Google Releases Android 13 Beta Earlier Than Expected—Here’s What’s New

Google has launched the fourth and final public beta of Android 13 today, allowing Android users to test the impending upgrade ahead of its official release. But, more crucially, the beta provides developers an early peek at upcoming changes so they can prepare their programs.

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About Android 13

Google has published the fourth and last public beta of Android 13 today, despite the fact that the actual release of Android 13 is only a few weeks away. In comparison, Android 12 was launched in October 2021, whereas Android 11 was introduced in September 2020.

Interestingly, compared to the difference between Android 11 and 12, the distance between Android 12 and 13 is less. Still, eager consumers have been anticipating this and may finally explore what it has to offer.

According to The Verge, there aren't many significant changes in this current release because Google achieved platform stability with the last beta. However, another round of fine-tuning ought to result in a more consistent experience.

Previous Android 13 betas had already included support for the new Bluetooth LE Audio specification, new app icon theming choices, a new picture picker to select which images an app may access, and a new permission to reduce unnecessary alerts. Android 13 also incorporates tablet improvements released with Android 12L, an incremental version featuring large-screen device optimizations.

Moreover, the Android Emulator and a release candidate build of Android 13 are included in today's update. Google achieved Platform Stability in Beta 3, which means that all app-facing surfaces, including SDK and NDK APIs, app-facing system behaviors, and limits on non-SDK interfaces, are final. Google says that Beta 4 will provide you with everything you need to finish your testing, including the most recent fixes and improvements.

In relation to last year's Android 12 upgrade, Android 13 brings fewer user-facing enhancements, which may be a good thing. Android 12 was a major upgrade to Google's mobile operating system that redesigned a lot of the UI and functionality set.

But as mentioned, it had a sloppy rollout with faults detected on devices from a variety of manufacturers. Hopefully, the lack of substantial changes in Android 13 means that the upgrading will go much more smoothly.

How to Test and Use The Newly Released Update

If you want to try out this new beta, which Google refers to as a "release candidate" for Pixel smartphones. You can simply head over to Google's developer site to find out how to install it. Just keep in mind that you'll need a Google or one of its partners' for compatibility.

For developers, Google advises you to review your smartphone running Android 13 Beta 4 and work through the app flows and search for any functional or UI problems. Examine the Android 13 behavior changes for all apps to identify places where your app may be impacted. Some of the most important improvements to test are runtime notification permission, clipboard preview, and JobScheduler prefetch.

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Written by Thea Felicity

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