We’ve ranked all of the best new features that have been added to Google Pixel devices as part of the Android 13 Developer Preview 2.
It’s hard to believe that a month after the first developer-focused build, Android 13 Developer Preview 2 is now available with a whole host of new features and functions. Here is a shortlist of some of the best. Subscribe to 9to5Google on YouTube for more videos Let’s start with the all-so-often altered media player, which is getting another makeover in Android 13 Developer Preview 2. In the first developer preview, a few things were changed, likely by accident, but now we have a better idea of what is changing. Almost paying homage to the pre-Android 11 media player that featured album art, the new player stylizes any playing media with a large circular play/pause button and playback progress bar taking up a larger portion of the panel. You’ll get media app-specific controls here too, including skip forward, skip backwards, shuffle, and favorite options, where available. It’s a big change to essentially revert back to the older player style — albeit with a Material You twist. Android 13 Developer Preview 2 also expands the usability of the pop-out playback switcher with an added option to pair a new device. This should help streamline the process of getting connected to Bluetooth speakers and headphones, as you don’t need to close this panel and then head directly into Settings to access wider pairing controls. There’s a lot more going on in the notification shade than just the media player. Google has decided that this prominent UI portion needed some serious attention in Android 13 Developer Preview 2, so there is a lot to unpack here. If you happen to get multiple notifications at once, Android 13 Developer Preview 2 now bundles these notifications once you have more than three.
