During its annual I/O conference Tuesday, Google (GOOG, GOOGL) debuted a host of new features coming to Android 13. The company offered a series of new features and improvements coming to the second beta for Android 13, including a new wallet app that will let you upload a digital version of your driver’s license, and better integration across Google’s portfolio of products and apps.
The software carries over the same design aesthetic, called Material You, that debuted last year with Android 12.
This time, however, the company says you’ll be able to further customize the look of the operating system by not only changing the entire color pallet of the settings, home screen, and Google-specific apps, but the icons for participating third-party apps too.
The media player also gets a slick upgrade, displaying album artwork, in addition to the play bar bouncing to the beat of your music.
The new Google Wallet app will serve as a kind of main hub for all of your digital cards and tickets, whether that’s your credit card, your vaccine ID card, airplane ticket, or even your driver’s license.
Google already has a Google Pay app, and you’ll still use that for making payments between friends. However, Google Wallet will be where you store your cards and make payments at stores that accept Google Pay.
The addition to driver’s licenses is a big step for Google and follows Apple’s (AAPL) own efforts in adding digital IDs to its Apple Wallet app. Not all states accept digital IDs yet, and it will likely be some time before all of them do.
Google also gave us a better look at its RCS, or rich communication services, saying it will provide end-to-end encryption for group chats. RCS will work on a large swath of Android phones and serve as a more secure and feature-rich successor to standard SMS and MMS texting technology. Apple, meanwhile, has had many of the same capabilities RCS offers in its own iMessage technology for years.
Then there are the security updates coming to Android 13.
Google says you’ll be able to select whether you want apps to access your photos and videos, or audio and music, instead of all of your media at once. You’ll also be able to choose if you want apps to get access to individual photos rather than your entire image library.
What’s more, Google says apps will now need your permission before they start serving notifications, so you won’t have to worry about your apps inundating you with notifications at the worst possible time.
There’s also news Google will make all of its hardware work more efficiently together. We’re talking about accessing your Messages app from your Pixel device on your Chromebook without needing a separate app. That, in addition to easy device pairing for things like smart TVs and earbuds, and the ability to cast to your car’s display, while it’s parked or charging of course.
Android 13 is expected to hit smartphones later this year.
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