Road To Android 13: The Progress So Far

Android 13 launch date is slated for next month. Android 13 developer previews started rolling out in February and beta releases followed in April and the final release is scheduled for September.

Android 13(Codename – Tiramisu) has a nice easter egg that gets activated when the hour and minute hand points to 1 pm (1300) and when you hold it down, the circle becomes an emoji with fourteen thematic character sets. The emojis range from Turtle King, Fruit, Flowers, Regular faces, Clocks, Flowers, Expressive faces, Monkeys, Zodiac, Outer space, Aquatic life, Hearts/Love.

Android 13: Features We Know So Far

Android 13 is a refinement of Android 12 with additional new features that we’ll talk about here.

Android 13 is bringing new Material You colour schemes and new cinematic wallpapers. The new OS comes with a selection of colour palettes ranging from tonal spot to vibrant, expressive and spritz. This gives users up to 16 new colour extraction choices from the wallpaper.

Another upgrade is that the Material You theme will now support more third-party apps as opposed to just supporting Google’s apps.

The ability to enable custom live wallpapers from images in your gallery is also coming to Android 13.

Android 13 is also refining how notifications are displayed. A new prompt will pop up and request permission for opt-in notifications.

Android 13 will feature a QR code scanner in the quick settings toggle that will also be available even when the phone is locked.

Android 13 will warn you of crooked apps that cause background battery drain.

UWB(Ultra-wideband) support is coming to Android 13 and will now let you use your phone like a car key plus more applications thanks to the added generic hardware abstraction layer the new OS will have.

Android 13 will ship with full support for Bluetooth Low Energy(LE) audio which means you’ll be able to stream the same audio quality but with low energy consumption. Another improvement is multi-stream support.

Android 13 is bringing a new look for the output picker and media player. And there’s a squiggly animation for media.

Android 13 will have an option to make the lock screen clock more subtle instead of taking over the screen real estate.

Android 13 is making it easier for gamers with a new feature that will let games temporarily boost CPU speed which means games will launch much faster.

Improved clipboard management is coming to Android 13. You can now view and change the contents of your clipboard. An additional privacy feature is that the clipboard will clear up after a certain time. Within the clipboard, Android 13 is bringing Nearby share shortcut.

Android 13 is bringing predictive back gestures which include the ability to preview your home screen.

The Privacy Dashboard is also getting neat updates too. Android 13 will feature a 7-day view on the dashboard and adds more context about how your data has been accessed and used.

Android 13 is also bringing a much thicker bar for gesture navigation.

What OEMs Are Doing With Their Respective UIs

Material You’s dynamic colour theming is expanding to other device manufacturers like TECNO, OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi, Realme, Samsung and more. As a mandate, Google is requiring third-party Android 12 builds with Google Mobile Services(HiOS, ColorOS, FuntouchOS, MIUI, Realme UI, OneUI and more) to support dynamic colour theming.

The UIs listed above feature Material You for their phones that run on Android 12. Transsion devices sadly don’t have this feature despite their devices running on Android 12 – so hopefully this mandate means their newer UIs will support some sort of dynamic colour theming.

Google

Google is bringing Android 13 to all of its Pixel devices including the Pixel 4 to the Pixel 6a.

OnePlus

OnePlus’ OxygenOS 13 will roll out to the OnePlus 8 all the way to the OnePlus 10T. Its Nord devices are also set for the upgrade and include the Nord 2 to the Nord CE 2 Lite.

OPPO

OPPO is set to launch ColorOS 13 later next week(August 18). Its flagships will get the update first including the Find X5 series and the foldable Find N. OPPO Reno 8 series will get the update in September followed by the Reno 7 series(4G and 5G), Reno 6 series and the Reno 5 series.

Samsung

OneUI 5 is coming with Android 13 and Samsung is already running a beta program for the Galaxy S22 series. OneUI 5 will be available for the Z Fold series right from the original fold to the Z Fold 4 – this also includes the Z Flip series too right from the original Z Flip to the Z Flip 4 too.

The S series will also get Android 13 including the S10 to the S21 FE. OneUI 5 will be available to the Note series(Note 10+ 5G to the Note 20 Ultra) and the A series too(A51 to the A71 5G).

Not to be forgotten is the Tab series and the devices in the list include the Tab S6 to the Tab S8 Ultra.

Realme

Android 13-based Realme UI 4 early access program started recently for the GT 2 Pro. The upgrade is slated for other devices including the realme 9, realme 9i all the way to the realme 8.

Xiaomi

MIUI 14 will come with Android 13. Xiaomi devices scheduled for the update include the just launched Xiaomi 12S, Redmi Note 11, POCO M3 and the Mix Fold 2.

The company is set to launch the Xiaomi 13 in November and will reportedly launch MIUI 14 then.

vivo

Like Xiaomi, vivo is reportedly also planning to launch Funtouch OS 13 in November too. vivo smartphones launching in early 2023 will ship with Android 13-based FuntouchOS 13 straight out of the box.

vivo phones eleigible for the update include the flaghsip X80 series to the X60 series oplus the vivo X Fold.

TECNO

Like tradition, TECNO is part of Android 13 beta program with the Camon 19 5G. We won’t see a TECNO phone run Android 13 until early 2023. TECNO is promising to update the Camon 19 and Camon 19 Pro and probably the camon 20 series to Android 13 early next year.