Google released the first developer preview of Android 13 last month and it has released its second preview this month, i.e. March 2022. The first preview brought many changes and improvements in privacy, language control, and many more areas, and the second preview brought in many other features and improvements over the previous one. Here, the word ‘developer preview’ means that the releases are only for the usage of the developers and this testing is to get the feedback before getting off the final product in the market.
Integrity, innovation,
Features in Android 13 Developer Preview 2
Privacy and Security
With the increase in the usage of gadgets and digitalization, everyone has become dependent on them. But the privacy of personal information and data is a major concern for every user. Google is working on it to build that relationship of integrity and trust with the users through its operating system. Therefore, Google made changes in its Android 13 privacy and security section.
Notification permission request: In order to push notifications, apps that target Android 13 will now have to take permission from the user, as it has introduced new runtime permission for sending notifications through the Post Notification app. And for the apps that target Android 12 or lower operating systems, according to Google, the system will handle the upgrade flow on behalf of the developers.
Developer downgrade permissions: A new API will be provided in Android 13, to protect the privacy of users through apps by downgrading previously granted runtime permissions, as sometimes when apps are updated, the previously provided permissions are carried forward. So, to avoid this Android 13 is coming up with this feature.
Safe export of context-registered receivers: The developers were required to indicate the exportability of Intent receivers stated in the Android Manifest in Android 12. When registering receivers for non-system sources, Google is now encouraging developers to use the RECEIVER EXPORTED or RECEIVER NOT EXPORTED flag to do the same for context-registered receivers. These will not be necessary for Android 13, although they are strongly advised for developers to enable.
Developer Productivity
To help you provide a refined experience and better performance for your users. The following are some of the new features in today’s version.
Japanese text wrapping improved: TextView text wrapping was improved in Android 13 Developer Productivity 1, and now some changes are being made specifically for the Japanese language. For more polished and legible Japanese applications, TextViews can now wrap text by Bunsetsu (the smallest unit of words that sounds natural) or phrases, rather than by character. With TextViews, you only need to enable
The line heights for non-Latin scripts improved: In Android 13, the display of non- Latin scripts such as Tamil, Telugu, Burmese, and Tibetan was improved by using a line-height that was adopted for each language. This helps to prevent clipping and the positioning of characters.
Text Conversions APIs: Phonetic lettering input methods are used by people who understand languages like Japanese and Chinese, which can slow down searching and functions like auto-completion. Apps may leverage the new text conversion API in Android 13 to help users locate what they’re looking for faster and simpler.
- Input Hiragana as the phonetic pronunciation of their search term (i.e. a place or an app name)
- Use the keyboard to convert the Hiragana characters to Kanji
- Re-search using the Kanji characters
- Get their search results
Now, Japanese users can type in Hiragana and can immediately see Kanji search live results, skipping the middle two steps with the help of a new text conversion API.
Color vector Fonts: The Android 13 adds support for COLRv1 fonts and emojis. COLRv1 is a new and tight font format that is provided fast and crisply at any size. Mostly for apps, the system handles everything and COLRv1 just works for them.
Bluetooth Low Energy Audio: As the name suggests, Bluetooth Low Energy Audio is a low-energy way to transmit audio over Bluetooth for which the Android 13 brings built-in support which is designed user-friendly where the user does not have to sacrifice its battery life with better quality of audio.
MIDI 2.0: Including the support of MIDI 2.0 hardware connectivity through USB, Android 13 also includes and supports new MIDI 2.0 standards, to which the improvements can be seen in the resolution increment for controllers, good support for non-western intonation, and much expressive performance using pre- note controller.
