After Google’s deep dive into Android 14 at this year’s I/O, the burning question isn’t what new features will land in the update. With all major new functionality revealed, the biggest question mark remaining was how Android 14’s official statue would look. Last year’s statue sure resembled a butt, but this time around, Bugdroid looks like it’s headed to space.
The statue popped up at Google’s Mountain View campus with a software engineer taking a picture right next to it (via Mishaal Rahman), and from the photo, it looks like the space-bound Bugdroid is just as tall as a real person. While it has yet to make its way to its final location outside the Android offices near the Googleplex, there’s reason to believe this is indeed the official Android 14 mascot. In his digging, Rahman also says he found a 3D model of the astronaut mascot which came out about a year ago.
If you’re wondering why the mascot is dressed up like an astronaut, then there’s a good reason for that. The logo Google has been using for Android 14 heavily borrows from the Apollo 14 mission patch. Given the inspiration, it only makes sense that the Bugdroid looks like it’s stepping on craters on the moon.
Now that Google is at the fourteenth edition of Android, it’s understandable that it had to repair its older statues.
Android 14 is shaping up to be an update that is more focused on refinement than overhaul, however. Taking a page out of the iOS book, lock screens protected by a PIN will no longer require users to hit enter to confirm. Even if the operating system’s design isn’t changing drastically, there are just enough visual tweaks to make the experience all the more enjoyable.
The second beta for the yearly software refresh launched yesterday, squashing numerous bugs along the way. The beta also opened up to more phones including Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Nothing.
If the final build of Android 14 drops around the same time as previous versions, we could be looking at a late summer launch, which could precede the release of the Pixel 8 series and the Pixel Watch 2.
