Android 13’s first developer preview has just been released and it included new features of upgraded theming options and privacy, new language controls, and, back-end updates.
However, these early previews are meant for developers rather than end-users.
Android 13 is expanding the dynamic app icons to all apps rather than just Google’s and the themed icons feature lets app icons take on a colour tint that compliments your wallpaper so long as app developers supply a compatible monochromatic app icon.
The feature is coming first to Pixel devices, but Google says it’s working with other manufacturers to release it more widely.
Changes have also been made to how Android handles permissions and security.
A new photo picker will let users share photos and videos with an individual app without the app needing permission to see all the photos you have on your device. Google plans to eventually bring this feature to all phones running Android 11 and up.
Furthermore, new Wi-Fi permission will allow apps to discover and connect to Wi-Fi points without needing location permissions, and language preferences will now have the option of being set on a per-app basis (handy for multilingual users).
Google says that it intends to release Android 13’s developer previews over the course of February and March and transition to beta releases around April.
It expects Android 13 to be stable by around June or July, ahead of an official release later in the year.
