Android 13 might not arrive until September

Google’s next big Android update may not arrive until September, as implied by details in a recent security bulletin.

Spotted by Android Police, Google’s Android 13 monthly security bulletin notes that the next major Android update will ship with a default security patch level of “2022-09-01.” In other words, the Android 13 update will ship with the September 2022 security patch.

The document goes on to detail several fixes included in the September security patch, noting that Android 13 devices “with a security patch level of 2022-09-01 or later are protected against these issues.”

While this all suggests a September release for Android 13, Android Police points out that Pixels might get it earlier. With last year’s Android 12 release, Google rolled out the update to Pixel devices two weeks after releasing the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) Android 13 build.

With that in mind, it’s hard to say what will happen with Android 13 and Pixel phones this year. Google made the Android 13 developer preview (the stage before the public beta) available in February 2022, a month earlier than past developer previews. The Android 13 beta similarly came out earlier than usual in April — Google usually announces the beta at the I/O developer conference in May.

In the latest Android 13 beta news, Google just added the newly-released Pixel 6a to the list of supported Pixels. That means Pixel 6a owners can head to the Android Beta Program website and opt-in to join the beta. Doing so sends an over-the-air (OTA) update that will bump your Pixel 6a from Android 12 to Android 13 Beta 4.1. Learn more about that here.

Source: Google Via: Android Police