Android 13 is the thirteenth major release and the 20th version of Android, the mobile operating system developed by the

Open Handset Alliance The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is a consortium led by Google that develops the Android (operating system), Android mobile operating system. Its member firms included HTC, Sony, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung Electr ...

led by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

. It was released to the public and the

Android Open Source Project Android is an operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen-based mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android has historically been developed by ...

(AOSP) on August 15, 2022. The first devices to ship with Android 13 were the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. , 18.03% of Android devices run Android 13, making it the second-most widely-used version of Android, behind Android 14 at 35.5%. This is the oldest Android version supported with security source code.

History

Android 13 (internally codenamed Tiramisu) was announced in an Android blog posted on February 10, 2022, and the first Developer Preview was immediately released for the Google Pixel series (from Pixel 4 to

Pixel 6 The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are a pair of Android (operating system), Android phablet smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. They collectively serve as the successor to the Pixel 5. T ...

, dropping support for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a). It was released 4 months or so after the stable version of

Android 12 Android 12 is the Android version history, twelfth major release and 19th version of Android (operating system), Android, the mobile operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google. The first beta was released on May 18, ...

. Developer Preview 2 followed later, releasing in March. Beta 1 was released on April 26, 2022. Google released beta 2 during Google I/O on May 11, 2022. Two more beta versions were planned for release in June and July. Platform stability was reached in June, with Beta 3. The final release of Android 13 began on August 15 when the update was made available to Pixel phones and pushed to the

Features

Privacy

Android 13 includes several new features intended to enhance user privacy, both user-facing and developer-facing. A new media picker is added, which improves privacy by allowing users to choose which photos and videos apps have access to. Most apps have not implemented this picker yet. In addition, Android 13 does not allow app access to the "Android" system folder. A new permission, NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES separated the Wi-Fi and

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

permissions that were bundled into a single "Location" setting. This change means that apps can now be allowed to search for nearby devices and networks without needing to request access to broader navigational systems. Also, a new runtime permission feature is being added to apps sending non-exempt

notifications Notification may refer to: *Notification (Holy See), an announcement by a department of the Roman Curia *Casualty notification, the process of notifying relatives of people who have been killed or seriously injured *Death notification, the proces ...

which allows users to focus on notifications most important to them.

User experience

Apps are now required to request permission from the user before they are able to send notifications. Small changes to dialog windows such as the Internet toggle have been added, making them fit better with the design language. The media player has been redesigned, now using the album cover as a background, and including more user controls. The multiple users feature has been improved, with the added option of selecting which apps can be accessed by the guest user. App data is sandboxed for each user, so no information is shared.

New features

The number of active apps is now shown at the bottom of the notifications panel; a tap on it opens a detailed panel which lets the user stop each of them. The new Gabeldorsche Bluetooth stack is now enabled by default. Support for Bluetooth LE Audio and the LC3 audio codec, which enables receiving and sharing audio between multiple bluetooth devices simultaneously; it can also improve the audio quality and battery life of the connected devices, as long as they also support it. This version opens the support for third-party apps to use themed "

Material You Material Design (codename Quantum Paper) is a design language developed by Google in 2014. Expanding on the "cards" UI that debuted in Google Now, Material Design uses more grid-based layouts, responsive animations and transitions, padding, and ...

" icons. Long-pressing and dragging a notification will allow the notification to open in split screen view. This feature is available on phones as well as tablets. Android 13 also adds support for WiFi 7, which is intended to decrease latency, buffering, lag and congestion. As of Beta 2, the Pixel Launcher includes a new "unified" search bar, which is able to provide search results from the internet as well as local apps and activities. It seems that Google will be expanding the capabilities of this search tool in future releases. Android 13 allows users to change the language for a specific app, rather than doing so for the entire software. One instance of this feature is changing the language in the YouTube app from

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

Tweaks

Split Screen mode now persists through app changes, meaning it is possible to use other apps and the phone launcher, and split screen apps will stay paired together in the Overview menu. Animations have been improved, notably the fingerprint scanner glow on the Pixel 6 series. Overflow notifications on the lock screen also are housed in a dynamically sized pill rather than a bar, and the 2-line stacked clock is slightly smaller. The app label font has been changed in the Pixel Launcher, and subtle haptics have been added throughout the user experience. The Android version has been changed to "Tiramisu" in settings and the Quick Settings panel. As of Developer Preview 2, "Tiramisu" is replaced with "13". The unified search bar includes new smoother animations and transitions. Many of the changes are from Android 12.1 "12L", such as the dock displayed on large screens, and other improvements for large format devices. These are mainly intended for foldables and tablets, but they can be enabled on phones by changing the DPI settings.

Platform

Android 13

ART Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

was updated with a new

garbage collector A waste collector, also known as a garbage man, garbage collector, trashman (in the U.S), binman or dustman (in the UK), is a person employed by a public or private enterprise to collect and dispose of municipal solid waste (refuse) and recycla ...

(GC) utilizing the

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

''userfaultfd''

system call In computing, a system call (syscall) is the programmatic way in which a computer program requests a service from the operating system on which it is executed. This may include hardware-related services (for example, accessing a hard disk drive ...

. It reduces memory pressure, compiled code size, jank, and reduces the risk of killing apps because of low memory during GC. Other changes improve app startup and improve performance. Because of the Mainline project, Android 12 ART will also be updated.

Notes

References

External links

Android 13
– Official website for users
Android 13 on Android Developers
– Official website for developer information {{Portal bar, Internet Android (operating system) versions 2022 software