Hi , if you don't know me, I'm Mishaal Rahman, the guy who wrote that absurdly long that was posted to this subreddit recently. I'm grateful to anyone who read it, but I realize that its length is a bit daunting for many people. With Android 13's release on the horizon, I decided to put together a summary just for y'all.

Below you'll find my curated list of changes in Android 13 that I think users like you will care about/should be aware of. Each item in the list links to the relevant section in my article for those of you who want the full details, but I'll also provide a summary under each item for a quick tl;dr. I've roughly ordered the list by features users will care about most followed by more obscure features, and yes, you may not care about everything in this list. Still, there's a lot that's new in Android 13, so I hope you find a few things you're excited about!

However, note this list doesn't mention because that'd just make this post way too long. This post doesn't mention any changes specific to Android TV 13, features exclusive to Pixel, and changes that only app developers will care about. I'll make separate posts for those things on their respective subreddits.

With that out of the way, here's the list:

1. . Apps will now have to ask for permission before they can post a notification. Android 13 handles this permission differently based on what Android version the app targets and whether or not it's newly installed or it was already installed before updating to Android 13, but this generally makes notifications opt-in rather than opt-out. .

2. . Android 12 on Pixel phones introduced Google's dynamic color engine, which grabs a color from your wallpaper to generate 5 tonal palettes. Each of these tonal palettes is comprised of 13 tonal colors of various luminances but with undefined hue and chroma values. By adjusting these values, the color engine can create a bunch of new palettes, ie. "styles." tl;dr, Android 13 generates far more theme options based on your wallpaper, letting you pick even more colors than before to suit your style. Examples: , , , , , . (Although Google's dynamic color engine was initially exclusive to Pixels on Android 12, and is thus now available by default for all OEM builds. The ThemePicker enhancements that Google made are going to be open source, so OEM devices should be able to surface the same style options that Pixels do.)

3. . The colors generated by Android's dynamic color engine can be used to theme homescreen icons as well as in-app UI elements. If you enable the "themed icons" option in Wallpaper & Style (the location of this switch could be different on OEM devices), then apps with a monochromatic icon will have that icon be automatically themed according to the user's wallpaper. versus .

4. . The gesture nav pill is bigger and bolder than before. This is one of the first things you'll probably notice when booting up Android 13. I'm not sure if OEMs can/will tweak this, though. versus .

5. . Finally, you can set the language of an app without changing the language system-wide in settings. You can access the new per-app language preferences in Settings > System > Languages & input > App Languages. Only apps that have opted-in, however, will appear in this list.

6. . There's a new Photo Picker that will let you quickly pick images or videos to share with apps. Those apps then get temporary, read-only access to those media files. Apps have to add support for the Photo Picker, but this is quite easy to do and will be available through many libraries soon. Plus, the Photo Picker has already rolled out to Android 11-12L devices through a Google Play System Update, so expect to see a lot of apps add support for this in the near future.

7. . When you copy something to the clipboard, you'll see an overlay in the bottom left corner, similar to when you take a screenshot. This overlay previews what you copied and can show smart actions based on the clip content (open a URL in Chrome, navigate to an address in Maps, etc.) You can also tap the clip preview to launch a text or image editor. Screenshots: , ,

8. . Android 13 by default will show a Quick Setting tile to launch a QR code scanner. Which app provides the QR code scanner is technically configurable by OEMs, but I believe on devices with , it will be set up to launch a QR code scanner provided by Google Play Services.

9. . Android 13 revamps the media player experience. You'll notice the in the media output picker UI and the for all media sessions. There's one other change that I'll mention next. Do note that OEMs can customize the default style of notifications, so there's no guarantee the media player will look exactly the same across devices.

10. . Apps that target Android 13 may show a different set of media controls when running on Android 13. This is because Android 13 derives what media controls to show from the PlaybackState rather than the MediaStyle notification. If you see headlines about apps being updated to support Android 13 media controls, this is what they're referring to. of media controls on a phone and tablet running Android 13. As you can see, this change unifies how media controls are rendered across Android platforms.

11. . There's a new "active app" button in the notifications panel. Tap this and you'll see which apps currently have a foreground service running. For example, music players and fitness trackers need to use foreground services so Android won't kill them when they're running in the background. Before Android 13, these foreground services took up space in your notifications panel. Now, you can swipe them away and manage them from the "active app" list.

