As has become a practice, Google once again brought a major version of the Android system update trailer in early February, this time the version number came to Android 13.
As in previous years, the Developer Preview (DP) version that can be swiped on Pixel phones has now been launched at the same time, and more features and beta versions that support other phones will be released at the Google Developer Conference in early April. In the fall, the official version may be released as early as August, when manufacturers will continue to push updates for mobile phones that can be upgraded, and the next generation of Pixel pre-installed With Android 13 will also arrive.
The Android 13 upgrade points that will appear on Pixel phones are likely to change due to the different product routes of each mobile phone manufacturer, but this does not prevent us from simply involving security and the underlying operation mechanism in the early spring, which will affect almost all android hands, and those functional, visual and interactive changes may also be presented to all users in another way.
The "tiramisu" worth savoring
Unlike the past few years, which only uses the first letter or number to be used to call it, Android 13 returns to the habit of using desserts as a code name for every major version, and this generation is developed by Tiramisu (Tiramisu), which is also generously written on the "About Mobile" page. For users who like to speculate on the specific meaning of the initials, there is a little less fun to explore the unknown.
As for the visual performance level, it is more like the final work for Android 12, which has been officially launched for more than half a year: more interfaces, including pop-up windows that grant application permissions, start to apply Material You style, the accent color has more sub-options, the theme icon function will allow third-party applications to use, and after enabling the theme icon or dark mode, the mobile desktop will not be "a hundred flowers" but has stronger uniformity.
In addition to continuing to struggle with how to design media volume controls in locations such as notification bars, and becoming more like the old rival iOS is also more conducive to user understanding, the developer preview also supports a large number of experience improvements for landscape and large screens. Many interfaces, including the lock screen, have redesigned landscape interactions, and the state of the two application split screens can be treated as a multitasking, which is good for tablet users.
It seems that this year's Android visual iteration will be similar to the era of major visual updates such as Android 4.x and 7.0, and the focus of work will focus on improvement without earth-shaking changes, and users can also adapt to it. After the android 12L branch for tablets, folding screens and other large-screen devices was officially released in the spring, the features such as split screen will all be integrated into Android 13 in the future.
Although it still needs to be enabled by instructions, Android 13 adds the function of customizing the application running language, which will not be forced to change with the system language. It is reasonable to say that serving users in what language should be the thing that application developers should do well, but they can freely switch the in-app display language to obtain different translation effects and content services, which is of course a great thing for users in need.
The status bar drop-down quick switch panel supports adding third-party applications several years ago, but this feature lack of guidance is somewhat obscure, and few users know that "the drop-down switch can be freely added and deleted". This time Google made a small change, allowing the application pop-up window to prompt the user whether to add a switch to the panel, as far as the domestic application ecological environment is concerned, I only hope not to be abused.
Once again, a heavy blow to security and privacy
While tinkering with the visible parts, Google has also continued the focus of its work in recent years on Android, that is, continuously strengthening the security and privacy protection capabilities of the operating system. Android was once criticized as a "playground for malware and rogue apps", and with the joint efforts of Google and major mobile phone manufacturers, many parts have gradually caught up with iOS.
I believe that now iPhone users have become accustomed to allowing the application to read all photos in one brain, or manually selecting a new picture every time a picture is sent, so that the experience is finally recognized by Android users - Android 13 introduced a photo picker, which can select those pictures that want to be read by the application without allowing the application to access all local files.
This way, users are less worried about whether the application will do something unexpected after reading all the pictures (such as for deep network learning). At present, Android users have only two choices, either to let the application bypass the partition storage mechanism to read all the data to send pictures normally, or to expect the customized version of their mobile phone's system to provide image privacy protection before Google.
Through the sandbox-like partition storage mechanism, the independent storage of application data will not under the public storage directory, which is a great thing for users and the progress of the industry. But the practice of digging the pit first and then filling the pit like the picture selector is obviously inappropriate, not only will the user be confused by the file management mechanism that changes every year, but also give the application developers who are sharp and sharp have the opportunity to exploit the loophole.
Notification management has also been improved, with apps explicitly informing users when they request permission to read notification content, and notifications are officially managed as an app. In other words, the status of the notification will not only be whether it is allowed to be displayed, but can be directly disabled, and like other permissions that have not used the application for a long time, the system will automatically turn off the authorization to improve the user experience.
(Image from Droid Life)
Overall, Android's notification management improvements are still in the stage of improvement but no clear direction. Notification channels allow users to distinguish between marketing notifications and functional notifications, but this requires a high degree of self-discipline from application developers to clarify each channel; designs such as notification history and postponement of notifications all work, but they cannot be linked with other notification management functions and even the entire system, and the value is not obvious.
Wi-Fi-related privacy protection has always been a concern, many developers will collect MAC addresses, device locations and other information for commercial promotion, and the new Wi-Fi management will bring about changes to a certain extent. Users do not have to obtain specific location information when adding smart devices and IoT devices through mobile phones, and simplify the addition process to make the IoT out-of-box experience easier.
Remember the Project Mainline that "splits" the components of the system, and can update the system function directly through Google Play without waiting for the mobile phone manufacturer to push a big version? Now there are more modules to join, including Bluetooth and ultra-wideband modules, as well as this update of the photo selector, OpenJDK 11, etc., even if you can't get the upgrade, you can get a new experience.
Once again, Android has a clear destination
Android is still that Android, it still does not bring visible and easy-to-remember improvement points like iOS every year, in addition to the visual interaction updates that appear only once every few years, it is still a long-term commitment to improving the underlying capabilities related to the user's daily experience. The gap between the two systems is much shorter than it was 10 or 5 years ago.
This is not enough for users, app developers, mobile phone manufacturers, and Google, an operating system that affects billions of devices around the world should have a more important mission to accomplish. Falling to our most recent personal consumer electronic devices is how to be more stable, easy to use, and leading, and Google is quietly pushing Android to implement this change.
Android has become more like a platform, many capabilities are no longer to wait until Google has determined to do a good job before meeting users, but in advance to provide a set of standards and interfaces, mobile phone manufacturers and applications to provide improvements, and then Google from the bottom and ecological point of view to supplement. Low-level features such as desktop mode, graphics rendering, and visual updates from Material You.
It has also begun to string together the experience of more than one device: WearOS watches and Android phone tablets with the same root have more synergy; in addition to the IoT that is entering thousands of households, Android phones are also expected to cooperate with Windows computers, smart cars, etc. Google itself has also regained the large-screen experience, and it is likely that it will be able to see a significantly improved Android tablet and folding screen product this year.
Everyone knows that Android 13 is just the beginning, but what will happen next is exciting.