Today Google has released the fourth and final beta of Android 13. The official release is next, and the company says we are now “just a few weeks away” from when that hits supported Pixel devices.
The fourth beta of Android 13 is meant for app developers to be able to perform final testing and development with the new release in mind. This build is actually a release candidate of Android 13 for Pixel devices and the Android Emulator.
Since Platform Stability was reached with the previous beta, all app surfaces have been final since then, including SDK and NDK APIs, app-facing system behaviors, and restrictions on non-SDK interfaces. Beta 4 / the Release Candidate going out today comes with fixes for previously reported issues, and should be the most stable pre-release version of the software.
Android 13 comes with new privacy features like a notification permission and a revamped photo picker, themed app icons, per-app language support, HDR video, Bluetooth LE Audio, and support for MIDI 2.0 over USB. There are also better tools for app developers to take advantage of tablets and large screen devices, extending upon what was built into Android 12L.
If your Pixel is already enrolled in Google’s public beta program, you should receive this new build as an over-the-air update in the following hours or the next few days. If you want to try out this build, you can do so by enrolling into the program here – once that’s done, the new release will be delivered to you in the same way as any other update.