12. . The Game Dashboard that was originally exclusive to the Pixel 6 on Android 12 is coming to more devices on Android 13. Game Dashboard integrates achievements and leaderboards data from Play Games, has a shortcut to stream to YouTube, and has toggles to show a screenshot button, screen recorder button, DND button, and an FPS counter in the in-game floating overlay. You can also change the Game Mode to "battery saver" or "performance", but this depends on the game. This feature is provided by Google Play Services on Android 13 and has rolled out to several Pixel devices already, but I believe it will come to non-Pixels in the future.

13. . When a game hasn't added support for the Game Mode API, OEMs can apply game mode interventions to improve the performance of games. In Android 12, OEMs could use ANGLE instead of OpenGLES drivers or apply WindowManager backbuffer resize to reduce the GPU overload. In Android 13, there's a new FPS override intervention, but this one is opt in. When games opt in, the system can limit the FPS that the game runs at.

14. . Bluetooth LE Audio is the next-gen Bluetooth standard that promises lower power consumption, higher quality audio (compared to Bluetooth Classic Audio with SBC) with the new LC3 codec, standardized support for hearing aids, location-based audio sharing, and support for broadcasting audio to many devices. Android 13 ships with a Bluetooth stack that's certified for LE Audio Unicast support (Broadcast Audio is a WIP).

15. . Spatial audio provides an immersive audio experience by making it seem like the audio moves with your head. Android supports static spatial audio (where the sound seems to move as your head moves) and dynamic spatial audio (where the sound is stuck in space as your head moves). Static spatial audio works with any headphones, while dynamic spatial audio requires a headset with head tracking support. Android 12L added the needed for integration with third-party apps, while Android 13 introduces the head tracking protocol needed for dynamic spatial audio.

16. . Dark theme settings now has an option to have it turn on at bedtime. Your bedtime mode schedule is set by the Digital Wellbeing app.

17. . You can now control smart home devices from the Device Controls menu without unlocking your phone or tablet, but only if the app supports it. You first need to enable "control from locked device" in settings. .

18. . The "Privacy dashboard" added in Android 12 only shows sensitive permissions accessed in the last 24 hours, but on Android 13, it'll let you see that data from the last 7 days. This hasn't rolled out yet, though.

19. . Android 13 will automatically clear any clipboard item that's older than 1 hour. I know Gboard already does this, but not everyone uses Gboard.

20. . Any apps that don't use a custom transition animation seem to now use

21. . Android 13 has an API to control the flashlight brightness. Yes, OEMs like Samsung have offered this feature for years, but it wasn't standardized. The only catch is that the OEM has to implement support for this feature in the device's camera HAL.

22. . Android has a lot of privacy and security features strewn about in settings. Android 13's new unified Security & Privacy settings will make it easy to find each of these features. This is not exclusive to Pixel and will be coming to other devices via a Mainline update.

23. . There was a bug that made the color palette generated from vibrant wallpapers less vibrant than they should be. This was fixed in Android 13, and now the Vibrant theme is actually vibrant! versus .

24. . Android 12L , but it didn't have an app drawer, so you had to go to the home screen or recent apps to switch apps. Android 13 fixes this by adding an app drawer in the taskbar. (Yes, I know the Z Fold4 on 12L has an app drawer in the taskbar. Kudos to Samsung for addressing that.)

25. . Keyboard apps can declare that they support stylus handwriting. If so, then other apps can send a request to launch the keyboard app in its stylus handwriting mode. This is currently in testing and requires flipping a developer option called "stylus handwriting".

26. . Do you use a third-party file manager? Do you ever access files in the /Android/obb or /Android/data folders? Well I have bad news for you. You won't be able to use your favorite file managers to access those folders anymore, since the loophole they used to do was Yes, this was only possible through a loophole, since was designed to block apps from accessing those folders.

27. . Android's Accessibility and Notification Listener APIs are really powerful, and they're often abused by malware. Google has been cracking down on apps misusing APIs, and in Android 13, you'll be blocked from enabling an app's Accessibility Service or Notification Listener if you sideloaded that app from outside an app store. (There is a way to unblock access, fortunately.) The exact details are more complicated, so and the

28. . If you grant an app the ability to read system logs (ie. logcat), then in Android 13, you'll see a confirmation dialog every time that app tries to read those logs. If you use an automation app like Tasker, you might hate this change.

29. . Scoped Storage , making it so that the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission doesn't grant broad access to the external shared storage. Instead, it only let apps access media files (including audio, video, and image files) owned by other apps that reside in media store collections. In Android 13, apps targeting the release will have the request individual permissions to access audio files, video files, or image files owned by other apps, making media file access even more granular.

