Android 13: the first developer preview has arrived

A developer preview has arrived of Android 13, the upcoming version of Google’s mobile operating system that promises to include several exciting new features. Let’s take a look at what’s included in this developer preview and how you can get your hands on it.

Introducing Android Pie

Android 9 Pie is the latest release of Android, and it’s available now for Google’s Pixel phones. This new version of Android includes a host of new features, including a redesigned interface, support for notch displays, and more. If you’re a developer, you can get started with Android Pie today by downloading the Android SDK. We’ve also published early drafts of our design guidelines to help you implement this update in your apps.

Notification Channels

Android’s notification system has been overhauled for Android Oreo, and one of the most significant changes is the introduction of notification channels. This new feature gives users much more control over the types of notifications they see.

For example, you can now mute all notifications from a particular app, or even block them entirely. The notification channel setting will also give users a quick overview of which apps are sending out what type of alerts at any given time. Users will be able to select which notification categories appear on their lock screen and in their status bar, so it won’t take up valuable space with stuff that isn’t important to them.

Slices

Android slices are a new way to surface rich, templated content in other apps. With slices, you can take complex content and break it down into bite-sized pieces that can be displayed outside of your app. For example, if you’re a travel app, you could show a slice of your content in the Google Search app when someone searches for flights to New York.

Adaptive Battery

Android’s battery management system is one of the most important parts of the operating system. The new Adaptive Battery feature in Android 13 can help improve your battery life by up to 30%. Here’s how it works:

When you install an app, Android will look at how often you use that app and how much battery it uses. Based on this data, Android will optimize battery usage for that app. It might decide to limit some background activity or adjust its CPU performance.

When you’re not using the app, Android will then gradually scale back CPU usage and reduce network activity over time to conserve power. And when you return to the app later, it’ll be right where you left off with a fresh charge waiting for you!

Background Limits

The Android team has been hard at work on the next version of Android, and we’re happy to announce that the first developer preview of Android 13 is now available! This new version includes a number of features and changes designed to help you get the most out of your devices, including Background Limits. Starting with Android 13, apps are more restricted in how they can run in the background for both foreground and suspended apps.

With Background Limits, users can control which apps can do what when running in the background; for example, an app could only update its content or download content over Wi-Fi when running in the background.

Navigation Keys

The three navigation keys are Back, Home, and Recent Apps. The Home button is a physical button on the front of your phone. The Recent Apps button is to the left of the Home button, and the Back button is to the right. Pressing any of these buttons will take you to the corresponding screen. For example, pressing the Home button will take you to the home screen. Pressing the Back button takes you back one step in your history, and pressing it twice takes you all the way back to the home screen.

Brightness Slider

The new brightness slider in Android 13 is a welcome addition for those of us who like to have more control over our screen brightness. The slider is located in the Quick Settings panel, and it gives you more granular control over your screen brightness than before. You can now set your screen brightness to any level between 0% and 100%.

New Wi-Fi features

Android 13 comes with a bunch of new Wi-Fi features that should make your life a little bit easier. For starters, there’s a new Wi-Fi slider in the Quick Settings panel that lets you quickly enable or disable Wi-Fi. There’s also a new auto-connect feature that will automatically connect you to free, open Wi-Fi networks when they’re available. Finally, Android 13 includes support for the latest WPA3 standard, which offers better security and performance than previous versions of Wi-Fi.