Android 13 Developer Preview 1 "Tiramisu" now available for Pixel 4 to Pixel 6 Pro, brings system-wide photo picker, themed app icons, and more

Android 12 is still rolling out to eligible devices, and we know Google is also prepping Android 12L aimed at large screen devices and foldables. Meanwhile, developers now have access to Android 13 Developer Preview (DP) 1 already.

Google had stopped using dessert names for public releases after Android 9 Pie with succeeding Android updates only being referred to by their version number. Nevertheless, Android 13 is internally codenamed Tiramisu, named after a coffee-flavored Italian dessert. With the first Developer Preview arriving in February, we can expect Android 13 to hit Beta 3, now also known as Platform Stability, with finalized APIs sometime around end of July or early August 2022.

According to Google's David Burke, Android VP of Engineering, Android 13 Developer Preview 1 includes the following features:

Privacy and security improvements

Google continues to focus on enhancing privacy and security features with each Android release and Android 13 is no different. Similar to the system-wide document picker, Android 13 will now offer a system-wide photo picker, so third-party apps will have access to only those photos you permit and not your entire gallery.

Google said it will also bring this functionality to phones running Android 11 and up via a Google Play service update.

Also, Android 13 devices can now request for NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES without having to have location permission. 

Developer productivity improvements

Android 13 offers the following developer-focused productivity improvements:

• Quick settings placement API: Users can now add a custom tile to the set of Quick Settings in the notification shade without having to leave the app.
• Themed app icons: Material You design extended to all app icons. Developers can provide monochromatic app icons that inherit wallpaper and theme coloring and a tweaked adaptive icon XML. 
• Per-app language preferences: Apps will be able to set their own language independent of the system just by calling a new LocaleManager API and reduce boilerplate code.
• 200% faster hyphenation performance with almost no impact on rendering performance
• Support for programmable runtime shader object defined using the Android Graphics Shading Language (AGSL).
• Refreshed Android Core Libraries to align with OpenJDK 11 LTS

Apart from these new features, Google will also be increasing the scope of Android's updatable core functionality directly via the Google Play Store. For instance, Google will soon push the new system-wide photo picker and OpenJDK 11 via the Play Store for devices running older Android versions. 

Android 13 DP1 images can now be installed on Pixel devices starting from the Pixel 4 to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Developers can also use Android 13 via the Android Emulator in phone, tablet, and foldable configurations and directly provide feedback to Google.

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