Friday, August 19, 2022

Android 13 Deep Dive

Much to my surprise, my Pixel 4a received an update to Android 13 this week. I was expecting the regular monthly security patch, which had been delayed, but instead, I got the full upgrade to the newest version of Android. 

Unlike the upgrade to Android 12, this one doesn't have a lot of immediately obvious changes. There are a few; for example, the media player now shows up on the lock screen, which is quite convenient. But most of the changes are buried in the menus. 

Based on first impressions, I thought that there weren't a lot of changes in this release, but I was wrong. The Android 13 Deep Dive, written by Mishall Rahman, is a HUGE document that lists all of the changes. I've skimmed through the sections listing the UI and Launcher changes and found a few things to tweak.

The deep dive is clearly written and although it is intended for developers, you can easily skip the really technical stuff. If you have a Google Pixel phone, in which case you may already have the upgrade, you'll want to have a look at this. 

Thanks to the excellent All About Android podcast for pointing this out. 

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