You can quickly clone your apps on Android 14

While many devices are still waiting for the update to Android 13, Google has now released the first beta of Android 14, giving us a sneak peek at the upcoming operating system update.

Since it is a preview for developers, the majority of the news is at the API level and heavily focused on the creation of applications, with new permissions, new behaviors, and security enhancements, although significant new features are starting to be found in Android 14 DP1.

Android 14 now supports app cloning

Since many years, it has been possible to clone or duplicate apps on Android using third-party apps, the customization layers of some manufacturers, like OnePlus, or by setting up another user profile. However, Google has taken things a step further and included app cloning to Android 14.

Native app cloning began to appear in AOSP in 2021, although Android 12 or Android 13 didn’t include it. With Android 14, we could witness native app copying.

We can see from the Android 14 Developer Preview 1 that Google is putting together a solution to clone applications. There will be a new area in the application settings called Clone Applications that will let us choose the Android applications we wish to duplicate.

When a program does not support multiple accounts, we can install it again and use it with another account thanks to application cloning. For instance, we may have two WhatsApp accounts, one for each phone line.

Also, it won’t be possible to duplicate all apps. Google and other Android 14 device manufacturers will be able to select which applications cannot be cloned. Google is blocking the cloning of many of its own apps:

We will have to wait for the following development releases of Android 14 to find out when app cloning is operational since it is a very early developer preview and is not yet accessible or functioning.