30. . There's a couple of enhancements to the multi-user experience in Android 13. First of all, there's a new for large screen devices. There's also a revamped UI for that even uses the new Photo Picker to . Next, there's an optional user profile switcher shortcut that , but it's disabled by default and intended for large screen devices. Finally, there's an optional user switcher shortcut , but again, this may only appear on tablets or other large screen devices.

31. . There's a new toggle to enable audio descriptions globally. Instead of toggling audio descriptions on a per-app basis, media apps can read the status of this global toggle and enable audio descriptions accordingly. This is more aimed at Android TV but is also applicable to handhelds.

32. . If you use the magnification feature to zoom in on text, you might like the new "follow typing" toggle that's been added. Toggling this will make the magnification area automatically follow the text as you type.

33. . If you use Android's color correction or one-handed mode feature and want quick access to toggle them, you can find new Quick Settings tiles to do so in Android 13.

34. . Android 12 added multi-instance support, making it possible to launch two instances of the same activity. For example, you can launch two Chrome windows in split-screen mode. Android 13 builds on this by letting you drag to launch a second instance of an activity when in split-screen view, provided the activity supports it.

35. . There's a new "turn screen on" permission that you can control in Settings > Apps > Special app access. It's quite self-explanatory.

36. . Apps can access data from heart rate, temperature, and blood oxygen level sensors through the BODY_SENSORS permission. Prior to Android 13, apps that had this permission could access that data while running in the background. Android 13 changes this by making those apps request a new permission called BODY_SENSORS_BACKGROUND.

37. . It's possible to track your location by collecting data on nearby Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices over time, which is why earlier versions of Android made it so apps had to hold location permissions to read Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scan results. That got annoying and confusing for users, so Android 12 decoupled Bluetooth APIs from the location permission. Android 13 follows up by decoupling Wi-Fi scanning from location permissions.

38. . This one is really complicated, but basically, Android 13 introduces a virtual machine framework through the new Virtualization module. Google is deploying a modified version of the Linux KVM feature (pKVM to be precise) as the hypervisor, with crosvm as the virtual machine manager. Google is using this for a fairly obscure purpose (isolated compilation), but devs have figured out how to . You'll need a device that supports pKVM, though.

39. . Camera2 is the underlying API used by camera apps, and it's getting some welcome additions in Android 13. First, it has added , so third-party camera apps can finally capture HDR video, provided the OEM exposed support for this in the camera HAL. There's a new API for preview stabilization, and viewfinder jitter has been reduced as well. These are more developer-focused improvements, but I thought you should be aware of them in case you use a third-party camera app.

40. . Text wrapping will be better in Android 13, as many apps will insert hyphens at the end of a line in a text field. Hyphenation seems like a simple matter, but before Android 13, it was . Android 13 improves hyphenation performance by as much as 200%.

41. . Apps that support Japanese can now wrap text by "Bunsetsu", which is the smallest unit of words that's coherent, instead of by character. This will make text more readable by Japanese users.

42. . Android 13 improves support for non-Latin scripts like Tamil, Burmese, Telugu, and Tibetan. The OS uses a line height that's adapted for each language, preventing clipping and improving the positioning of characters.

43. . MIDI 2.0 was introduced in late 2020 and adds bi-directionality so devices can communicate with each other to auto-configure themselves or exchance info on available functionality. It also makes controllers easier to use and adds 32-bit resolution support.

44. . Android 9 added encrypted DNS (ie. Private DNS) support through the DNS-over-TLS protocol. Android 13 adds support for the DNS-over-HTTP/3 protocol. This implementation offers better performance and security. Right now, Android's DNS-over-HTTP/3 implementation only allows using Google and Cloudflare as providers. This feature has been backported to all GMS Android devices running Android 11-12L and some Android 10 devices.

45. . Bluetooth vulnerabilities are pretty common, so in an effort to improve security, Android 13 turns Android's Bluetooth stack into an updatable Project Mainline module. This means it can be updated through Google Play like other modular system components. However, I'm not sure if this module will be mandatory yet for OEMs.

46. . In a similar vein, Android's ultra-wide band stack that was just introduced in Android 12 has been turned into a modular system component in Android 13. There aren't many devices yet with UWB hardware, but with this + the new , we should start seeing more apps make use of this hardware and Google expand UWB functionality in Android outside of OS updates.

47. . If you care about security, then you may be curious whether or not the binaries installed on your device match what's included in the official factory images. Android 13's binary transparency manager lets you easily get the VBMeta digest and build fingerprints of the partitions and modules on your device, so you can compare them with the official images. Note that while Google's the only one doing this so far (AFAIK), there's nothing preventing other OEMs from publishing their own transparency logs.

