Google will be releasing the next version of Google’s mobile operating system i.e Android 13 later this year. The company is expected to introduce a bunch of new features in the upcoming Android update.
Currently, the upcoming operating system is currently in development. Google has already released the two developer preview of Android 13. In this article, we’ll look at the features we already know about, as the developer preview is out now.
Google also introduced Android 12L, an update to Android 12 last month. With 12L, Google has optimized the display for the home screen, lock screen, notification shade, device set-up screens, settings and beyond. Android 12L has been rolled out to Pixel phones as the March Feature Drop. The March feature drop includes features such as Live captions on Calls, night mode in Snapchat, text stickers, new widgets and more on the Pixel smartphones.
ALSO READ: Android 13 Developer Preview is out for Pixel devices
Android 13 Features: Multiple Enabled Profiles
Android 13 will introduce some key new features when announced later this year. One of the upcoming features is Multiple Enabled Profiles (MEP). Recently, Esper’s Mishaal Rehman spotted a new feature called Multiple Enabled Profiles (MEP) in the latest code of operating system. This feature will allow users of Android 13-powered smartphones to have dual SIM capability on a device with a single eSIM chip.
As of now, most smartphones have one or more physical SIM slots or an eSIM and physical SIM slot. Once implemented on a phone with a physical SIM card slot, this feature will allow the user to enable three mobile networks on the phone. Apart from Android devices, this feature might also have support for iOS, Windows, and macOS devices as well.
Photo Picker
Apart for this, the operating system will bring a new photo picker. This will allow users to share both local and cloud-based photos and videos securely, without needing to grant your app access to their entire media library.
Themed App Icons
Android 13 also brings new features and tools for developer productivity. This includes Quick Settings placement API. In addition, users can opt into themed app icons. The icons in supported Android launchers are tinted to inherit the coloring of the user’s chosen wallpaper and other themes.
Bluetooth LE Audio
The operating system also brings support for Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio. It will allow users to share and broadcast their audio to friends and family or subscribe to public broadcasts.
Nearby Wi-Fi Permission
Next, Android 13 introduces the NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES runtime permission for apps that manage a device’s connections to nearby access points over Wi-Fi. The new permission will be required for apps that call many commonly-used Wi-Fi APIs and enables apps to discover and connect to nearby devices over Wi-Fi without needing location permission.
Notification Permission
The operating system brings new runtime permission for sending notifications from an app: POST_NOTIFICATIONS. Apps will now need to request the notification permission from the user before posting notifications.
Other Features
Some other changes include faster hyphenation, per-app language preferences, programmable shaders and more. Lastly, Google is bringing improvements to App compatibility by updating more of Android through Google Play System updates so it reaches more users, even those on older versions of Android.