At this time we’re pushing the Android 13 supply to the Android Open Supply Undertaking (AOSP) and formally releasing the most recent model of Android. For builders, Android 13 is targeted on our core themes of privateness and safety in addition to developer productiveness, making it simpler so that you can construct nice experiences for customers. We’ve additionally continued to make Android an excellent higher OS for tablets and enormous screens, supplying you with higher instruments to reap the benefits of the 270+ million of those gadgets in use the world over. You may learn extra about Android 13 for customers in our Key phrase weblog submit
Android 13 is rolling out to Pixel gadgets beginning right now. Later this yr, Android 13 may even roll out to extra of your favourite gadgets from Samsung Galaxy, Asus, HMD (Nokia telephones), iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Sony, Tecno, vivo, Xiaomi and extra.
As all the time, we thanks for the suggestions you’ve shared, and we recognize the work you’ve finished to make your apps suitable with right now’s launch. Your assist and contributions are what make Android an ideal platform for everybody!
What’s in Android 13 for builders?
Right here’s a have a look at a few of what’s new in Android 13 – be certain that to take a look at the Android 13 developer web site for particulars on the entire new options.
Developer productiveness and instruments
Themed app icons – Android 13 extends Materials You dynamic coloration to all app icons, letting customers opt-in to icons that inherit the tint of their wallpaper and different theme preferences. All of your app wants to produce is a monochromatic app icon and a tweak to the adaptive icon XML. Extra right here.
 |
| Themed app icons adapting to wallpapers colours and darkish theme (left). |
Per-app language preferences – Android 13 makes it simpler to assist multilingual customers who wish to use your apps in a language that’s completely different from the system language. Android now gives a typical “App language” Settings panel for apps which have opted-in, and you’ll name a brand new platform API to get or set the consumer’s most well-liked locale at runtime, serving to to scale back boilerplate code and enhance compatibility. Extra right here.
 |
| Per-app languages in Settings |
Improved textual content assist – Android 13 consists of textual content and language enhancements that assist you to ship a extra polished expertise. Quicker hyphenation optimizes hyphenation efficiency by as a lot as 200% so now you can allow it in your TextViews with nearly no affect on rendering efficiency. Textual content conversion APIs make looking and autocompletion sooner when utilizing phonetic lettering enter for languages like Japanese, Chinese language, and others. Android 13 additionally improves line heights for non-latin scripts (corresponding to Tamil, Burmese, Telugu, and Tibetan), eliminating clipping and making them simpler to learn. Extra right here.
 |
| Improved line peak for non-Latin scripts in apps focusing on Android 13 (backside). |
Shade vector fonts – Android 13 provides rendering assist for COLR model 1 (spec, intro video) fonts and updates the system emoji to the COLRv1 format. COLRv1 is a brand new, extremely compact, font format that renders shortly and crisply at any measurement. For many apps this may simply work, and the system handles every part. Extra right here.
 |
|
COLRv1 vector emoji (left) and bitmap emoji. |
Fast Settings Placement API – For apps that present customized Fast Settings tiles, Android 13 makes it simpler for customers to find and add your tiles. Utilizing a brand new tile placement API, your app can now immediate the consumer to straight add your customized Fast Settings tile in a single step, with out leaving your app. Extra right here.
Programmable shaders – Android 13 introduces programmable RuntimeShader objects, with conduct outlined utilizing the Android Graphics Shading Language (AGSL). You need to use these shaders to create ripple, blur, stretch, and related superior results in your apps. Extra right here.
Media controls derived from PlaybackState – For apps focusing on Android 13, the system now derives media controls from PlaybackState actions, offering a richer set of controls which might be constant throughout telephones and pill gadgets and align with different Android platforms corresponding to Android Auto and Android TV. Extra right here.
 |
|
Android 13 media controls are constant on telephones and tablets. |
Bluetooth LE Audio – Low Vitality (LE) Audio is the next-generation wi-fi audio constructed to allow new use instances like sharing and broadcasting audio to family and friends, or subscribing to public broadcasts for info, leisure, or accessibility. It’s designed to make sure that customers can obtain excessive constancy audio with out sacrificing battery life, and lets them seamlessly swap between completely different use instances. Android 13 provides built-in assist for LE Audio, so builders can use the brand new capabilities on suitable gadgets. Extra right here.
