Android 13 Top Features And Developer Tools
Date: 3/23/2022

Google announced the release of the first developer preview of Android 13 on its Android Developer Blog on Feb 10th this year. The search giant’s new operating system update for Android devices (phones and tablets) will come with a variety of new changes and features.

Continue reading to know more about what you can expect from Android 13.

Top Security and Privacy Features for Android 13

According to Dave Burke, VP of Engineering, the need for greater security and privacy among users forms the core of the new menu of security and privacy features that will be introduced for Android 13.

One of the leading features in Android 13 is a new photo picker that will enable users to decide or limit the viewing of specific photos that an app can view. This new feature is similar to what Apple had earlier introduced in 2020 for its iOS 14 updates.

Photo picker is a major jump up from the earlier options of either allowing an app full access to a user’s photo library or completely restricting access. Now with the new photo picker users will be able to choose specific photos and videos and allow apps access to only these select photos. A new Google Play system update will enable Google to expand its photo picker feature to a wider range of Android devices. Once this happens then any device running on Android 11 or a higher operating system will feature their new API.

In addition to the photo picker, Android 13 will also feature a new privacy-centric option that will get rid of the requirement for apps to request user location access when trying to connect to a Wi-Fi network.

With this new feature anytime, a user sets up a smart home device, they will not be required to connect to the device's default Wi-Fi network for completing the setup process. With this new Android 13 feature, apps will look for and connect to Wi-Fi networks without having to go through the process of requesting location permissions.

New and improved privacy and security options will be announced as Google introduces future updates to Android 13. With that said, you can expect a wider choice of privacy, security, and user features when the search giant releases the first public beta of Android 13 in April.

Android 13 – Top Developer Tools

Android 13 comes packed with developer tools and improvements. One of the top developer tools is a new Quick Settings Placement API. This new tool is designed to enable an app to prompt users to include a quick settings tile directly as opposed to having to go to the quick settings panel and then from there to manually add the tile.

Google will also be introducing new third-party themed app icons to Android 13. Previously with Android 12, the Material You design could dynamically change the color of Google app icons and the color for other elements of the interface. Now with Android 13, an app will be able to change its icon color to align with the phone's wallpaper.

Among other updates and changes to be introduced with Android 13 are the following:

• Faster hyphenation.
• OpenJDK11 updates.
• Per-app language preferences.
• Programmable shades.

These updates are now available for developers to begin testing.

Key Aspects

Users can expect Android 13 to be a feature-rich offering. Google is focusing on adding more advanced features via new updates through their Google Play system. Bluetooth and Ultra-wideband modules have been added to the service to enable the expansion of these features for older Android phones. This will eliminate the need for older devices to use the latest version of Android OS.