Android 13 is now making its rounds in the form of its first developer preview, which was released on Thursday.
While leaks have been available for the upcoming software since December, the new preview showcases what can actually be expected from the upcoming Android release. Many highlights include privacy and security features, new language controls, and an expansion to the Material You design language introduced in Android 12.
The photo picker API works similar to Android’s document picker by allowing users to select photos, without having to get permission to access other all media files on a device. This serves as a privacy measure on an Android smartphone as users can do directly from selecting either local and cloud-based photos to sending them.
Per-app language preferences was teased on the December leaks, but has now been further detailed in this developer preview. The feature allows users to set applications in a different language than the overall system language. The developer preview currently features a new API that works to set or get a user’s preferred language; however, there will be further work to expand the feature.
Android 13 is expanding on the Material You design language that was first introduced in Android 12 in introducing new themed app icons outside of the traditional Google apps. Users will be able to change all of their apps to a monochromatic icon design similar to Google’s Material You design language in accordance with the color of their wallpaper and other theme details.
Google said it is encouraging all developers make its icons compatible with the Android 13 feature and is collaborating with manufacturer partners to have themed app icons be native on more devices.
The Android 13 developer preview is currently available for Google devices including the Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6, Pixel 5a 5G, Pixel 5, Pixel 4a (5G), Pixel 4a, Pixel 4 XL, and Pixel 4. Users can install the preview by flashing a system image to any of those devices. For a non-Pixel device, users can install 64-bit system images with the Android Emulator in Android Studio.
More Android 13 developer previews are expected to release during February and March, after which beta released are expected to start rolling out around April. We might begin seeing the an Android 13 stable release in the June to July timeframe, before an official release in the fall. Android 12 released on October 4, 2021 for reference.
