Google released the first Android 13 Developer Preview in February. After a month of testing Developer Preview and getting lots of detail about Android 13.
The company has announced the second developer preview, and it has some additional features and lots of improvements over the previous developer preview.
Developer Preview 2 will adjust some things for app developers, who will trickle down to end-users. Many of these are related to dev productivity, making app development and design much smoother.
Android 13 Developer Preview 2: What’s New
Some of the New features in Android Preview 2:
Notification permissions
Android 13’s notification permissions feature is a blatant copy of how notification permissions work on iOS. Android 13 will prompt you for permission to let an app send you notifications or not.
Bluetooth LE Audio
Bluetooth LE, or Low Energy, is the evolution of the universal wireless standard. Android 13 is adding support for LE audio, meaning that you can expect high-quality audio without as much energy expenditure. Bluetooth LE audio support also allows for seamless switching.
Non-English Text Conversion
This very simple change allows users to search phonetically and get results much faster.
Color vector fonts and MIDI 2.0
Android 13 adds support for COLR version 1, which is a compact font rendering format. It allows for quick and crisp text rendering. And Android 13 also has support for MIDI 2.0, meaning that MIDI 2.0 devices like controllers will function even better and smoother.
Android 13 Release Date
Android 13 is still several months away from a stable release, but we could see a beta next month with platform stability aimed for June. Of course, we’ll hear all about what the new OS version offers at Google I/O 2022 in May.