 Happy birthday Android! Wow! I'm not a kid anymore. Yep, you're 13. Honestly, you haven't matured much this year, but turns out the numbers go up anyway. That's right. With the launch of version 13, Android has left its awkward tweens behind, beginning its long journey into its stylish teens. Some of the highlights include greater customization, take that Apple, better privacy and better Bluetooth than ever. But will they stay on the right path or will they fall in with that crowd? Like I've fallen in with our sponsor, Corsair. Their K70 Pro Mini wireless keyboard is an easily customizable and compact option for any gaming setup. It's got 200 hours of battery life and is compatible with all MX key switches. So play and connect your way and get yours at the link down below. Visually, Google is bringing even more customization options to their Material U design language, allowing you to make it more you-er. On 12, using the auto themer, you could customize your phone with four generated color palettes pulled from your phone's wallpaper or just four basic colors, which is pretty okay. But now you get 12 palettes that can use complimentary colors that aren't necessarily found in your wallpaper. Will Google graciously allow you to choose the colors yourself though? Maybe in 14, not today. But color changes can be applied to other apps now. While there aren't too many applications out there that support Material U's auto theming yet, the concept is pretty cool when it works. Also, third-party apps can now take advantage of themed icons, though we only came across a single app that did so, Relay for Reddit. So if you're looking for that perfectly themed home screen, you'll still have to do it yourself with a custom icon pack. But don't worry about that. Look at this new media player. It's got a squiggly line now. In all seriousness though, it is nice to be able to scrub audio without pulling the notification shade all the way down and the dynamic theming to match your album art looks pretty cool without giving up any functionality. It's like the LTT backpack. It looks great, has tons of amazing pockets and is built to last, lttstore.com. Oh yeah, and tucked in that notification shade, you'll find a convenient button for quick draw QR code scanning. That's right. Finally, after two painful years of pandemicing, you no longer have to remember if you scan QR codes in your camera app or the Google app or that third-party one that you got when you're trying to read the fricking drink menu. Another welcome convenience is the option to control your home devices from a locked state. I personally wouldn't recommend doing that though. I mean, you don't want some nefarious actor getting control of your smart home after they steal your phone. But then again, if Mark Zuckerberg basically already lives in your house, what difference does it make? Brisket and ribs, I hope. A lot. I seriously wouldn't really do this unless you only have smart lights and a smart popcorn maker. No doors, no security cameras. The next thing is way up my alley though. You know those pesky notifications from that random idle game you downloaded or even Twitter for that matter? They have notifications for everything in that app. Well, forget about them because app notifications are now opt-in in Android 13. Thank you, Google. As someone with an endless stream of notifications, this really helps me make sure that I never miss a Floatplane upload. Sometimes we upload pet pictures, other times hilarious behind the scenes or other exclusives. Check it out on floatplane.com. Another thing I'm thankful for is the return of Google Assistant to the home button for us stalwart three button navigation fans. You can still hold the lock button if you want, but now you have the option to do it the way nature intended. You know what you can't do though? Get rid of the bloody at a glance widget. I should be able to move or remove anything I want from my home screen. Forget about material you, I want material me, damn. One of my other favorite additions is the new clipboard widget alert thing. When you copy a piece of text, a small preview pops up in the bottom of your screen, which gives you quick access to a share button. And if you click the text preview, you can actually edit the text you copied before you share it. As someone who's always sending important information to people, this is an absolute lifesaver. Like when you copy text from Google Lens and it slightly misinterprets it, you can fix it right then and there and forward it off. And Google now automatically empties your clipboard after an hour, keeping any copy pasted passwords safe and sound. And there's even more good stuff thanks to Google's feigned interest in user privacy. Thank you, Apple, by the way. No, like for real, this is not a sarcastic thank you, Apple, because your feigned interest in user privacy has really put pressure on Google to match you. In Android 13, when an app wants you to upload media, say for a profile picture, you no longer have to give the app access to all the media on your device, just the specific photos that you want to share with it. And instead of providing an app access to all of your local storage, there are now specific pop-ups for videos, music, photos, and audio. However, it's not a user-side decision, so the app developer still gets to choose which permissions they ask for, meaning you need to read those notifications to ensure that you're aware of what you're sharing. Android 13 also fixes some of Android 12's location weirdness. Before, if you wanted to locate nearby devices via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, you would have to allow the app location access. But now the search is handled by a separate runtime, keeping your location information safe and only in the hands of Uber, Google, Facebook, and all the other apps who already know you were removed. And now Google allows you to set language settings per app. So you polyglots can have your Gmail in German and your web browser in English without having to dig into your phone settings. Spatial audio, a technology that frankly still smells a little gimmicky to me, is now available in the OS. So you don't need specific applications to take advantage of it. And let's see. Oh, right. One forward-looking addition is Bluetooth LE audio support. It's kind of like Bluetooth Low Energy. So like lower energy. But now with 100% more audio, and Bluetooth SIG is betting on it being the future of Bluetooth. See, look at this graph. Wow, the traditional SBC codec is only three or four, but the new LC3 codec featured in Bluetooth LE audio, it's almost five the whole time. We don't have the time to dive into this graph or whatever the heck it is they're trying to convey here, but the gist is that Bluetooth LE audio will allow for greater audio quality at lower bit rates using less power and allowing you to connect to multiple devices at the same time. To clarify, I know that it's already possible to play back to two pairs of headphones at once if you and your SO wanna watch a movie together on the plane. But this new tech takes that a step further. It's called AuraCast, and it has no practical limit to the number of Bluetooth devices that you can cast to. So, freples rejoice. And why stop there? You and your whole polycule could have your own silent disco. Now, it's more likely that we'll see this concept deployed for advertising or so that you can bring your own headphones for the museum audio tour, but hey, it's fun to imagine cooler possibilities, right? Google is also making their whole ecosystem a bit more cohesive. They've actually started supporting tablet-specific updates for big screen devices with Android 12 L, and with Android 13, they've added a Chrome OS-like shelf that allows for quick and easy multitasking, along with proper palm rejection for styluses, which I cannot believe that they didn't have yet. You can now stream messages from any messaging app to Chrome OS, allowing you to reply to anyone who calls from the comfort of your Chromebook that you definitely own, and Google says that you'll be able to copy paste from your phone to your tablet in the future, hopefully. That's it, isn't it? If it all seems a little underwhelming, that's fair. Google has clearly taken this year to sand Android 12's rough edges down, but hey, making their excellent OS even excellenter is not necessarily a bad thing, and honestly, it's the kind of thing that we often hound companies to do. Hey, don't just keep adding more features, fix your darn bugs, right? So here it is. Currently, Android 13 is only available on Pixel devices, but it will be rolling out to other devices later in the year. Will it roll out to your device? Unless it's a Pixel, who knows? That's up to your device manufacturer, and sometimes your carrier, sometimes blind luck. Yay. Maybe next year we'll see a bigger update, or maybe we won't, but what we'll definitely get is a big segue to our sponsor. FreshBooks. When building a business you're passionate about, it's easy to feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, and if you're doing all of the invoicing and accounting on your own, you're probably spending time on work you don't love. 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