48. . Dynamic System Updates (DSU) makes it easy to install a Generic System Image (GSI) without overwriting your device's original installation or wiping your data. All you have to do is send an intent or just go to Developer Options to install one of Google's official GSIs through the "DSU Loader" setting. Android 13 makes GSI installation through DSU faster and more interactive.

49. . An update to the Android Runtime (ART) module will introduce a new garbage collection algorithm based on Linux's userfaultd feature, which may reduce the chance of the OS killing off background processes.

50. . There's a new API to dim the wallpaper, and it's being to darken wallpapers at bedtime so bright/vibrant wallpapers will be less blinding. versus .

51. . Of course, we can't forget this one. There's a new Easter egg in Android 13, because of course there is! Like usual, you access it by tapping repeatedly on the "Android version" field in Settings > About phone. When the clock appears, turn it so the hands point at 1:00. Surrounding the Android 13 logo will be a bunch of bubbles. Long press those to make a bunch of emojis appear. Long press again to cycle through the various emoji combinations.

Once again, I'd like to stress that this is NOT a comprehensive list of every feature in Android 13. I've intentionally left out things so as to not hit Reddit's character limit for self-posts. If you want a comprehensive list of new features in Android 13, , which will continue to be updated in the coming days and weeks.

If I got anything wrong when summarizing these features, let me know! Also, if you know of something in Android 13 that I haven't already documented in my deep dive (or that I got wrong in it), feel free to contact me! With how massive each Android OS update is, there's bound to be some things I missed.

Hi , I'm Mishaal Rahman. You may know me as the guy who wrote that or as the former Editor-in-Chief of XDA-Developers. I'm here because Android 13 will soon be released, and I figured not everyone here is clued in about what's included in the update. If you have a Pixel 4 or later, you'll have plenty of opportunity to play around with it soon if you haven't already enrolled in the beta. If you want a summary of what features to look out for, though, I've got you covered.

Below you'll find my curated list of changes in Android 13 that I think Pixel users like you should be aware of. I'll start out by listing 10 features that will likely only be used by Pixels (current and future) or at the very least will arrive first on Pixel, followed by 50 features that should be common across Android 13 devices.

Each item in the list links to the relevant section in my article for those of you who want the full details, but I'll also provide a summary under each item for a quick tl;dr. For the 50 non-Pixel-exclusive Android features, I've roughly ordered the list by features users will care about most followed by more obscure features, and yes, you may not care about everything in the list. Still, there's a lot that's new in the Android 13 update, so I hope you find a few things you're excited about!

Without further ado, here's my list:

1. . In Android 13 DP2, I discovered strings within the WallpaperPicker app that suggest you'll be able to "make your photo a 3D wallpaper that moves when your phone moves." The Android System Intelligence app is hinted at being as the system's wallpaper effects generation service, ie. it'll be what actually turns photos into 3D wallpapers. Keep in mind this feature isn't available yet, and it could never launch. This could be something Google is holding off until the Pixel 7 or maybe Pixel Tablet launch.

2. . Pixel devices have never had a way to switch between FHD and QHD resolution (on devices where that might make sense, like the XL/Pro models with QHD panels). Android 13, however, adds "screen resolution" settings that appear whenever a FHD and QHD display mode are exposed to Android. No Pixels right now do that, but there are rumors that the Pixel 7 Pro's panel will support FHD as well as QHD. The reason? Slightly better battery life when running graphically intensive apps.

3. . Android 13 is preparing a hub mode feature that will let users access apps across profiles. Right now if you want to access an app from another profile, you have to switch to that profile. With hub mode, you'd be able to access them from, say, the ambient display. There's not a lot that's known about this feature, and it could have been pushed back to a future release, but I'm thinking it's aimed at shared devices like what the upcoming Pixel Tablet seems to be (ie. a hybrid of a Nest Hub + an Android tablet). . .

4. . Another feature that's likely aimed at the Pixel Tablet (but also other shared/dockable devices) is the revamped screen saver experience in Android 13. You probably won't see this on your phone ever, but Android 13 can show complications (yes like the watch kind) on top of screen savers. There are complications for air quality, cast info, date/time, and weather. and

5. . Android 13 adds support for Media Tap To Transfer, a feature that will let you send media from one device (like a smartphone) to another (like a tablet). The actual media transfer will likely be handled by Google Play Services, and (I'm guessing) this feature could debut with the Pixel Tablet. Despite its name, the transfer protocol could be NFC, Bluetooth, UWB, or something else.

6. . Want to ditch your physical SIM card? Android 13 adds support for eSIM MEP, or Multiple Enabled Profiles, to let you simultaneously use two or more SIM profiles stored on a single eSIM chip. I don't know which Pixels will support this, sadly.

