This preview is based on the Android 13 public beta of the Pixel 6 Pro.
Android 13 Tiramisu is the latest sweet tooth payment in Google’s long-running series of software updates, and while the number “13” is usually associated with accidents, Android 13 is far from it. So far, it is shaping up as an evolutionary rather than revolutionary update to a mature and complete OS that is in software nirvana.
Android 13 release date
What is Android 13 called?
After a short period where Android only had a numeric designation, Android 12 Snow Cone somehow brought back the witty dessert names. Android 13 continues the tradition of bearing the internal codename “Tiramisu”, the lovely Italian dessert, and nothing is likely to stop Android fans from calling it that in the future.
Which phones will get Android 13?
When will my Android phone get Android 13?
Judging from our historical experience with wide Android rollouts and also taking into account the latest release from each manufacturer, we can predict when the best flagships from each manufacturer can get the upcoming version of Android, with the respective manufacturer’s skin on top, of Route.
Here’s when the manufacturers brought Android 12 to some of their best phones, and when they could release the respective Android 13 update:
| Manufacturer | Android 12 release | Android 13 release * |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung | December 2021 (Galaxy S Series), January 2022 (Galaxy Fold & Flip) | December 2022 * |
| OnePlus | December 2021 (OnePlus 9 Series), March 2022 (OnePlus 8 Series) | December 2022 * |
| Sony | March 2022 (1 III, 5 III, Pro-I) | March 2023 * |
| Xiaomi | February – March 2022 (Mi 11 Series) | February – March 2023 * |
What are the changes in Android 13?
The first is the fact that we are a bit too early in the Android 13 development, and Google is waiting for the Google I / O dev summit on May 11 to show all the new things that are finally coming into Android 13. Release of the beta version months in advance allows Google to quickly release the beta with all new features shortly after the official Android 13 announcement (or within a few days).
The second reason could be Android’s relatively mature state and the lack of any major new features. Yes, the lack of new features in the beta may well mean that there will also be no major features in the final release of Android 13. While this is less likely, there is still a chance.
On the interface front, we get a redesigned wallpaper selector that now lets you preview the available wallpapers directly from the home screen by long-tapping an empty space on the screen.
There are also several color combinations available for interface theme. As a reminder, Android introduced 12 smart interface themes that extract the key colors from the background and let you paint the backgrounds of the menus and change to specific colors, but the feature was a bit dull and gave you only four options. Now, in Android 13, you get up to 16 different combinations of pastel colors that apply to menus, backgrounds, theme icons and other accented interface elements.
These accented icons are one of the major new interface features. As Google puts it, “App icons in supported Android starters are toned to inherit the color of the user’s selected wallpaper and other themes.”
Another novelty is easier discovery of custom app-fast tiles. When an app offers custom quick tiles that can be placed in your quick tile menu, a relevant dialog will prompt the user to enable this functionality. It’s definitely a useful addition to Android, as many users are virtually unaware that they can add custom app tiles to their quick settings menus.
Multilingual users will be happy to know that Android 13 now has relevant APIs that allow separate apps to have a language other than the main language setting on their devices. For example, the Android device can be set to Hindi, but separate apps can be set to English.
A new photo picker is also one of the more important new features in Android 13. Inspired by iOS and aimed at improving privacy, the new photo picker lets users select specific photos when prompted by a specific app without giving access to their entire image library. This is in stark contrast to the common behavior of Android’s Photo Chooser, which by default gave apps access to all of your photos.
When it comes to privacy and permissions, there are plenty of improvements. Android 13 will finally allow for automatic revocation of permissions by either the system or the user. This would “kill” permissions previously granted to an app for one reason or another, and have the potential to significantly improve privacy and security.
Bluetooth LE audio is now also part of Android 13, making it possible to transfer high quality audio without affecting battery life as much.
Does Android 13 improve performance?
There’s a chance that the final build of Android 13 would have better performance than Android 12 has, but at the moment, at this stage of the beta, it’s hard to pinpoint any notable gains in terms of overall performance. On the contrary, due to the experimental state of Android 13, it is natural to expect diminished performance as well as many bugs.
Android 13: Dommen
At this point, there is little to be excited about other than the potential for big changes. Android 13 is becoming one of the evolutionary updates that silently improves things under the bonnet without repainting the entire vehicle. And quite frankly, there is probably no need for it at the moment – the Material You design language is still fresh and has plenty of potential ahead of it.
Android as a whole is in great shape at the moment, and the fact that no major new features are coming with the next version of the popular operating system can only attest to its maturity and relative wealth of features. Still, one has to hope that Google will once again twist things in such a way that an otherwise unexciting Android update would generate a necessary amount of hype.