Today, we’re sharing a first look at the next release of Android, with the Android 13 Developer Preview 1. With Android 13 we’re continuing some important themes: privacy and security, as well as developer productivity. We’ll also build on some of the newer updates we made in 12L to help you take advantage of the 250+ million large screen Android devices currently running.
There’s actually quite a few cool features in here, some of which are long overdue – like a standard, system-wide photo and video picker for sharing. Share sheets in Android have become an utter mess, so any cleanup is very welcome here.
> With Android 13 we’re continuing some important themes: privacy and security,
I haven’t used stock Android in a while so I don’t know but, does Android allow you to block network access to any app on the system?
Because by default every app on Android is given full, unfiltered access to the internet to do anything it wants. Keyboards, clock apps, note taking apps, maps tracking apps… Any talk from Google about providing more “privacy” and “security” to users means nothing to me unless this feature exists.
drcouzelis,
On a similar note, google made it so that any application that needs bluetooth (ie to control smart lights) has to be granted GPS location access as well. These kinds of android policies are extremely confusing and work against end users. “Why the hell does this application need a location permission??” I used to blame the application developers before I learned that it was not their fault but google’s. Google tried to justify this saying bluetooth devices might be used to leak details about one’s location, but IMHO it is a bad way to design android permissions that makes the situation worse for privacy.
Yes you can. There is a “Data usage” option somewhere in the Network configuration depending on the version.
I just checked a fresh out of the box Motorola Moto G Power running (almost stock) Android 11. There is no option to disable network for apps.
The same settings screen on my /e/ OS Android 11 phone gives me options to disable network for apps.
What versions of Android have you seen it available on?
Android’s downfall continues unabated.
Lack of contrast,
Very poor discoverability,
Controls whose state is impossible to understand unless you start using them,
A ton of white space: Android 6 showed a ton more data on my 5″ screen than Android 12/13 combined.
A ton of features people have been requesting for ages are not there in any shape or form (for instance limiting the performance of CPU/GPU for older games)
The neat thing in android 13 is the virtualization. Developers have already gotten Full windows 11 and linux distros working