By Dave Burke, VP of Engineering
Last month, we released the first developer preview of Android 13. Android 13 is built around our core themes of privacy and security, developer productivity, and support for tablets and large-screen devices. Today, we’re bringing you Android 13 Developer Preview 2, with more new features and changes for you to try out in your app. Your feedback will help us make Android a better platform for developers and users. Please share your feedback with us!
Ahead of today’s announcement, Android 12L feature updates were released to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) last week that will help you make the most of the more than 250 million Large-screen Android devices. To give you an insight into Android 13, tablets, and the developer productivity features we offer in Jetpack Compose, we’ve prepared a new #TheAndroidShow for you to check out here.
Android 12L features updated, now added to AOSP
Before we get into the developer preview, let’s review last week’s news: We’ve officially released the Android 12L feature update to AOSP and will be rolling it out to all supported Pixel devices in the coming weeks. Android 12L optimizes the Android 12 experience on tablets, including updates such as the ability for users to drag and drop apps into split-screen mode in a new taskbar, a new big-screen layout in notifications and lock screens, and an improved app compatibility mode. You can read the release blog for more information.
With Android 12L scheduled to be updated on Tablets and foldable devices from Samsung, Lenovo and Microsoft starting later this year, it’s time to get your apps ready. We strongly recommend testing your application in split screen mode with different window sizes, with different screen orientations, and checking for new compatibility mode changes (if applicable). Please visit the official documentation to learn more about Android 12L development.
The bottom line: Android 12L’s larger screen capabilities are also one of the foundations of Android 13, so you can develop and test on Android 13 because it covers the tablet audience running Android 12L. We see the larger screen as one of the key directions for Android’s future, and we’ll continue to invest in giving you more tools to help you build great experiences for tablets, Chromebooks, and foldable devices. You can learn more about how to start optimizing for the big screen through the official documentation and check out our big screen developer resources.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s new in Today’s Android 13 Developer Preview 2.
Privacy and user trust
People want trusted operating systems and apps to handle their most private and sensitive information and the resources on their devices. Privacy and user trust are at the heart of Android’s product principles. With Android 13, we will continue to focus on creating a more secure environment on devices and giving users more control to build a responsible, high-quality platform for everyone. Here’s what’s new in Developer Preview 2.
Notification permissions – To help users focus on the notifications that are most important to them, Android 13 introduces a new runtime permission for sending notifications from apps: POST_NOTIFICATIONS. Apps targeting Android 13 now require users to request notification permission before sending notifications. For applications targeting Android 12 or lower, the system will handle the upgrade process on your behalf. We will continue to optimize this process. To provide your users with more background information and control rights, we encourage you to set your target platform to Android 13 as soon as possible and apply for notification rights in your application. Please visit the official documentation for details.
△ Notification Permission dialog box in Android 13
Developers can degrade Permissions – Some apps may no longer require certain permissions previously granted by users to enable specific features or retain sensitive permissions from older versions of Android. In Android 13, we provide a new API that allows your application to protect user privacy by demoting previously granted runtime permissions.
More secure Export Context-registered receivers – In Android 12, we require developers to declare exportability against Intent receivers declared in the application manifest. In Android 13, we ask you to do the same for context-registered receivers: Add the RECEIVER_EXPORTED or RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED flag when registering receivers for non-system sources. This will help ensure that the receiver will not be broadcast by another application unless it intends to. Although this is not mandatory in Android 13, we recommend that you declare exportability as a first step to securing your application.
Developer productivity
With Android 13, we’re working hard to give you more tools to help you deliver a more refined experience and better performance to your users. Here are some updates from today’s developer preview.
Japanese Text Folding improvements – TextView can now fold text by phrase (stanza /Bunsetsu, the smallest semantic unit that sounds natural) or phrase, rather than by character. This will make the Japanese app a better reading experience. You can use android: in TextView lineBreakWordStyle = “phrase” to enable the fold line:
△ Comparison of Japanese text with phrase folding disabled (top) and enabled (bottom)
Improved line heights for Non-Latin texts – Android 13 uses line heights for each language, improving the display of non-Latin texts such as Tamil, Burmese, Telugu and Tibetan. The new line height prevents clipping and improves character positioning. All your application needs to do is set the target platform to Android 13 to get these improvements. Be sure to test your application when using the new line spacing, as the change may affect the user interface in non-Latin languages.