7. . This one is really complicated, but basically, Android 13 introduces a virtual machine framework through the new Virtualization module. Google is deploying a modified version of the Linux KVM feature (pKVM to be precise) as the hypervisor, with crosvm as the virtual machine manager. Google is using this for a fairly obscure purpose (isolated compilation), but devs have figured out how to with it. You'll need a device that supports pKVM, like the Pixel 6, 6 Pro, and I think 6a.

8. . You can finally mount an exFAT drive if you have a Pixel 6, 6 Pro, or 6a! This only works on Pixels with Linux 5.10+, but as for why it also requires Android 13,

9. . You know how the Nest Hub can detect your coughing or snoring? Remember about Google adding "built-in" snoring/cough detection for Pixel? That will likely make use of Android 13's Ambient Context API. There's already that Digital Wellbeing will make use of the API.

10. . When the Pixel Tablet comes out, I'm sure you'll want a way to take a phone call on it when your phone isn't on you. Through Android 13's cross-device calling API, this could be possible.

11. . Apps will now have to ask for permission before they can post a notification. Android 13 handles this permission differently based on what Android version the app targets and whether or not it's newly installed or it was already installed before updating to Android 13, but this generally makes notifications opt-in rather than opt-out. .

12. . Android 12 on Pixel phones introduced Google's dynamic color engine, which grabs a color from your wallpaper to generate 5 tonal palettes. Each of these tonal palettes is comprised of 13 tonal colors of various luminances but with undefined hue and chroma values. By adjusting these values, the color engine can create a bunch of new palettes, ie. "styles." tl;dr, Android 13 generates far more theme options based on your wallpaper, letting you pick even more colors than before to suit your style. Examples: , , , , , . (Although Google's dynamic color engine was initially exclusive to Pixels on Android 12, and is thus now available by default for all OEM builds. The ThemePicker enhancements that Google made are going to be open source, so OEM devices should be able to surface the same style options that Pixels do.)

13. . The colors generated by Android's dynamic color engine can be used to theme homescreen icons as well as in-app UI elements. If you enable the "themed icons" option in Wallpaper & Style (the location of this switch could be different on OEM devices), then apps with a monochromatic icon will have that icon be automatically themed according to the user's wallpaper. versus .

14. . The gesture nav pill is bigger and bolder than before. This is one of the first things you'll probably notice when booting up Android 13. I'm not sure if OEMs can/will tweak this, though. versus .

15. . Finally, you can set the language of an app without changing the language system-wide in settings. You can access the new per-app language preferences in Settings > System > Languages & input > App Languages. Only apps that have opted-in, however, will appear in this list.

16. . There's a new Photo Picker that will let you quickly pick images or videos to share with apps. Those apps then get temporary, read-only access to those media files. Apps have to add support for the Photo Picker, but this is quite easy to do and will be available through many libraries soon. Plus, the Photo Picker has already rolled out to Android 11-12L devices through a Google Play System Update, so expect to see a lot of apps add support for this in the near future.

17. . When you copy something to the clipboard, you'll see an overlay in the bottom left corner, similar to when you take a screenshot. This overlay previews what you copied and can show smart actions based on the clip content (open a URL in Chrome, navigate to an address in Maps, etc.) You can also tap the clip preview to launch a text or image editor. Screenshots: , ,

18. . Android 13 by default will show a Quick Setting tile to launch a QR code scanner. Which app provides the QR code scanner is technically configurable by OEMs, but I believe on devices with , it will be set up to launch a QR code scanner provided by Google Play Services.

19. . Android 13 revamps the media player experience. You'll notice the in the media output picker UI and the for all media sessions. There's one other change that I'll mention next. Do note that OEMs can customize the default style of notifications, so there's no guarantee the media player will look exactly the same across devices.

20. . Apps that target Android 13 may show a different set of media controls when running on Android 13. This is because Android 13 derives what media controls to show from the PlaybackState rather than the MediaStyle notification. If you see headlines about apps being updated to support Android 13 media controls, this is what they're referring to. of media controls on a phone and tablet running Android 13. As you can see, this change unifies how media controls are rendered across Android platforms.

21. . There's a new "active app" button in the notifications panel. Tap this and you'll see which apps currently have a foreground service running. For example, music players and fitness trackers need to use foreground services so Android won't kill them when they're running in the background. Before Android 13, these foreground services took up space in your notifications panel. Now, you can swipe them away and manage them from the "active app" list.

