Android 13’s latest beta arrives today. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Google announced Android 13’s third public beta today and says that it has reached platform stability. That’s an indicator that Google has locked in major updates, and from here until the final release, it’s all about putting on the finishing touches. It’s also reaching this milestone a full two months earlier than Android 12, which was a much more ambitious update that reached Android device owners with plenty of bugs intact.
Android 13’s first developer preview arrived in February, the first public beta came in April, and the second public beta came with a big I/O announcement in May. While Android 12 centered around introducing some major new customization options in the form of Material You, Android 13 is a smaller update that takes those features a little further in the form of app icon themes and preset UI color variants.
Google’s Android 13 beta timeline.
This year’s speedier timeline likely says more about how complex Android 12 was than anything. In any case, Google is probably eager to get Android 13 out the door and put the troubles of Android 12’s release in the past. If you want to take a look at Android 13 firsthand, you can check Google’s developer site to see if your device is eligible. Otherwise, you’ll need to wait for the full public release likely coming this fall.