The below knowledge article is intended to help provide important information to consider prior to transitioning from I-Series 4 (or earlier) devices to I-Series 5 

How to Manage a Mixed Fleet

• EloView or 3rd party MDMs are well equipped to simultaneously manage I-Series 4 and 5 devices in a mixed fleet, as well as devices that are on different versions of Android.
• Customers who use the EloCare OS 360 service can deploy updates to different models very easily.  Best practice would be to set up groups based on device type and/or OS version to ensure that the correct OS updates are deployed to the intended devices.
• However, if a ‘mismatch’ update is pushed accidentally (e.g. an I-Series 4 update pushed to an I-Series 5), the device will simply ignore it.  It’s impossible to push the wrong update and break the device in that way.

What is Different with Android 14

• Android 14 delivers several new features including enhanced PIN security, improved Android Credential Manager capabilities, as well as accessibility improvements.
  • Enhanced PIN Security | When using the Android UI, Android 14 strongly recommends using a 6-digit PIN rather than the traditional 4-digit PIN. A 4-digit PIN gives you 10,000 possible combinations; a 6-digit PIN boosts that to 1 million—making brute-force attacks 100× harder.
  • Credential Manager API | centralizes authentication across multiple login methods
    • Simplified login flow: All available sign-in options appear in a single, deduplicated list.
    • Passkey support: Native passwordless login across apps and websites—improves security and usability.
    • Admin control in Work Profiles: IT admins can approve which credential managers are allowed in the corporate environment—so credentials stay safe and centralized.
  • Accessibility Improvements | Android 14 includes both visual and audio improvements
• Added restrictions to permissions for access to camera, BT, or media files.
• IME keyboard cannot be used simultaneously on main and CFD displays (uncommon use case).

What are the Risks Migrating to Android 14

• The primary task is to validate that your software works on the new OS. Over time, Google tends to close security loopholes, update APIs that access data, and deprecate APIs.  These kinds of changes can cause software that is validated to work on Android 10 or 12 to encounter issues when running on Android 14.
• There are a few helpful tools that can be used to help determine whether your content will function smoothly on Android 14 or not:
  • https://developer.android.com/about/versions/14 : Platform release from Android Developer site that includes features and changes, test tools and migration checklist
  • https://sisik.eu/apk-tool : Third party tool (free) used to review important details about your APK such as minimum Android version, target SDK version, and more
  • https://www.browserstack.com/android-testing : Detailed online tool that can be used to test your APK using multiple different device types and Android versions