Though it looks like Android 12 has solely simply arrived, we’re possible just some weeks away from Android 13 showing in developer preview kind. In years previous, the primary preview builds of recent Android releases have dropped round February or March. So even with Android 12L nonetheless in improvement, it is time to look forward to Android 13 — the discharge that’ll ultimately energy the perfect Android telephones of 2023.
The late-2022 launch of Android might land as early as August, if particulars dug up by code sleuths are to be believed. And with Google having simply utterly overhauled its design language by means of Materials You, it is unlikely we’ll see many main visible modifications in Android 13. However that does not imply there will not be loads of new options to sit up for. Quite the opposite, with fewer improvement sources centered on Android’s UI, Android 13 may very well be a fairly feature-packed launch. Early leaks already level to genuinely helpful options like per-app language settings.
We’re certain to study extra as Android 13 approaches launch, however till then, we have rounded up our high 5 hopes for the following model of the working system. So here is what we’re hoping to see from Android because the platform celebrates its 14th birthday.
1. Floating home windows and higher multitasking
Android cellphone and pill producers like Samsung have provided floating window help in some kind for greater than 5 years. So it is time for inventory Android’s multitasking to evolve and provides customers extra management over the best way they use their apps. A floating window characteristic would make plenty of sense on tablets and foldables, constructing on the work already underway for Android 12L. Because it’s achieved up to now, Google ought to borrow liberally from among the greatest producer skins. Oppo’s ColorOS has provided freeform floating home windows for greater than a yr, with the newest ColorOS 12 launch managing to make this characteristic work comfortably and really feel intuitive on average-sized smartphones just like the Discover X2 and X3 sequence.
As split-screen multitasking turns into extra in style on foldable telephones, Google ought to attempt to make it faster and simpler to hop between app pairs. As Samsung has provided for years, a approach to pin explicit combos of apps to the taskbar (or the same shortcut bar) would make plenty of sense.
2. A extra customizable Materials You
Materials You in Android 12 was a very good begin, however there’s nonetheless extra Google might do to assist make your most private computing machine much more private. System-wide help for icon packs can be one — these have been supported by numerous different producers, however not by Google straight within the inventory OS. And automated icon theming, presently in beta greater than 4 months after steady Android 12 was launched, has room to enhance too. We might prefer to see extra icons supported, and an API to allow app builders to simply match their branding right into a Materials You-themed icon.
Extra granular management over the Materials coloration palette can be a welcome change, too. There are only some dozen palettes provided by Android 12 on Pixel telephones proper now, lots of them pretty muted. Positive, choosing complementary colours is not as straightforward as simply arbitrarily selecting them from a coloration palette. However, we predict Google may very well be providing much more alternative in terms of colours in Android 13, and early leaks recommend Google may very well be engaged on simply that.
3. A greater Google Uncover
The Google Uncover feed — the information feed on the leftmost house display screen panel of most Android telephones — is criminally underused. Having began life as Google Now virtually a decade in the past, this area as soon as confirmed off well timed data playing cards based mostly in your location, the time of day, your calendar, and different elements. Proper now, although, that data has been break up out into different areas, just like the Google Assistant’s Snapshot display screen and the “‘At A Look” widget on Pixel telephones.
An instance of how this premium smartphone actual property may very well be higher utilized might be seen within the latest leak of an deserted sensible lock display screen prototype lately leaked by Android Authority. An extension of “At A Look,” these screens would’ve been populated with issues like sensible house controls when at house, or transit and loyalty card particulars when out and about.
There isn’t any motive this could not be mixed with content material discovery and the perfect bits of Snapshot to deliver again a very helpful Uncover feed to future Android 13 gadgets.
4. Extra candy treats!
Google made a tough pivot away from Android’s “candy deal with” nicknames with Android 10 — though inner codenames like “Queen Cake” (Android 10), “Pink Velvet Cake” (Android 11) and “Snow Cone” (Android 12) have ultimately leaked on-line. (Android 13 is reportedly “Tiramisu,” for those who had been questioning.)
The candy deal with names made Android releases enjoyable in a approach that the dry numbered releases from Android 10 simply have not fairly matched. For the typical fanatic who does not observe the technical trivia of each new construct, the dessert names and their related Bugdroid mascots come to personify new platform variations.
Google had a number of good causes for switching to a numbered launch schedule for latest Android releases, not least avoiding confusion in non-English talking areas. (What’s extra, it would be contending with Android V, W, X, Y and Z in just some brief years.) However we nonetheless can not help hoping Android 13’s launch will likely be formally accompanied by a statue of a robotic holding the aforementioned spongy Italian dessert.
5. Extra stability at launch
In comparison with the typical Android model, Android 12 had a reasonably tough public beta and a later public launch than we would anticipated. And on Google’s Pixel telephones, particularly, it was comparatively buggy up till the newest January software program replace. It is doable this was because of the sheer quantity of modifications launched in Android 12 — which was probably the most in depth Android replace in years — or the impression of Covid-19 on the event cycle, and even teething issues with Google’s customized Tensor processor. Regardless of the root trigger, we would hope for a extra steady day-one launch when Android 13 comes round.
The basic jankiness of early Android 12 builds had a knock-on impact on the broader ecosystem. Samsung’s One UI 4 inherited a Pixel glitch that messed with background media playback on apps like YouTube. And OnePlus needed to pull its replace as a consequence of show-stopping bugs — although admittedly that model has its personal software program challenges because it seems to combine its OxygenOS platform into mother or father model Oppo’s ColorOS system.
A minimum of Google will not be utterly overhauling Android’s system UI this time round, so we’re optimistic that Android 13 will likely be a considerably extra steady launch.