Android 13 Developer Preview 2 includes working on an editor for your clipboard, redesigning the Pixel Launcher’s search bar, and more.
In addition to the obvious new features for every new developer preview or beta version of an upcoming Android release, there’s a whole lot of work being done that needs a little extra effort to show off. Keep in mind that these changes are still actively being worked out by Google and may not necessarily release with Android 13 (or at all). Overall, it should serve as an interesting insight into the direction Google is taking things, rather than a hard outline of what Android 13 has in the Store.
In some cases, you can easily try out these work in progress features on your own. However, by doing so, you accept the risk that your device may become more unstable than the pre-release software actually does.
Clipboard Overlay
On Pixel phones today, when you take a screenshot, you’re greeted in the corner with a preview of the shot as well as options to share, edit, or take more. With Android 13, Google is preparing to reuse this design pattern to create a new “overlay” for the clipboard.
Once enabled, any time you copy text to the clipboard, you will see that text appear in the corner of the screen. Next to it, there is an edit button, which launches into a simple text editor that allows you to make quick changes to what you have copied. This is useful for things like editing unwanted tracking IDs from shared URLs.
You can then copy the newly modified text or share it instantly with another app, if you wish.
Account slide in status bar
Another interesting tweak that we have enabled is to put your name and symbol picture In a slide that is constantly displayed inside the Android 13 status bar. For shared devices, this is perhaps a useful reminder that their profile is currently active.
Dark mode at “bedtime”
Today, Android phones let you toggle dark mode manually using the quick settings panel or based on the sunrise/sunset in your area or the schedule you select. With Android 13 Developer Preview 2, there is work on a third launcher for dark mode called “Bedtime”.
As you might expect, this option turns the dark theme on and off based on the current bedtime setting from the Digital Wellbeing app. This allows for a much more complex schedule than Android originally offers, such as excluding certain days of the week or only activating when your phone is on the charger at night.
To enable this new launcher, you can connect your phone to your PC – just like you did when Install Android 13 Developer Preview Open your Terminal, and run the command below. However, it doesn’t appear that the automatic bedtime-based dark mode has actually been activated yet, and may require an update to Digital Wellbeing.
adb shell settings put global settings_app_allow_dark_theme_activation_at_bedtime true
Below the app search bar
One of the best tweaks made to the Pixel app drawer in Android 12 and 12L is the revamped search bar, which can search about as well as search Including – The best example of this is the last integral of Search in Google Images. With Android 13, this search bar may move from its current position at the top, rather than taking a place at the bottom of the screen, within the reach of the thumb.
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