The second Android 13 QPR2 beta is currently rolling out to select Pixel phones adding new experimental features and even some emojis.
If you just look at the Official release notes (Opens in a new tab)You might think it’s only a patch to fix things like a UI bug that “caused home screen to be unresponsive”. But prominent Android expert Mishal Rahman managed to crack the entire beta in a file Long Twitter thread (Opens in a new tab). One feature in particular that he and other Android watchers are really excited about is the ability to create monochrome app icons that reflect the Material You theme on Pixel phones. This way, everything has a uniform appearance.
The feature is disabled by default, according to Rahman, so beta users will have to go into the phone’s settings and toggle ENABLE_FORCED_MONO_ICON (this is likely a placeholder name). When turned on, all apps that support the feature, including first-party apps and third-party apps like Netflix, will switch to the monochrome look. Other reports (Opens in a new tab) Remember, it ultimately depends on the app developers themselves if they want to support the feature or not. This may leave “pixel owners in a strange place” as the launcher icons are a mixture of monochrome and full color.
More changes
The only other notable feature in the beta version is the partial screen sharing menu for sharing or recording an app. It includes a new scrollable interface above the list of apps that appear to work with the screen sharing tool.
As for the rest of the changes, they appear to be just updated versions of previously seen experimental features. Rahman discovered a new shared library in the beta files called “aoc_audio_stereo_spatializer” which he believes refers to “enabling spatial audio over the phone’s stereo speakers”. Spatial audio is first hinted at in File First beta of Android 13 QPR2. Unfortunately, Google is still playing its cards close to its chest because much of the basic information about how spatial audio works on Android is still unknown.
Returning to beta is the ability to control smart home devices from the lock screen, which has been in the works for ages March 2022 (Opens in a new tab). The change this time around is that the beta version will suggest you turn this feature on if you’ve tried to switch a file [smart home] from the lock screen multiple times.
As mentioned earlier, QPR2 Beta 2 is available for download from the Android Beta Program if you have one of the following Pixel phones: Pixel 4a phoneAnd Pixel 5And 5athe rule model 6And 6 proAnd 6 athe rule model 7and the Pixel 7 Pro. Be aware that it is not perfect. There are many threads on the Android Beta subreddit (Opens in a new tab) About all the issues users encountered after downloading QPE2 Beta 2, from icons not turning monochrome to Google Messages not working correctly. If you encounter any of these issues, the company asks users to report glitches via a file Comments application (Opens in a new tab).
And while you’re with us, if you’re thinking of upgrading your phone, be sure to check it out Two new Pixel 7 deals We found.