The good news – it is a public beta, which means you too can try it out by signing up and testing it on an eligible device. Eligible devices include Pixel from Google, Lenovo, Asus, One Plus, Vivo, Sharp and a host of other third party manufacturers. One thing to note – this is still a beta version, so bugs and errors are a real possibility. In any case though, you shouldn’t let this fact faze you, as you can still go about with your normal activities. Even if they may include online gaming. In fact, many gamblers will find using popular no deposit bonus sites such as NoDepositHero.com, a breeze with integrated accessibility options that make navigation much more intuitive. Additional major changes include encrypted one to one message conversations, Photo Picker, emergency SOS expansions, enhanced functionality in the Material You feature and language settings linked to individual apps. Read on for all the details about the various upgrades and features in this build.
1. Enhancements to Material You
Material You is a wall paper-based theming system that was first introduced in Android 12. It was quite a popular feature because it helped change the way you went about customizing. But it didn’t come without any glitches. One glaring shortcoming was that it didn’t allow you to pick your own colors and that was why you saw third party apps on the Play Store that offered this solution. Android 13 has dealt with this shortcoming by introducing 16 new color options. And while this is certainly a step in the right direction, it’s good to know that you still cannot use your own accent colors.
2. Enabling Your Flashlight with a Quick Tap
We list this addition at #2 because of the sheer functional value it brings. This feature, new to Android 13, allows you to enable or disable your device flashlight by double-tapping the back of your device. Certainly a great feature to have, especially for those who use their phone’s flashlight often. Double-tapping itself is not a new feature – it was available in Android 12 and allowed you to complete multiple tasks easily, like check notifications, control media playback, open Assistant and even take screenshots. Android 13 decided to take a leaf out of Android 12’s book by taking ease of use one step further.
3. Flashlight On Alert
We all have experienced excessive battery drainage, and all because we forgot to switch the flashlight on our phone off, or because it switched on by mistake while the phone was in a pocket. Google has taken care of this headache with the ‘flashlight on’ alert. The alert to indicate that your device flashlight is on has been integrated into the At a Glance widget. It goes off the moment your flashlight turns on. You can see it on the home screen as well as the lock screen.
4. Setting Languages on a Per-App Basis with Panlingual
Have you felt the frustration of not being able to set different languages for specific apps? You can breathe a sigh of relief now, because Google takes care of this in Android 13 with the Panlingual feature. Panlingual allows you to set languages for individual apps. This is an extremely cool feature, especially if you’re one of those who use multiple languages for different scenarios. With Panlingual you can, for instance, use your native language for messaging and English to watch YouTube videos.
5. Enhancement of Emergency SOS Feature
Google rolled out the much-acclaimed Emergency SOS feature in Android 12 keeping in mind the vital role that the phone has in our lives today, and has upgraded it in Android 13. The Emergency SOS feature was brilliant because in an emergency situation, it allowed you to contact someone who’s trustworthy and close to you – without even having to unlock your Android phone. In Android 13, Google has taken this functionality up a notch by incorporating it with wearable OS watches. What’s more, Android 13 has more upgrades to other emergency features too, including Early Earthquake Warnings; it’s incorporating more risk-prone geographies into the ambit of this feature. In Android 13, this is how the feature works:
Uses the Android platform to gather earthquake warning info from other Android phones in crowd-source modeAllows Google to analyze the collected data and sends out alerts to people in the specific regions.Combines with the Emergency Location Services feature of Android to enable first responders to locate you quickly
6. Improved Messaging with RCS
Google, in collaboration with other carriers, has been working to transitioning its messaging function from short message service or SMS to Rich Communication Services (RCS). This feature is now a reality with Android 13. The reason is not hard to fathom – RCS offers better privacy and also has end-to-end encryption built in for 1 to 1 messages. It also makes sharing files of large sizes possible. The same applies to sharing of higher quality photos. The next step would be to incorporate end-to-end encryption for group chats.
7. Custom Photo Choosing with the Android Photo Picker
So far, when an app asks for access to your photos/videos and you consent, the app gets access to the entire library on your device. Not anymore; Android 13 has a new feature that allows you to give third party apps access to specific photographs and videos only instead of to the entire library. This is a fantastic feature because it elevates the photo picking experience while protecting your privacy 100% – you decide which photos the app should have access to. This feature has already been present in the Android Document Picker, which allows you to share only specific documents with an app. Now that this feature has been developed, Google has plans to introduce it to earlier Android versions as well, including Android 11.
8. Making QR Code-Scanning Fast and Easy
QR codes are the in-thing now; everybody is making payments through e-wallets, be it at your neighborhood’s departmental store or your favorite bar. The surge in usage of QR code has led Google to incorporate another update that scores high on the usability front – the ability to scan a QR code directly from the lock screen of your Android phone. To ensure quick and easy access to the QR code scanner, Google has introduced a Quick Settings tile as well.
9. Text Edits Directly from the Clipboard
Android 13 has another new feature in the kitty, and this one ensures you don’t face any trouble editing text that you just copied, directly on the clipboard. You can do this using the pencil icon that has been introduced. There are more functionality elements in the works with this feature; in some time you will also be able to call or message a number directly when you copy it on to the clipboard. You would also be able to open any link that you copy directly in Google Chrome.
