After two Developer Previews, released in February and March respectively, today Google made the first beta build of Android 13 available for public testing. And as always with Android beta versions, it’s much easier to install and use than builds. Developer Preview.
This is by design, as it is hoped by now that there should be no huge, hideous and glaring bugs. That said, there are likely to be plenty of issues still to come, as this is the first of four planned betas before the final version arrives later this year.
If you are interested in trying Android 13 Beta 1 and have a supported Google Pixel smartphone, you can simply go to the Android Beta program website here and register your device.
Then you should receive Android 13 Beta 1 as an over-the-air software update within minutes (up to hours). Later beta builds will also be sent to you over the air just like regular software updates, and the same goes for the final version of Android 13 once it’s fully cooked and ready to come out of the oven. If you’re already running a Developer Preview build of Android 13, you’ll also get the first beta (and subsequent ones) over the air.
Android 13 Beta 1 includes new permissions for more granular access to media files and improved audio routing APIs. Apps that want to access media on their phone now have three different permissions specific to the type of file they want to access: one for images and photos, one for videos, and one for audio files. Previously, all of these elements were integrated into a single “media access” permission, which, if granted, allowed the app to access all types of media. Not anymore, though.
When you grant one of the new permissions, the app in question will only have read access to the respective media file types and nothing else. When developer apps target Android 13, they will need to migrate to this new permissions model.
There are also some minor improvements to audio routing, as well as better error reporting for apps that generate keys, but these will likely primarily affect app developers.
Next month at the Google I / O developer conference, the company will be sharing more details on Android 13 along with more new features, and it’s highly likely that the second beta will be out just then, in order to showcase the unveiled new features.
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