Google has just showcased Android 13 Tiramisu officially on stage at Google I/O 2022 in front of a live audience. The latest version of the most popular mobile OS has been available as a beta for months now, but it lacked its time under the spotlights.
Android 13 is shaping up to be an incremental evolutionary update that aims to push forward the Material You design language introduced last year, as well as ironing out the rougher edges attained with the new design. However, improved ecosystem synergy is also becoming an integral part of Android, and Google is seemingly betting hard on its core functionalities, like Search, Translate, Maps, and so on.
Here are some of key Android 13 features that got some time under the spotlights at Mountain View
- Themed icons– Android 13 scores the Themed Icons feature, which will extract the dominant color from your wallpaper, and paint any supported home screen icons accordingly. So far, the feature does work in the beta version of Android 13, but it only allows you to theme stock Google icons, and only on the home screen, not the app drawer.
- Color themes – There will be four new default color themes that will be available no matter of what wallpaper you choose. As a reminder, Android 12 introduced automatic theming feature that extracted the dominant colors of your wallpaper and allowed you to paint your interface in said colors.
- New media control widget – There’s a revamped and more colorful media control widget available on Android 13. It will be showcasing the album art more prominently, with a bit of sprinkle of color as well.
- Different language per app – Panlingual users will be happy to know that Android will finally allow them to select separate languages for apps, different from the default device language. For example, you will be able to have, say, a banking app in English, whereas your phone is set to Spanish, or vice versa. Currently, this feature is not yet available in the Android 13 beta.
- Improved Privacy – Android 13 scores multiple privacy improvements. For example, your clipboard will be automatically deleted after a predefined amount of time so that apps are prevented from seeing your clipboard history. A new, unified Privacy & Security menu in Settings will be brought to Android 13, combining all controls for your peace of mind. Aside from rating your current security, this new page will put useful tools at your fingertips and let you quickly take action should you need to. What’s more, apps will no longer ask you for certain permissions, like Wi-Fi scanning, but they’ll ask for permission to show you notifications, which was a long time coming.
- Improved tablet experience – Android 13 will be a cornerstone update for Android tablets, as it has some major exclusive features for tablets. An updated taskbar will make multitasking in split-screen mode easier. Android 13 on tablets will sport palm rejection by default, allowing you to easily rest your palm on the screen of the tablet while you’re using a stylus to draw or write without worrying of misidentification.
Of course, these aren’t the only new features that will grace Android 13 once it arrives on a Pixel near you. When will that happen? Google is seemingly prepping for a late August/early September launch of Android 13, which will be available on Pixel 4 and newer devices. By the end of the year, Android 13 should be available on the top Android flagships from Samsung, OnePlus, Motorola, and so on.
As a reminder, Android 13 is currently available as a public beta that anyone with a fairly new Pixel can try. Some of the new features that will eventually arrive in Android 13 are already available in the beta, but many aren’t, as usual. Android 13 is seemingly prepping for a late summer release, most likely in late August or early September.
Pixels will be receiving the new Android update first, but it will eventually trickle down to most current Android flagships – think Galaxies, OnePluses, and all the others.