22. . The Game Dashboard that was originally exclusive to the Pixel 6 on Android 12 is coming to more devices on Android 13. Game Dashboard integrates achievements and leaderboards data from Play Games, has a shortcut to stream to YouTube, and has toggles to show a screenshot button, screen recorder button, DND button, and an FPS counter in the in-game floating overlay. You can also change the Game Mode to "battery saver" or "performance", but this depends on the game. This feature is provided by Google Play Services on Android 13 and has rolled out to several Pixel devices already, but I believe it will come to non-Pixels in the future.

23. . When a game hasn't added support for the Game Mode API, OEMs can apply game mode interventions to improve the performance of games. In Android 12, OEMs could use ANGLE instead of OpenGLES drivers or apply WindowManager backbuffer resize to reduce the GPU overload. In Android 13, there's a new FPS override intervention, but this one is opt in. When games opt in, the system can limit the FPS that the game runs at.

24. . Bluetooth LE Audio is the next-gen Bluetooth standard that promises lower power consumption, higher quality audio (compared to Bluetooth Classic Audio with SBC) with the new LC3 codec, standardized support for hearing aids, location-based audio sharing, and support for broadcasting audio to many devices. Android 13 ships with a Bluetooth stack that's certified for LE Audio Unicast support (Broadcast Audio is a WIP).

25. . Spatial audio provides an immersive audio experience by making it seem like the audio moves with your head. Android supports static spatial audio (where the sound seems to move as your head moves) and dynamic spatial audio (where the sound is stuck in space as your head moves). Static spatial audio works with any headphones, while dynamic spatial audio requires a headset with head tracking support. Android 12L added the needed for integration with third-party apps, while Android 13 introduces the head tracking protocol needed for dynamic spatial audio.

26. . Dark theme settings now has an option to have it turn on at bedtime. Your bedtime mode schedule is set by the Digital Wellbeing app.

27. . You can now control smart home devices from the Device Controls menu without unlocking your phone or tablet, but only if the app supports it. You first need to enable "control from locked device" in settings. .

28. . The "Privacy dashboard" added in Android 12 only shows sensitive permissions accessed in the last 24 hours, but on Android 13, it'll let you see that data from the last 7 days. This hasn't rolled out yet, though.

29. . Android 13 will automatically clear any clipboard item that's older than 1 hour. I know Gboard already does this, but not everyone uses Gboard.

30. . Any apps that don't use a custom transition animation seem to now use

31. . Android 13 has an API to control the flashlight brightness. Yes, OEMs like Samsung have offered this feature for years, but it wasn't standardized. The only catch is that the OEM has to implement support for this feature in the device's camera HAL.

32. . Android has a lot of privacy and security features strewn about in settings. Android 13's new unified Security & Privacy settings will make it easy to find each of these features. This is not exclusive to Pixel and will be coming to other devices via a Mainline update.

33. . There was a bug that made the color palette generated from vibrant wallpapers less vibrant than they should be. This was fixed in Android 13, and now the Vibrant theme is actually vibrant! versus .

34. . Android 12L , but it didn't have an app drawer, so you had to go to the home screen or recent apps to switch apps. Android 13 fixes this by adding an app drawer in the taskbar. (Yes, I know the Z Fold4 on 12L has an app drawer in the taskbar. Kudos to Samsung for addressing that.)

35. . Keyboard apps can declare that they support stylus handwriting. If so, then other apps can send a request to launch the keyboard app in its stylus handwriting mode. This is currently in testing and requires flipping a developer option called "stylus handwriting".

36. . Do you use a third-party file manager? Do you ever access files in the /Android/obb or /Android/data folders? Well I have bad news for you. You won't be able to use your favorite file managers to access those folders anymore, since the loophole they used to do was Yes, this was only possible through a loophole, since was designed to block apps from accessing those folders.

37. . Android's Accessibility and Notification Listener APIs are really powerful, and they're often abused by malware. Google has been cracking down on apps misusing APIs, and in Android 13, you'll be blocked from enabling an app's Accessibility Service or Notification Listener if you sideloaded that app from outside an app store. (There is a way to unblock access, fortunately.) The exact details are more complicated, so and the

38. . If you grant an app the ability to read system logs (ie. logcat), then in Android 13, you'll see a confirmation dialog every time that app tries to read those logs. If you use an automation app like Tasker, you might hate this change.

39. . Scoped Storage , making it so that the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission doesn't grant broad access to the external shared storage. Instead, it only let apps access media files (including audio, video, and image files) owned by other apps that reside in media store collections. In Android 13, apps targeting the release will have the request individual permissions to access audio files, video files, or image files owned by other apps, making media file access even more granular.

