HIGHLIGHTS
- Android 13 Developer Preview 1 is available for download via system images.
- Google has included a system photo picker to Android 13. Android 13 is known as "Tiramisu," as visible in the settings.
Compatibility with Android 13 Developer Preview 1
Google said in a blog post that Android 13 Developer Preview 1 is now available for the Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a (5G), Pixel 5, Pixel 5a 5G, Pixel 6, and Pixel 6 Pro. Notably, the Pixel 3 series is incompatible with the Android 13 Developer Preview since it can no longer get new Android versions or security upgrades. The Pixel 3a series is in the same boat. The Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are likewise incompatible with the Android 13 developer preview, since both devices will approach the end of software support in May.
Downloadable system images for all eligible devices are now available. Alternatively, the first developer preview of Android 13 may be loaded on a PC using Android Studio's Android Emulator. Google has also made Generic System Images (GSIs) available for wider testing.
It is vital to note that the Android 13 Developer Preview 1 release is designed just for developers and not for end users. As a result, it is recommended that you only download it on a separate device.
Android 13 release date
Along with the announcement of the newest developer preview, Google has highlighted the Android 13 release roadmap to assist developers in keeping their apps ready by the time the new operating system is offered to users. The chronology is provided below.
- Android 13 Developer Preview 1 is scheduled for February.
- Android 13 Developer Preview 2 is scheduled for March.
- Android 13 Beta 1 will be released in April.
- Android 13 Beta 2 is set to be released in May.
- June is the release date for Android 13 Beta 3.
- July is the release date for Android 13 Beta 4.
Google may have a release candidate after the last beta release in July to evaluate all of the fundamental parameters before releasing Android 13 to users. However, we can anticipate Android 13 to be released as an update, at least for Google Pixel phones, and to be accessible to device manufacturers as early as August. This is one month earlier than the regular September publication date.
Features of Android 13
Unlike Android 12, which provided a number of UI modifications, Android 13 appears to improve on the experience introduced by the previous iteration. The latest Android update also aims to improve user privacy and security while also increasing developer efficiency to improve app experiences.
With privacy in mind, Android 13 has a system photo picker that allows users to share certain photographs and videos with apps while protecting their other media assets. The new picture picker is described by Google as a standard and optimised approach for users to safely share both local and cloud-based photographs.
Android already features a document picker that allows users to share certain documents with apps without granting the app access to all media assets on the device. Through the picture picker, this has been expanded to photographs and movies.
Apps will be able to access shared photographs and videos using the photo picker APIs without requiring any permissions to see all media assets. The experience will be extended to more Android users over time via Google Play system upgrades for smartphones running Android 11 and above (except the Android Go versions).
Interestingly, Apple already provides a similar experience on iOS 14 and subsequent versions, allowing users to grant applications access to only specific photographs and videos.
NEARBY WIFI DEVICES is a new runtime permission in Android 13 for apps that handle the device's Wi-Fi connections to nearby access points. This allows programmes to discover and connect to nearby Wi-Fi devices without granting them access to the user's location.
Google has now released themed app icons as part of Android 13. It simply extends Android 12's current Material You dynamic colour capability to allow users to customise app icons based on their wallpaper and other theme selections.
Developers must provide a monochromatic app icon with their apps in order for the system to modify the icon colours and appearance based on the system theme. This is comparable to how Google applications presently change their icons based on the theme you choose on an Android 12 smartphone.
Themed app icons are originally supported on Pixel devices, according to Google, but the company is working with device manufacturers to broaden the experience.
The other significant user-focused update introduced by Android 13 is per-app language settings. This will allow users to select a language other than the system language natively. Apps may now utilise a new platform API to specify or get the user's chosen language. To enhance the user experience, a comparable API will be included in the future Jetpack library.
Android 13 also includes the Quick Settings Placement API, which allows app developers to prompt users to add custom time to the list of active Quick Settings tiles. Without quitting the programme, a new system dialogue will open on the screen from which you may add the tile. This will also cut down on the steps you'd typically do when heading to the Quick Settings to add that specific tile.
Google has revealed that it has improved hyphenation speed in Android 13 by up to 200 percent in order to provide better text rendering. Hyphenation makes wrapped text simpler to understand and allows the interface to become more user-adaptive.
Graphic rendering in Android 13 is also intended to be improved over previous versions, as it includes support for programmable RuntimeShader objects, whose behaviour is defined using the Android Graphics Shading Language (AGSL). Developers will be able to use the new feature to add ripple effects, blur, and stretch overscroll to their apps.
To improve system-level experiences, Android 13 includes Core Libraries that are aligned with the OpenJDK 11 LTS release. The Core Library modifications will be gradually made accessible to devices running Android 12 and above via Google Play system upgrades.
Google is also extending Project Mainline, which aims to assist offer faster software upgrades directly through Google Play. It will enable the business to deliver new features such as picture picker and OpenJDK 11 to customers on previous versions of Android via updates to existing modules rather than changing the complete operating system.
Android 13 incorporates Android 12L developments and continues to optimise app experiences for big screen devices as as tablets, foldables, and Chromebooks.
Developers will also benefit from improved testing and debugging support in Android 13, which includes toggles to force-enable or disable certain modifications inside the Developer settings.
Some of the early Android 13 features are accessible to developers via the first preview, while others are scheduled to be released later.
Google has disclosed the name of its upcoming Android version, in addition to the new experience. It's strange, especially when we consider the historical data after the introduction of Android 10 in 2019, when Google removed all public-facing identities.
According to 9to5Google, Android 13 is codenamed Tiramisu, and the title can be found in the Android version settings. It had previously been speculated as the name for the future Android version, although this has not been officially verified.
Dave Burke, Google's Vice President of Engineering for Android, stated last year that Android 12 was codenamed "Snow Cone." However, the name was not visible in the options menu.
