Skip to main content

Google releases the first public beta of Android 13

The first public beta build of Android 13 has been released and it is now ready to install as an over-the-air update for folks who aren’t afraid of a few broken features and bugs. Google says the first beta build is only compatible with the Pixel 4 and other Pixel models launched after it, which includes flagships as well as the affordable “A” models.

The first public beta of Android 13 arrives with one user-facing and a couple of developer-centric updates. The only new feature users should care about is a more granular permission system for apps. An app will no longer ask for blanket permission to access the locally stored files. Instead, it will only get access to files that are relevant to its functionality.

Recommended Videos

Android 13 divides file access across audio, video, and photos for granting storage access to apps. For example, a music-mixing app will only ask for access to audio files stored on a phone, and not images or videos. The feature may not seem particularly intuitive, but it has meaningful privacy implications. The update is thin on user-facing changes, but it bundles all the tweaks that arrived with the previous Developer Preview updates.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

However, there are a few hidden features that haven’t been documented in Google’s blog post. For example, Android 13 Beta 1 will let users manually adjust the screen resolution between QHD+ and FHD+ on compatible phones. The user profile switcher now has a full-screen UI, while the taskbar will feature a dedicated row for predictions. The update also adds a dedicated icon for vibrate mode in the status bar. A cool UI tweak has been made to the media player, which now shows the progress bar as a squiggly waveform for the media portion that has been played, while the remainder appears as a straight line.

Android 13 updated permission system.
Google

If you happen to own a compatible Pixel smartphone and want to try out the Android 13 experience, head over to the official registration page and enroll your phone. Once enrolled, Android 13 Beta 1 will be available to download as an over-the-air update. However, don’t go installing it on a daily driver device — unless you can live with unfinished software serving random bugs and performance issues.

Google has also released the Generic System Images (GSI) files for Android 13, which allow developers to install Android 13’s first public beta build on non-Pixel phones. The GSI files are Pixel-validated and can be installed on phones that support Project Treble. However, there are a ton of restrictions, and it is exclusively targeted at developers for testing apps. In a nutshell, avoid this unless you are knee-deep into Android app development and testing on bootloader unlocked devices.

The last option to experience Android 13’s first public beta is via the Android emulator inside Android Studio. Google is targeting platform stability for Android 13 by June, which is when most app behaviors and SDK-related stuff will be locked for release. The company hasn’t revealed a definite window for the stable Android 13 release, but it will likely happen around September or October.

Nadeem Sarwar
Nadeem is a tech journalist who started reading about cool smartphone tech out of curiosity and soon started writing…
Is the OnePlus 13R’s camera worth an extra $100? I found out
White OnePlus 13R held in hand over blue OnePlus 12R.

In 2024, OnePlus made a breakthrough with the 12R. Despite having followed the trend of launching R-series phones for several generations prior without any significant impact, OnePlus finally appeared to find the perfect feature blend that qualifies as an excellent value for money and recreated the same effected early generations of OnePlus phones had.

The OnePlus 12R was rightly dubbed spectacular in our review last year, and the OnePlus 13R is a step in the same direction, except it improves -- at least, on paper -- in areas where the former couldn't impress us. The camera is one of those aspects, and OnePlus touts the 13R to be significantly better. Our review of the OnePlus 13R also leans towards a similar conclusion, calling the 13R's cameras "genuinely solid."

Read more
OnePlus 13 lands useful AI tricks and a fix for camera snags
A person holding the OnePlus 13.

Merely days after releasing a major software update for its latest flagship, OnePlus has begun the rollout of another incremental patch for its new flagship phone. The OxygenOS 15.0.0.405 build, which is now headed to OnePlus 13 users in all major markets, brings a bunch of practical AI upgrades, among other feature tweaks.

The focus of these AI upgrades is mostly on refining the translation experience. For example, the phone will show the live-translated speech in real time on the screen. Taking a leaf out of Samsung’s Galaxy AI book, the latest update also brings a “face-to-face translation feature.”

Read more
The OnePlus 13 has ruined Android phones for me
A person holding the OnePlus 13.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is going to be my primary smartphone for at least the next few weeks, and I’m coming to it from the OnePlus 13. I first put my SIM card in the OnePlus 13 three months ago, and no one has been able to wrestle it from my hands since. For me, this is an astonishingly long time to use an Android phone, and it speaks volumes about what a superb phone it is.

I'll be using the Galaxy S25 Ultra for the next few weeks, but I'm going to miss the OnePlus 13. Here's why.
Why so long?

Read more