Google just released the first developer preview for its upcoming Android 13 OS. As the name suggests, these previews are really meant for developers to fine-tune their apps before the latest OS releases. For now, you can think of these as teasers of what’s to come.
Google is looking at improving its photo picker tool that lets you share photos, videos and whatever else with an app, without giving it access to all the media on your device.
Most Android devices already use this photo picker, but Android 13 will make it a dedicated experience, giving us an easier interface to to have selective control over the privacy of our photos and videos.
Other minor updates:
-Apps will be able to see what a user’s preferred language is, which should make life easier for multilingual users.
-Developers will be able to implement new effects like ripple, blur and stretch overscroll, which will all a little more finesse to app designs.
-Developers are being encouraged to improve app compatibility for larger screens like tablets, foldables and Chromebooks since they’re getting more popular.
There’s plenty more back-end details in Google’s blog post that’s clearly aimed at developers. This was just the first developer preview and Google is planning for the second one in March. The OS is expected to go into its first beta period in April before making its debut sometime later this year.