Right this moment we’re pushing the Android 13 supply to the Android Open Supply Challenge (AOSP) and formally releasing the latest model of Android. For builders, Android 13 is concentrated 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 a fair 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 possibly can learn extra about Android 13 for customers in our Key phrase weblog submit
Android 13 is rolling out to Pixel gadgets beginning right this moment. Later this yr, Android 13 may also 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 at all times, we thanks for the suggestions you’ve shared, and we admire the work you’ve performed to make your apps suitable with right this moment’s launch. Your help and contributions are what make Android an amazing 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 website for particulars on all the 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.
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| Themed app icons adapting to wallpapers colours and darkish theme (left). |
Per-app language preferences – Android 13 makes it simpler to help multilingual customers who need to use your apps in a language that’s totally different from the system language. Android now offers a regular “App language” Settings panel for apps which have opted-in, and you may 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.
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| Per-app languages in Settings |
Improved textual content help – Android 13 contains textual content and language enhancements that show you how 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 virtually no impression on rendering efficiency. Textual content conversion APIs make looking out and autocompletion quicker 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.
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| Improved line top for non-Latin scripts in apps focusing on Android 13 (backside). |
Colour vector fonts – Android 13 provides rendering help 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 rapidly and crisply at any measurement. For many apps it will simply work, and the system handles every little thing. Extra right here.
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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 instantly 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 should utilize 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 can be constant throughout telephones and pill gadgets and align with different Android platforms corresponding to Android Auto and Android TV. Extra right here.
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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 data, 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 change between totally different use instances. Android 13 provides built-in help for LE Audio, so builders can use the brand new capabilities on suitable gadgets. Extra right here.
MIDI 2.0 – Android 13 provides help for the brand new MIDI 2.0 commonplace, together with the power to attach MIDI 2.0 {hardware} by USB. This up to date commonplace presents options corresponding to elevated decision for controllers, higher help 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 help for app and platform builders. We plan to deliver these Core Library modifications to extra gadgets by 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 prematurely, a apply we name the “ahead-of-time” mannequin. This new strategy is a part of a multi-year effort that can assist you put together your app to help the predictive again gesture, which is obtainable for testing on this launch by a developer choice. Extra right here.
Constructed for tablets
Android 13 extends the 12L replace that we launched earlier this yr, and it delivers a fair 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 you must construct nice experiences for tablets in addition to Chromebooks and foldables. You possibly can be taught extra about learn how to get began optimizing for giant screens, and you should definitely try our massive screens developer sources.
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| Multitasking on tablets with Android 13. |
Privateness and safety
Picture picker and APIs – A brand new system photograph picker now provides customers a regular, privacy-protecting approach to share native and cloud-based photographs. Picture picker extends Android’s long-standing doc picker and makes it simple for customers to share particular photographs and movies with an app, with out giving the app permission to view all media information on the machine. Picture picker offers a devoted expertise for photographs and movies and contains APIs for apps to entry the shared media information. The photograph picker expertise is now out there to customers who obtain Google Play system updates, on gadgets (excepting Go gadgets) working Android 11 and better. Extra right here.
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Picture picker lets customers share particular photographs and movies with an app. |
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| Notification permission dialog in Android 13. |
Close by machine 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 permits apps to find and connect with close by gadgets over Wi-Fi with out additionally needing to accumulate the situation permission. Extra right here.
Granular permissions for media file entry – Picture picker is our advisable resolution for user-friendly, permissionless sharing of photographs 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 exchange the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission and supply entry to particular varieties of media information, together with photographs, video, or audio. We extremely advocate shifting your app to photograph picker if potential; in any other case, use the granular media permissions when focusing on Android 13. Extra right here.
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| Requesting permission to entry audio information. |
Developer downgradable permissions – Beginning in Android 13, apps that 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 might enhance consumer belief. Extra right here.
Safer exported Intent filters – Android 13 applies stricter guidelines when delivering specific 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 updates to the ART runtime. We plan to deliver these enhancements to extra Android customers by 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 function 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 fastened 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 properly, since pages are freed as compaction progresses. General, the brand new rubbish collector helps to save lots of 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 quicker, with JNI calls now as much as 2.5x quicker. 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 quicker 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 retaining app startup occasions quick. Extra right here.
Get your apps prepared!
Now with right this moment’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 potential, to present your customers a easy transition to Android 13.
To check your app for compatibility, simply set up it on a machine working Android 13 and work by the app flows on the lookout for any purposeful or UI points. Assessment the Android 13 conduct modifications for all apps first, to concentrate on areas the place your present app could possibly be affected. Listed here are among the high modifications to check:
- Notifications runtime permission – Be sure to perceive how this new permission works along with your app’s notifications, and plan on focusing on Android 13 (API 33) as quickly as potential to assist help customers. Extra right here.
- Clipboard preview – Be sure that your app hides delicate knowledge in Android 13’s new clipboard preview, corresponding to passwords or bank card data. Extra right here.
- JobScheduler prefetch – JobScheduler now tries to anticipate the subsequent time your app will likely be launched and can run any related prefetch jobs forward of that point. If you happen to use prefetch jobs, take a look at that they’re working as anticipated. Extra right here.
Bear in mind to check the libraries and SDKs in your app for compatibility. If you happen to 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 printed the suitable model of your present app, you can begin the course of to replace your app’s targetSdkVersion. Assessment the conduct modifications for apps focusing on Android 13 for this, and use the compatibility framework to assist detect points rapidly.
Pill and large-screens help
With Android 13 bringing a greater expertise to tablets, be certain that your apps look their greatest. You possibly can take a look at large-screen options by organising an Android emulator in Android Studio, or you should utilize a big display screen machine from our Android 13 Beta companions. Listed here are some areas to observe for:
- Taskbar interplay – Examine how your app responds when seen with the brand new taskbar on massive screens. Be sure that 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 possibly can 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 set orientation or not being resizable, test 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, test how your app responds whereas taking part in again, streaming, or casting media on massive screens. Make sure you account for machine posture modifications on foldable gadgets as properly. Extra right here.
- Digicam preview – For digital camera apps, test how your digital camera preview UI responds on massive screens when your app is constrained to a portion of the display screen in multi-window or split-screen mode. Additionally test how your app responds when a foldable machine’s posture modifications. Extra right here.
You possibly can 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 this moment.
If you happen to’re at the moment enrolled within the Android Beta program, you’ll get the Android 13 last launch and stay enrolled to obtain ongoing Beta updates for Android 13 function drops, beginning later this yr. If you happen to’d prefer to decide out of ongoing Beta updates while not having to wipe your machine, simply go to the Android Beta website and decide out after you get the Android 13 last launch and earlier than taking the primary beta for Android 13 function drops.
System photographs for Pixel gadgets are out there right here for guide obtain and flash, and you will get the most recent Android Emulator system photographs by way of the SDK Supervisor in Android Studio. If you happen to’re on the lookout for the Android 13 supply, you may discover it right here within the Android Open Supply Challenge repository underneath the Android 13 branches.
Thanks once more for taking part in our program of early previews and Betas! We’re trying ahead to seeing your apps on Android 13!
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