We have been tracking the new UI changes and features that will be arriving with Android 13 through our past 2 articles UI changes in Android 13 and New features in Android 13. Now, for the final one, let’s highlight what’s new in Android 13 for the developers.
Even if you are not a developer, it might be worth being aware of what new features you can expect in your favorite apps once the app developers begin to roll out their respective app updates integrating the new possibilities that will be available to them.
Apps can now turn ON the screen
Android has added a new permission “WAKE_LOCK”. Now if you want your app to be able to wakeup the screen during any event, you can ask for a user’s permission for the “WAKE_LOCK” permission to be activated for the app.
Camera improvements
New API for your camera, “Preview stabilization API” stabilizes the preview as well as all other non-RAW streams, in order to give a “what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG)” effect.
Control the brightness of the Flash
The Android 13 release includes new methods in the CameraManager class that allows apps to get and set the flash light brightness level. Only devices that report a value greater than 1 when apps use CameraCharacteristics.FLASH_INFO_STRENGTH_MAXIMUM_LEVEL will support this feature.
Enterprises can now block users from adding WiFi networks
If a device is fully managed by an enterprise, using their managed devices policy, app developers can now add the new UserManager.DISALLOW_ADD_WIFI_CONFIG restriction to hide the “add network” option on your device.
FPS management
Android’s Gaming mode, now supports setting the FPS that a game should run at.
Finetuning media file permissions
Till now, when an app needed access to any media file from your device, it would simply ask for media access permission or storage permission. Now with Android 13, apps can specifically ask for the media type, whether they want access to images, videos or audio files, or maybe all.
Body sensor permissions only while app is in use
Apps could access body permissions like temperature, heart beat sensor, accelerometer sensor etc. Now with Android 13, a user can limit these permissions to be allowed to be used only when an application is in use and not in the background. This could be a great way to optimize the battery usage.
Forwarding calls to connected devices
Say you have an Android Phone as well as an Android Tablet, but at the moment you have the tablet in your hand while your phone is docked for charging. You will be able to connect the devices in such a way that calls on your phone could be attended to from your tablet. This feature was being provided on Samsung devices for a while, which now Google plans on integrating it with Android OS itself for a wider consumption.
Overall in our 3 part series of articles, we have tried to cover majority of the major, noticeable changes that would be arriving to your devices once it gets the push from the manufacturer. If you wish to look at all the changelong in full detail, feel free to look into the Android 13 changelog and release notes.
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