40. . There's a couple of enhancements to the multi-user experience in Android 13. First of all, there's a new for large screen devices. There's also a revamped UI for that even uses the new Photo Picker to . Next, there's an optional user profile switcher shortcut that , but it's disabled by default and intended for large screen devices. Finally, there's an optional user switcher shortcut , but again, this may only appear on tablets or other large screen devices.

41. . There's a new toggle to enable audio descriptions globally. Instead of toggling audio descriptions on a per-app basis, media apps can read the status of this global toggle and enable audio descriptions accordingly. This is more aimed at Android TV but is also applicable to handhelds.

42. . If you use the magnification feature to zoom in on text, you might like the new "follow typing" toggle that's been added. Toggling this will make the magnification area automatically follow the text as you type.

43. . If you use Android's color correction or one-handed mode feature and want quick access to toggle them, you can find new Quick Settings tiles to do so in Android 13.

44. . Android 12 added multi-instance support, making it possible to launch two instances of the same activity. For example, you can launch two Chrome windows in split-screen mode. Android 13 builds on this by letting you drag to launch a second instance of an activity when in split-screen view, provided the activity supports it.

45. . There's a new "turn screen on" permission that you can control in Settings > Apps > Special app access. It's quite self-explanatory.

46. . Apps can access data from heart rate, temperature, and blood oxygen level sensors through the BODY_SENSORS permission. Prior to Android 13, apps that had this permission could access that data while running in the background. Android 13 changes this by making those apps request a new permission called BODY_SENSORS_BACKGROUND.

47. . It's possible to track your location by collecting data on nearby Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices over time, which is why earlier versions of Android made it so apps had to hold location permissions to read Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scan results. That got annoying and confusing for users, so Android 12 decoupled Bluetooth APIs from the location permission. Android 13 follows up by decoupling Wi-Fi scanning from location permissions.

48. . Camera2 is the underlying API used by camera apps, and it's getting some welcome additions in Android 13. First, it has added , so third-party camera apps can finally capture HDR video, provided the OEM exposed support for this in the camera HAL. There's a new API for preview stabilization, and viewfinder jitter has been reduced as well. These are more developer-focused improvements, but I thought you should be aware of them in case you use a third-party camera app.

49. . Text wrapping will be better in Android 13, as many apps will insert hyphens at the end of a line in a text field. Hyphenation seems like a simple matter, but before Android 13, it was . Android 13 improves hyphenation performance by as much as 200%.

50. . Apps that support Japanese can now wrap text by "Bunsetsu", which is the smallest unit of words that's coherent, instead of by character. This will make text more readable by Japanese users.

51. . Android 13 improves support for non-Latin scripts like Tamil, Burmese, Telugu, and Tibetan. The OS uses a line height that's adapted for each language, preventing clipping and improving the positioning of characters.

52. . MIDI 2.0 was introduced in late 2020 and adds bi-directionality so devices can communicate with each other to auto-configure themselves or exchance info on available functionality. It also makes controllers easier to use and adds 32-bit resolution support.

53. . Android 9 added encrypted DNS (ie. Private DNS) support through the DNS-over-TLS protocol. Android 13 adds support for the DNS-over-HTTP/3 protocol. This implementation offers better performance and security. Right now, Android's DNS-over-HTTP/3 implementation only allows using Google and Cloudflare as providers. This feature has been backported to all GMS Android devices running Android 11-12L and some Android 10 devices.

54. . Bluetooth vulnerabilities are pretty common, so in an effort to improve security, Android 13 turns Android's Bluetooth stack into an updatable Project Mainline module. This means it can be updated through Google Play like other modular system components. However, I'm not sure if this module will be mandatory yet for OEMs.

55. . In a similar vein, Android's ultra-wide band stack that was just introduced in Android 12 has been turned into a modular system component in Android 13. There aren't many devices yet with UWB hardware, but with this + the new , we should start seeing more apps make use of this hardware and Google expand UWB functionality in Android outside of OS updates.

56. . If you care about security, then you may be curious whether or not the binaries installed on your device match what's included in the official factory images. Android 13's binary transparency manager lets you easily get the VBMeta digest and build fingerprints of the partitions and modules on your device, so you can compare them with the official images. Note that while Google's the only one doing this so far (AFAIK), there's nothing preventing other OEMs from publishing their own transparency logs.

57. . Dynamic System Updates (DSU) makes it easy to install a Generic System Image (GSI) without overwriting your device's original installation or wiping your data. All you have to do is send an intent or just go to Developer Options to install one of Google's official GSIs through the "DSU Loader" setting. Android 13 makes GSI installation through DSU faster and more interactive.

