Android 14's Official Statue Looks Like It's This Spacebound Bugdroid
After Google took a deep dive into Android 14 at I/O this year, the big question isn't what new features will be in the update. With all the new features revealed, the biggest question mark remaining was what the official Android 14 statue would look like. Last year's sculpture definitely looked modern, but this time it looks like Bugdroid is headed into space.
The statue was photographed on Google's Mountain View campus with a software engineer standing by (via Mishaal Rahman), and the photo shows the Space Bugdroid as tall as a real person. While it has yet to reach its final location outside of the Android offices next to the Googleplex, there is reason to believe that this is in fact the official mascot of Android 14. Rahman also says that during the excavation, he found a 3D model of the astronaut. . mascot, which appeared about a year ago.
If you're wondering why the bride is dressed as an astronaut, there's a good reason for that. The logo Google uses for Android 14 is mostly taken from the Apollo 14 mission patch. Given the inspiration, it makes sense that Bugdroid would appear to be stomping on craters on the moon.
Now that Google is running the fourteenth version of Android, it's understandable that it needs to update the old statues.
However, Android 14 looks more like a tweak-focused update than a major overhaul. Taking a page from an iOS book, PIN-protected lock screens no longer require users to press the Enter key to confirm. Even if the design of the operating system does not change drastically, the visual changes are enough to make working with it even more pleasant.
The second beta version of the annual software update was released yesterday, during which numerous bugs were fixed. The beta is also open to more phones, including Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Nothing.
If the final version of Android 14 arrives at the same time as previous versions, we could see a release in late spring before the launch of the Pixel 8 and Pixel Watch 2 series.
