While all Android OEMs are working to bring Android 12 to their devices, Google has released the first developer preview build of Android 13. The new Android OS from Google comes with a new number, codename, and a lot of features. Read along and learn what's new in Android 13 DP1:

New Theming Options

android 13 theming options

Source: Android Blog

Android 12 launched with the new wallpaper-based color theming engine where the Android would pick colors from the wallpaper and apply it throughout the system. Android 13 builds more on it and now even app icons are themed. On Android 13, when you apply a new wallpaper, the system will not only apply colors to the whole Android OS but also app icons.

Developers just have to supply a compatible monochromatic app icon and the theming would work. Google says it's working with other manufacturers to release it more widely.

More Privacy Features

android 13 photo picker api

Source: Android Blog

Android 13 also brings a number of new privacy features. First and foremost is the new Photo Picker API. The new Photo Picker API will allow users to share photos and videos without allowing the app to see all the photos on your device. This is basically an extension of Android's Document picker that lets users a document without allowing the app to access all of the documents on the device. Google says it will bring this feature to all the devices with Android 11 and above through Google Play system updates.

In previous Android versions, if you had to connect to a nearby Wi-Fi device, you had to give location permission to the app even if it didn't use it. Android 13 finally splits these two permissions. Android 13 has a new NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES runtime permission that can request to connect with nearby Wi-Fi devices with the “neverForLocation” flag

New Developer Tools

android 13 quick settings tile

Source: XDA Developers

The new Android 13 DP1 comes with a number of features for developers:

  • Developers can now add a prompt to the app that would ask the users to add the app's quick settings toggle to the quick settings drawer.
  • As rumored before, Android 13 comes with a per-app language setting. Users can now set individual apps to display in another language that is different than the language of their phone's system.
  • Google also plans to deliver more updates via Google Play thanks to the doubled-down efforts in Project Mainline. For example, the photo picker API shown above will be delivered through the Google Play update rather than the Android update.
  • Android 13 also includes optimizations for large screen devices, such as tablets, foldables, and Chromebooks.

Android 13 Release Cycle

Android 13 release cycle

Source: Android Blog

Google has shared how it plans to roll out Android 13. As per the timeline shared, Google plans to start rolling out Android 13 Beta builds from mid-March. The company will then fine-tune the OS until the June of this year before rolling it out sometime in July-August.

Source: Google | Via: XDA Developers