
Did I read this correctly? The “solution” to the always-on-display using up so much battery is to… remove the feature?! A feature that can already be turned off?. So now even people who can live with the battery drain can’t use it anymore? After getting rid of status LEDs?
I am really trying to be polite, but this is a joke, right?
Ah! Awesome, I didn’t see this post because I mute posts with the tag fp4 Good to see both phones get the update!
I use a pin of 8 digits already with the Android 13 release I hope the auto unlock for the last digit is an opt-in. Because I don’t like such a thing, it makes your pass code weaker.
Hmmm, so the always on display feature got removed instead of fixed? That’s not great, but it was already reported in one of the threads that it won’t be fixed, so it doesn’t come as a complete shock. Maybe the FP6 will nail it.
This does seem like a very weird approach. Even if they don’t intend to fix it, simply adding a “May cause significant battery drain” notice would “solve” it for now.
Ok. But I am using a Fairphone 3+ and I feel as I have been forgotten in this post.
(I know this post is tagged with “fp4” and “fp5” here in the forum. But I just discovered this text on the public blog of Fairphone. Felt really happy about it! Until I noticed that the users of FP3 are not even mentioned )
Are you serious?! This option already shows a hint that it may drain the battery. I’ve choose FP5 even it has no LED indicator because the Always-On feature was a good workaround. Now you just disable this with an update because of… WHAT?
I really don’t know why Fairphone seems to be dead set on making it harder for their phones to notify their users that someone is trying to interact with them. The notification LED on the FP3 didn’t work at first (and I might be misremembering it, but wasn’t there also an issue with the LED on the FP2 at first?), then they removed the LED with the FP4, now they are removing the AOD?
While I agree that removing is not solving, I am curious about this new flash notification system mentioned. Will it work like LED? Not sure if I have ever used the latter so really having no idea.
From what I read about flash notifications on other android phones it’s just a couple of flashes. So not at all a replacement for AOD or LEDs since it only works for when you happen be looking at your phone while you get a notification.
The way I see it they could set it to disabled by default, so the user has to opt in and actually read the message. They could have communicated this issue with the community and weighed our input on the thing.
But that’s not the Dutch way of doing business it seems. This seems a bit like the Austrian fingerprint reader issue all over again.
I just started using AOD because i needed to be able to know if i got a notification without enabling sound (the sound of the notification annoy my co workers) and FP just remove it??? WTH that is not a solution to the battery drain!
Most of us here are users like you, as this really is a community forum, and the @system bot is certainly not the one to blame for anything other than repeating the blog post here in the forum.
@Juan.Bianchi … This really is an “interesting” choice of a solution and communication for a notorious battery drain …
Will users really be left without a choice of using this feature or not on Android 14?
I hope the auto unlock for the last digit is an opt-in. Because I don’t like such a thing, it makes your pass code weaker.
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