Android 13 has made its arrival, first appearing on Google’s own Pixel smartphones as it has in the past.
What does come as a surprise is that the new mobile OS has come earlier than it has in previous years, as its usually released in September or October in conjunction with the companies new hardware. However this year, the update has come well before the release of the Pixel 7 smartphone range.
“Android 13 is rolling out to Pixel devices starting today,” said Google in a post on the Android developers blog.
“Later this year, Android 13 will also roll out to more of your favourite devices from Samsung Galaxy, Asus, HMD (Nokia phones), iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Sony, Tecno, vivo, Xiaomi and more.”
Samsung is one manufacturer already trialling the OS in beta.
Android 13 which has been in testing since early February, promises to add a range of new features that increase personalisation with Material You theme creation and customization, improvements to media player controls, opt in notifications for added data security, app specific language settings and battery drain notifications, Bluetooth LE support and much more.
The Android Open Source Project version has also been released, which is an added surprise as Google usually releases it separately to the standard release.
Android 12 saw a slow adoption by users, with only one in ten Android devices using the version of the OS.