58. . An update to the Android Runtime (ART) module will introduce a new garbage collection algorithm based on Linux's userfaultd feature, which may reduce the chance of the OS killing off background processes.

59. . There's a new API to dim the wallpaper, and it's being to darken wallpapers at bedtime so bright/vibrant wallpapers will be less blinding. versus .

60. . Of course, we can't forget this one. There's a new Easter egg in Android 13, because of course there is! Like usual, you access it by tapping repeatedly on the "Android version" field in Settings > About phone. When the clock appears, turn it so the hands point at 1:00. Surrounding the Android 13 logo will be a bunch of bubbles. Long press those to make a bunch of emojis appear. Long press again to cycle through the various emoji combinations.

Once again, I'd like to stress that this is NOT a comprehensive list of every feature in Android 13. I've intentionally left out things so as to not hit Reddit's character limit for self-posts. If you want a comprehensive list of new features in Android 13, , which will continue to be updated in the coming days and weeks.

If I got anything wrong when summarizing these features, let me know! Also, if you know of something in Android 13 that I haven't already documented in my deep dive (or that I got wrong in it), feel free to contact me! With how massive each Android OS update is, there's bound to be some things I missed.

A13 may not be the next big thing update but more like a total fix what A12 failed to do. Just an opinion!

What A12 makes unique is the Material you. And the rest is a cluster of bugs that made the A12 experience worse. Not only did the A13 make the theme engine slightly better, the overall experience is pixel perfect again thanks to minute changes from smooth animations to better biometrics.

Upgraded my Pixel 6 to Android 13 yesterday and it is an amazing upgrade! Faster, smoother, fingerprint sensor is significantly better. Battery life has improved. Memory management is better than Android 12. Not sure why others are having some problems with it but for me this should have been the release when Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 pro came out last year. Really made a difference in my experience with it. I have had older Pixels and some Samsung devices. Android 13 has definitely made my Pixel 6 the best smartphone I've had.

My Pixel 6 in Germany doesn't show any available update on the update screen, tried connecting the power cable etc

Edit: Opting in to the beta immediately worked

Will opt out after it is installed, thanks

IMO this movie is the GOAT, from comedic timing to jokes that will hold up through the annals of history. (Edit to change anals to annals😅) Personal favorite line from it is "Round 2 Fleshlights!

any who, how about you folks?

("

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Hi Beta Pixel users,

We’re excited to that Android 13 will begin rolling out worldwide to Pixel devices starting today! THANK YOU for contributing your thoughts and experiences throughout the Beta and collectively reporting thousands of issues to help improve the quality of the release. Your engagement and support helped make a better platform for everyone!

What’s new?

Android 13 offers new capabilities for your phone and tablet, like extending app color theming to even more apps, language settings that can be set on an app level, improved privacy controls and more. For details, check out our and for consumers, and for developers.

How do I get Android 13?

Android 13 will begin rolling out to Pixel devices today and to Samsung, Asus, HMD, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Xiaomi, Realme, Sony, Sharp, Tecno, Vivo and more later this year.

If you have a Pixel 4, 4a, 5, 5a, 6, 6 Pro, and 6a series device enrolled in this year’s beta program, watch for the over-the-air (OTA) update over the next few days. As always, the system images for Pixel devices are for manual download and flash.

Note: Once you install the official Android 13 update, you will be able to unenroll from the Beta without wiping your device for a limited time until the Quarterly Platform Release (QPR) beta starts in September.

What’s next for the Android 13 Beta program?

Android 13 beta program continues with Quarterly Platform Releases (QPRs) starting in September that include feature drops, bug fixes, and improvements to stability and performance ahead of the public release. If you stay enrolled in the beta program, you will automatically receive these beta updates starting next month.

Important: If you prefer to leave the beta program and return to the public stable track of Android 13, you have a window of opportunity to unenroll without wiping your device. Please update and install the official Android 13 release and then before installing the first Android 13 QPR beta update in September. This will ensure your device will not get wiped during opt-out.

If you take no action and keep your Pixel device enrolled in the beta program, you will automatically get the next Android 13 beta updates starting in September. If you opt-out of the program after installing the September beta update, all user data on the device will get wiped per usual program guidelines until the next window of opportunity becomes available in December.

Tell us what you think

The and Android Beta Feedback app will close today and re-open in September when the Android 13 QPR1 beta starts.

Once you’ve updated to the official release, you can continue submitting feedback through the following channels:

• against Android 13 in the AOSP issue tracker

• Share your thoughts via our or official .

We will continue to post updates and information on the upcoming September Android Beta release here in this community.