Android 13 launched — Here are the new features
Google launched its Android 13 software update on Monday, offering several new features, including extended app colour theming, per-app language settings, and better privacy controls.
Notably, the company bucked a trend where it typically rolled out its annual update with the release of its new flagship Pixel smartphones.
This year’s upcoming Google smartphones — the Pixel 7 series — are only anticipated to launch in October 2022.
The first significant visual change in Android 13 is the expansion of Google’s Material You feature, which synchronises themes and colours on the phone to match the user’s wallpaper.
Android 13 lets users customise non-Google app icons to use the feature, making the home screen more cohesive and customised to the user’s style.
The update also comes with a helpful feature for users who speak multiple languages — the ability to assign specific languages to individual apps while keeping the primary phone system language separate.
There is also a new media player that automatically adapts its look based on the music or podcast a user is listening to.
“For example, when you’re listening to music, the media player spotlights album artwork and has a playback bar that dances as you progress through a song,” Google explained.
With regards to privacy improvements, Android 13 will let users choose to only allow apps to access specific photos and videos instead of their entire library.
In addition, Android 13 will automatically clear data from your clipboard history after a period to minimise the risk of unwanted access to sensitive information by rogue apps.
Android 13 will require explicit permission for apps to send notifications, rather than allowing it by default as in previous releases of the mobile operating system.
Among the other significant updates in Android 13 are:
- Further customisation for Bedtime Mode with wallpaper dimming and dark theme.
- Spatial Audio added for supported headphones that enable head tracking.
- Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio standard enabled, offering lower latency and broadcasting to multiple devices simultaneously.
- Taskbar on tablets lets users see all their apps at a glance and drag and drop any app in their library into split-screen mode.
- Android tablets will register palm and stylus pen touches separately.
- HDR video support on third-party camera apps.
- New media output switcher
- Braille displays for Talkback.
New multi-device features such as streaming messaging apps directly to a Chromebook to send and receive messages from the laptop or copy content between Android phones and tablets will also roll out soon.
Android 13 launched for Pixels on Wednesday and will become available on devices from Samsung, Asus, HMD (Nokia phones), iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Sony, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi later this year.
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