MIDI 2.0 – Android 13 provides assist for the brand new MIDI 2.0 commonplace, together with the power to attach MIDI 2.0 {hardware} by way of USB. This up to date commonplace presents options corresponding to elevated decision for controllers, higher assist for non-Western intonation, and extra expressive efficiency utilizing per-note controllers. Extra right here.
OpenJDK 11 updates – Android 13 Core Libraries now align with the OpenJDK 11 LTS launch, with each library updates and Java 11 programming language assist for app and platform builders. We plan to deliver these Core Library adjustments to extra gadgets by way of Google Play system updates, as a part of an ART module replace for gadgets working Android 12 and better. Extra right here.
Predictive again gesture – Android 13 introduces new APIs that permit your app inform the system that it’ll deal with again occasions upfront, a follow we name the “ahead-of-time” mannequin. This new strategy is a part of a multi-year effort that will help you put together your app to assist the predictive again gesture, which is on the market for testing on this launch by way of a developer choice. Extra right here.
Constructed for tablets
Android 13 extends the 12L replace that we launched earlier this yr, and it delivers an excellent higher expertise on tablets. You’ll discover options like an enhanced multitasking taskbar, extra large-screen layouts and optimizations in system UI and apps, improved compatibility modes for apps, and extra. We’re persevering with to take a position to provide the instruments it’s worthwhile to construct nice experiences for tablets in addition to Chromebooks and foldables. You may study extra about the best way to get began optimizing for big screens, and you should definitely try our massive screens developer sources.
 |
| Multitasking on tablets with Android 13. |
Privateness and safety
Photograph picker and APIs – A brand new system photograph picker now provides customers a typical, privacy-protecting strategy to share native and cloud-based pictures. Photograph picker extends Android’s long-standing doc picker and makes it simple for customers to share particular pictures and movies with an app, with out giving the app permission to view all media information on the gadget. Photograph picker gives a devoted expertise for pictures and movies and consists of APIs for apps to entry the shared media information. The photograph picker expertise is now accessible to customers who obtain Google Play system updates, on gadgets (excepting Go gadgets) working Android 11 and better. Extra right here.
 |
Photograph picker lets customers share particular pictures and movies with an app. |
 |
| Notification permission dialog in Android 13. |
Close by gadget permission for Wi-Fi – Android 13 introduces the NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES runtime permission for apps that handle a tool’s connections to close by entry factors over Wi-Fi. The brand new permission is required for a lot of commonly-used Wi-Fi APIs and allows apps to find and hook up with close by gadgets over Wi-Fi with out additionally needing to amass the placement permission. Extra right here.
Granular permissions for media file entry – Photograph picker is our beneficial answer for user-friendly, permissionless sharing of pictures and movies, however for apps that haven’t moved to photograph picker but or for audio use instances, Android 13 provides new granular media permissions. These new permissions substitute the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission and supply entry to particular sorts of media information, together with pictures, video, or audio. We extremely suggest shifting your app to photograph picker if doable; in any other case, use the granular media permissions when focusing on Android 13. Extra right here.
 |
| Requesting permission to entry audio information. |
Developer downgradable permissions – Beginning in Android 13, apps that now not require permissions beforehand granted by the consumer can use a new API to downgrade the permissions. By eradicating unused permissions, your app can present that it’s utilizing the minimal permissions wanted, which may enhance consumer belief. Extra right here.
Safer exported Intent filters – Android 13 applies stricter guidelines when delivering express intents to exported intent filters in one other app that’s focusing on Android 13. For intents that specify actions, the system now delivers the intents to the exported part provided that the intent matches the receiver’s declared <intent-filter> parts. Extra right here.
Efficiency for apps
Android 13 improves efficiency and effectivity for all apps by way of updates to the ART runtime. We plan to deliver these enhancements to extra Android customers by way of Google Play system updates, as a part of our ongoing ART module updates for gadgets working Android 12 and better.
Improved rubbish assortment – A brand new rubbish collector based mostly on the Linux kernel characteristic userfaultfd is coming to ART on Android 13 gadgets in an upcoming Google Play system replace. The brand new rubbish collector eliminates the learn barrier and its mounted overhead per object loaded, decreasing reminiscence stress and resulting in as a lot as ~10% discount in compiled code measurement. It’s extra environment friendly at GC-time as nicely, since pages are freed as compaction progresses. Total, the brand new rubbish collector helps to avoid wasting battery, keep away from jank throughout GC operations, and defend apps from low-memory kills.
