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Lucky number Android 13: The latest features and updates

15 Aug, 2022

[[read-time]] min read

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Sameer Samat
VP of Product Management, Android & Google Play
The words “Android 13” appear next to a collage of Android devices including an Android phone, tablet, and Chromebook. The devices appear in front of a blue and green background and each device shows off a new Android 13 feature.

Android 13 helps ensure your devices feel unique to you – on your terms. It comes jam-packed with 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 even the ability to copy text and media from one Android device and paste it to another with just a click.

There are many reasons to love Android 13, but here are our top 13:

Personalized to you

  • A customized Android 13 homescreen with complementary colors and app icons that match the wallpaper shows personalization.
  • In Settings, App language for Google Maps is open on an unlocked Android 13 phone. Español (Estados Unidos) is checked under “Suggested.”
  • A music widget is highlighted, showing a Carrie Underwood song playing. The media playback bar wiggles up and down as the song progresses on the Android 13 device screen.

1. Android 13 comes with an evolved look and style that builds on Material You. You can customize non-Google apps to match your phone’s wallpaper theme and colors, making your home screen more cohesive and unique to your style.

2. For the many Android users who speak more than one language, we’ve added a top feature request. You can assign specific languages to individual apps so you can keep your phone’s system in one language, and each of your apps in a different language.

3. Android 13 features an updated media player that tailors its look and feel based on the music or podcast you’re listening to. For example, when you’re listening to music, the media player spotlights album artwork and has a playback bar that dances as you progress through a song. It even works for media played through Chrome.

4. Your wellbeing has been an important theme for Android – and getting enough sleep is key! Android 13 allows you to further customize Bedtime mode with wallpaper dimming and dark theme. These screen options help your eyes adjust to the dark when you're about to go to bed – and get back to sleep if you wake up and check your phone in the middle of the night.

Keeping you protected and secure

5. Gone are the days when you had to share your entire media library with your apps. In Android 13, you can select only the specific photos and videos they’ll need to access.

6. Prevent any unwanted access to your clipboard. If you copy sensitive data like your email address, phone number or login credentials on your device, Android will automatically clear your clipboard history after a period of time.

7. Android 13 helps keep your notifications under control and makes sure you only get the alerts you ask for. The apps you download will now need your explicit permission to send notifications, rather than being allowed to send notifications by default.

Helping your devices work better together

  • The user composes an email on an Android tablet with Gmail open. The user opens the full app library from the taskbar and drags Photos onto the screen in split screen mode with Gmail. With the screen split, the user hard presses on an image from the Photos app open on the right side of the screen and drags it into the email on the left side of the screen.
  • Android 13 phone has Messages open and a text appears asking “Hi Katherine, how’s it going?” Katherine responds “Good! Just got back from the grocery store”. The text bubble expands and transfers to a Chromebook screen. User responds to the text from the Chromebook saying, “Oh nice! Making anything tasty tonight?”
  • Android 13 phone screen with Nest Audio website. User hard presses on image of Nest Audio and taps “Copy.” Image animates to the Nearby Share icon. Nearby Share opens with “Looking for your devices'' pulsing, identifying Liza’s Tablet. The user taps Liza’s Tablet. The tablet animates in next to the phone. The tablet screen shows “Birthday Gift Ideas.” The Nearby Share icon animates in, and the user taps “Paste” to transfer the copied Nest Audio image from the phone screen to the tablet screen.

8. Feel like you’re in the middle of the action with Spatial Audio. On supported headphones that enable head tracking, Spatial Audio shifts the source of the sound to adapt with how you turn your head, giving you a more immersive listening experience on your Android phone or tablet.

9. When you’re on your laptop, you don’t want to break your workflow to respond to a chat from your phone. Soon, you'll be able to stream your messaging apps directly to your Chromebook so you can send and receive messages from your laptop.

10. Android 13 adopts Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio, a new Bluetooth audio standard that results in lower latency than classic audio. This allows you to hear audio that’s in better sync with the sound’s source, reducing delay. With Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio, you can also enjoy enhanced audio quality and broadcast audio to multiple devices at the same time.

11. You’ll soon be able to copy content — like a URL, picture, text or video — from your Android phone and paste it on your tablet. Or you can start on your tablet and paste to your phone.

12. Multitasking on your tablet is even easier with Android 13. With the newly updated taskbar on tablets, you can see all your apps at a glance and easily drag and drop any app in your library into split-screen mode.

13. Android tablets will register your palm and stylus pen as separate touches. So whether you’re writing or drawing on your tablet, you’ll experience fewer accidental stray marks that come from simply resting your hand on the screen.

Android 13 is packed with these and many other features, like HDR video support on third-party camera apps, an updated media output switcher, braille displays for Talkback and more. And it goes beyond the phone to give you a connected set of experiences across your other devices like your tablets and laptops.

Android 13 is rolling out to Pixel devices starting today. Later this year, Android 13 will also roll out to your favorite devices from Samsung Galaxy, Asus, HMD (Nokia phones), iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Sony, Tecno, vivo, Xiaomi and more.

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Support for some features will vary based on compatible apps and supported languages.

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