New Features in Android 13 Beta 1: Refined Media Permissions, Keystore Improvements, and Predictive Audio Routing

Google recently released the first beta of Android 13, officially ending the developer preview phase. The beta arrived on schedule for May, matching the timeline previously announced by Google.

Android 13 Development Timeline

Android 13 Beta 1 New Content

Beta 1 includes the latest updates to features announced in the developer preview, such as a new notification permission, photo picker, themed app icons, and improved localization and language support, and also adds a few new capabilities.

Media file access permissions are more granular:

Previously, an app that wanted to read shared media files from local storage had to request the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission, which granted access to all media types. To give users more transparency and control, a new set of permissions with finer scopes has been introduced.

With the new permissions, an app can request access to specific types of shared media files:

READ_MEDIA_IMAGES (for images and photos)

READ_MEDIA_VIDEO (for videos)

READ_MEDIA_AUDIO (for audio files)

When a user grants a permission, the app receives read access only to that media type. If an app requests both READ_MEDIA_IMAGES and READ_MEDIA_VIDEO simultaneously, the system shows a single dialog granting both permissions.

Better error reporting in Keystore and KeyMint

For apps that generate keys, Keystore and KeyMint now provide more detailed and accurate error indications. Google added a new exception hierarchy under java.security.ProviderException that includes Android‑specific error codes and a flag indicating whether the error is retryable. Developers can now catch these exceptions to obtain the information needed to retry key generation, signing, or encryption operations.

Predictive audio routing

To help media apps determine how their audio will be routed, Google added new audio‑routing APIs to the AudioManager class. The new getAudioDevicesForAttributes() API returns a list of devices that could be used to play a given audio stream, and the getDirectProfilesForAttributes() API helps determine whether the audio can be played directly. These APIs can be used together with AudioFormat to select the optimal playback path.

For more details, see the official Android 13 Beta 1 release notes.