Optimizations all through ART – In Android 13, ART makes switching to and from native code a lot sooner, with JNI calls now as much as 2.5x sooner. We’ve additionally reworked the runtime’s reference processing to make it principally non-blocking, which additional reduces jank. We’ve uncovered a brand new public API, Reference.refersTo(), which is beneficial in reclaiming unreachable objects sooner, and we’ve made the interpreter sooner by optimizing class/methodology lookups. Lastly, ART now performs extra byte-code verification at set up time, avoiding the expense of verification at runtime and protecting app startup occasions quick. Extra right here.
Get your apps prepared!
Now with right now’s public launch of Android 13 to AOSP, we’re asking all Android builders to end your compatibility testing and publish your updates as quickly as doable, to offer your customers a easy transition to Android 13.
To check your app for compatibility, simply set up it on a gadget working Android 13 and work by way of the app flows searching for any practical or UI points. Evaluation the Android 13 conduct adjustments for all apps first, to deal with areas the place your present app may very well be affected. Listed below are a number of the prime adjustments to check:
- Notifications runtime permission – Ensure you perceive how this new permission works along with your app’s notifications, and plan on focusing on Android 13 (API 33) as quickly as doable to assist assist customers. Extra right here.
- Clipboard preview – Be certain your app hides delicate knowledge in Android 13’s new clipboard preview, corresponding to passwords or bank card info. Extra right here.
- JobScheduler prefetch – JobScheduler now tries to anticipate the following time your app will likely be launched and can run any related prefetch jobs forward of that point. Should you use prefetch jobs, take a look at that they’re working as anticipated. Extra right here.
Keep in mind to check the libraries and SDKs in your app for compatibility. Should you discover any SDK points, attempt updating to the most recent model of the SDK or reaching out to the developer for assist.
When you’ve revealed the suitable model of your present app, you can begin the course of to replace your app’s targetSdkVersion. Evaluation the conduct adjustments for apps focusing on Android 13 for this, and use the compatibility framework to assist detect points shortly.
Pill and large-screens assist
With Android 13 bringing a greater expertise to tablets, be certain that your apps look their greatest. You may take a look at large-screen options by establishing an Android emulator in Android Studio, or you should utilize a big display gadget from our Android 13 Beta companions. Listed below are some areas to observe for:
- Taskbar interplay – Test how your app responds when seen with the brand new taskbar on massive screens. Be certain your app’s UI is not lower off or blocked by the taskbar. Extra right here.
- Multi-window mode – Multi-window mode is now enabled by default for all apps, no matter app configuration, so be certain that the app handles split-screen appropriately. You may take a look at by dragging and dropping your app into split-screen mode and adjusting the window measurement. Extra right here.
- Improved compatibility expertise – in case your app isn’t optimized for tablets but, corresponding to utilizing a hard and fast orientation or not being resizable, verify how your app responds to compatibility mode changes corresponding to letterboxing. Extra right here.
- Media projection – In case your app makes use of media projection, verify how your app responds whereas taking part in again, streaming, or casting media on massive screens. Make sure to account for gadget posture adjustments on foldable gadgets as nicely. Extra right here.
- Digicam preview – For digicam apps, verify how your digicam preview UI responds on massive screens when your app is constrained to a portion of the display in multi-window or split-screen mode. Additionally verify how your app responds when a foldable gadget’s posture adjustments. Extra right here.
You may learn extra concerning the pill options in Android 13 and what to check right here.
What’s subsequent?
Android 13 is rolling out to Pixel gadgets beginning right now.
Should you’re at the moment enrolled within the Android Beta program, you’ll get the Android 13 closing launch and stay enrolled to obtain ongoing Beta updates for Android 13 characteristic drops, beginning later this yr. Should you’d wish to choose out of ongoing Beta updates with no need to wipe your gadget, simply go to the Android Beta web site and choose out after you get the Android 13 closing launch and earlier than taking the primary beta for Android 13 characteristic drops.
System pictures for Pixel gadgets are accessible right here for handbook obtain and flash, and you may get the most recent Android Emulator system pictures by way of the SDK Supervisor in Android Studio. Should you’re searching for the Android 13 supply, you may discover it right here within the Android Open Supply Undertaking repository beneath the Android 13 branches.
Thanks once more for taking part in our program of early previews and Betas! We’re wanting ahead to seeing your apps on Android 13!
Java and OpenJDK are logos or registered logos of Oracle and/or its associates.