In February, Google launched the first Android 13 Developer Preview, ahead of the expected dates and setting the path for its new operating system. Today, the company is holding its Google I/O 2022, Google’s most important software event. The company has taken the opportunity to highlight some of the new features coming to Android 13, as well as some relevant changes coming to the platform.
Android 13 and the big change in design language
Android 13 has a great prominence: Material You. This is the design language that follows the path of Material Design and comes mainly to allow new color palettes based on our wallpaper. This color palette not only applies to the launcher icons, but to the accent color of the entire system: notification bar, menus, native apps, etc. Of course, it will be necessary that the manufacturer wants to implement and work under this design line, and the depth of the new design in the system will depend on the customization layer.
Similarly, it will have significant improvements in terms of security and privacy, with the biggest change in the permissions system in the history of Android, now being able to control sensitive permissions in a couple of taps and without even going into settings. New permissions are also introduced, such as ‘Music and other audio files’, ‘Photos and videos’ permission, ‘Nearby devices’, and ‘Files and documents’ permission. The aim is that we can have even more control over our devices, and keep the behavior of apps in check.
‘Photo Picker’ is another of the star features of Android 13 that Google wanted to highlight at its I/O. It is an option that allows you to share the photos you want in the Google Photos app, without giving access to the entire album. Thus, the app can only have information about the photos we have selected.
Android 13 also comes with different languages for apps. You can choose, app by app, the language they will have. This could only be done through the settings of the application itself if it allowed it, but now it will be a native function of the system. They also want to boost RCS messaging, working with operators to turn ‘Google Messages’ into something more similar to ‘iMessage’. All end-to-end encrypted, lossless file sending, and a conversation experience more worthy of a chat app than a simple SMS app.
The system has been revamped for tablets, with applications redesigned to work on the tablet format, something we have been asking for for years. These are all the main new features, to date, of the different versions of Android 13.
- New photo selector
- Nearby device permission for Wi-Fi:
- Quick Settings settings
- Themed icons
- Language preferences per application
- Notifications permission
- Quick Tap to activate the flashlight
- Mute mode disables haptic vibrations
- Pixel Launcher supports multiple screens
- New notification permission
- Developer downgrade permissions
- New security and privacy settings
- Integrated QR reader
- Active apps accessible from quick settings
- New text conversion API
- Unbundled multimedia permissions
- New clipboard menu
- Visual changes to the playback widget
Which devices will be compatible with Android 13?
All Google Pixels starting with the Pixel 4 will be compatible with the beta versions of Android 13. Similarly, Google has already announced the availability of its system for other manufacturers, such as Realme, ASUS, Lenovo, Nokia, OnePlus, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi.
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