After months of developer previews and beta builds, Android 13 has finally arrived on Pixel phones. Compared to the main revision that was Android 12, it’s a relatively light release when it comes to new user-facing features, but it does feature plenty of tweaks to existing features, and not all of them are for the better. Here are seven tips and tricks for navigating the latest version of Android on your Pixel.
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Get (even more) colorful with Material You
Android 12 introduced us to Material You, Google’s extremely colorful and playful new software design language. One of the key components of Material You is dynamically generated themes that feature colors based on your phone’s wallpaper. In Android 13, that feature gets a major upgrade. In Android 12, there were only a handful of color palettes available to choose from, but now you’ll see up to 16 different theme options, depending on what wallpaper you’ve applied. If you still can’t find one you like, there are also more “basic” palettes to choose from.
To adjust your theme, simply long press on the home screen and tap Wallpaper & style. Color options will be visible below your current wallpaper.
Change your icons to match, or not
Material You also allows you to change the color of your home screen icons to match the rest of your theme. The feature was introduced in Android 12 in beta. It’s still labeled a beta feature now, but Android 13 officially extends support for these color-changing app icons to third-party apps.
It’s a fun idea, but the vast majority of apps not developed by Google still don’t support the Material You icon theme. If you’re okay with the color uneven app, you can enable theme icons by long pressing on your home screen, tapping Wallpaper & style, then scrolling down and toggling theme icons on.
Get used to the search bar
Android 13 modifies the way the search bar on the home screen works. Tapping the bar at the bottom of the home screen will open an interface that allows you to search for results on the web or apps on your phone. In Android 12, typing part of an app’s name and pressing the search button would open that app, but in Android 13, Google what you’ve typed. So if, for example, you previously opened the YouTube app by tapping the bottom bar, typing “you,” and then hitting search, there’s going to be a learning curve here, and a lot of accidental searches.
However, expand your app drawer by swiping up on your home screen and you’ll get a different search experience, primarily aimed at searching your phone. The search bar at the top of your app drawer can find installed apps, settings, and tips on how to use your phone (it’s also supposed to be able to search your contacts, but that functionality doesn’t seem reliable at the moment). The whole setup is a bit tricky, but you should be able to get the hang of it with a bit of practice.
Customize your notifications
You’ve long been able to block notifications from select apps on Android, but Android 13 introduces a change that streamlines the process considerably. The first time you open an app, it has to ask you if you want it to be able to send notifications. Don’t be afraid to deny permission to apps you don’t think need it, for example games. If you find you’re missing valuable information without notifications from a certain app, it’s easy to turn them back on: Long press the app icon on your home screen or in your app drawer, tap the little i icon, then Notifications. From here, you can customize the app’s notifications to your heart’s content.
Beware of degraded multitasking
Running apps in split screen gets a bit more difficult in Android 13. Just like in Android 12, you start split-screen multitasking by tapping an app icon in your recents menu (the one that appears when you swipe up on navigation bar and hold). But while Android 12 provided the option to select a second app from the home screen or app drawer, in Android 13, you can only choose the second app from the same recent view; navigate home cancels split screen altogether. Effectively, you need to make sure that you have recently opened the two apps you want to use in split screen. It’s not a big deal, but it’s an odd change that almost seems like an oversight. We hope to see this changed in future updates.
Fix ugly copied text
In Android 13, copying text to your clipboard generates a popup like the one that appears when you take a screenshot in Android 12. Tapping on this popup opens a text editor view where you can make changes to the text copied before to save it. to your phone’s clipboard. This is particularly useful for apps that attach additional text to generated links (looking at you, Zillow).
Scan QR codes in an instant
Your Pixel’s camera app can already interpret QR codes, but Android 13 introduces an additional way to scan the increasingly ubiquitous visual links in the form of a quick settings tile. It is not visible by default; To expose it, you’ll have to fully expand your notification screen, then tap the pencil icon near the bottom right corner. From here, you can drag the QR code scanner tile onto your active tiles.
Tapping on the tile will open a simple viewer interface. Just line it up with a QR code and tap Open.
More to discover
For a fuller picture of the Android 13 experience, be sure to check out our full review. And while the Android 13 rollout might have started on Pixels, it will eventually make its way to the best Android phones. To get an idea of what it will look like on Samsung devices, check out our hands-on with One UI 5 beta based on Android 13.
Source: www.androidpolice.com