△ Line Height Improvement for Non-Latin text in Android 13 apps (Part 2)
Text conversion API – Users of languages such as Japanese and Chinese use pinyin input methods, which tend to slow down features such as search and autocomplete. In Android 13, apps can call a new text conversion API, making it faster and easier for users to find what they need. For example, previous searches required Japanese users (1) to type hiragana to indicate the sound of the search term, perhaps a place name or an application name (2) to convert hiragana characters into Kanji characters using the keyboard (3) to re-search using Kanji characters (4) to obtain search results. With the help of the new text conversion API, Japanese users can enter hiragana and immediately see search results for Japanese Kanji, essentially skipping steps 2 and 3.
Color Vector Fonts – Android 13 adds rendering support for COLR version 1 fonts (see specs and introduction video) and updates system emoticons to COLRv1 format. COLRv1 is a new, highly compact font format that renders quickly and clearly at any size. For most applications, this change is completely invisible and the system takes care of it automatically. Starting with Developer Preview 2, you can choose to use COLRv1 in your application. If your application does its own text rendering and uses system fonts, we recommend that you use COLRv1 and test emoticons for rendering. You can learn more about COLRv1 in Chrome’s announcement.
▽ COLRv1 vector emoji (left) and bitmap emoji
Bluetooth Low Power (LE) Audio – Low Energy (LE) Audio is the next generation of wireless audio designed to replace classic Bluetooth and enable new use cases and connection topologies. Users can share and broadcast their own audio with friends and family, or subscribe to public radio for information, entertainment or accessibility assistance. It is designed to ensure that users can receive high-fidelity audio without sacrificing battery life and seamlessly switch between use cases, something classic Bluetooth cannot do. Android 13 adds built-in support for low-power audio, so developers don’t have to do anything to get this new feature on compatible devices.
MIDI 2.0 – Android 13 adds support for the new MIDI 2.0 standard, including the ability to connect TO MIDI 2.0 hardware via USB. This updated standard offers several new features, such as higher controller resolution, better support for non-Western tones, and better expressiveness through a single note controller.
Application compatibility
When we release new versions of the platform, we prioritize application compatibility to make the experience of system updates faster and smoother. In Android 13, application-oriented changes are optional so you have more time to adjust and adapt, and we’ve updated tools and processes to help you get ready faster.
With the arrival of Developer Preview 2, we’ve been able to take a step forward with the Android 13 release and continue to improve overall stability, and now it’s time to try out new features and changes and send us feedback. We are particularly interested in feedback on the API and detailed information on how platform changes affect your application. Please head over to the feedback page to share your thoughts or report questions.
Now you can also start compatibility testing and determine what needs to be done next. We recommend scheduling these early in order to release compatible updates when Android 13 Beta 1 rolls out. There is no need to change the targetSdkVersion of the app at this time, but we recommend using the behavior change switch in the developer option to get a feel for how the optional changes in Android 13 will affect the app.
We will reach the platform stability milestone in June 2022, when all the application-oriented system behavior, SDK/NDK API and non-SDK listings will be finalized. At that point, you can complete final compatibility testing and release a fully compatible application, SDK, or development library. See the release schedule for details.
App compatibility switch in developer options
Start playing Android 13 now
Whether you want to try out Android 13’s features, test your apps, or submit feedback, you can start with this developer preview. Simply download and swipe the system image onto the Pixel 6 Pro / 6/5A 5G / 5/4A (5G) / 4A / 4 XL / 4 device to start using immediately. If you don’t have a Pixel device, you can use an Android emulator with a 64-bit system image in Android Studio Dolphin. For more extensive testing, we also provide GSI images. If you already have the previous preview installed on your Pixel device, updates will be automatically available via OTA, including later preview and Beta releases. Please visit the official documentation for details.
For full information on this release, visit the Android 13 developer website.
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