Get Your Apps Ready For Android 13

This article provides a high-level overview of the regular development and testing steps that will assist you in creating a preparedness plan that is in accordance with the platform release schedule and guarantees a positive user experience on Android 13. We add new features and modify behavior with each new version of Android in an effort to improve its functionality, security, and performance. While your app will frequently function as expected right out of the box, there are times when you may need to update it to reflect platform changes. A migration typically involves two phases, which may occur simultaneously:

• Ensuring compatibility with apps (by Android 13 final release)
• Concentrating on the new APIs and platform features (as soon as possible after the last release)

Ensure Android 13 Compatibility

To guarantee a fantastic experience for users updating to the most recent version of Android, it’s critical to verify the functioning of your existing app against Android 13. It’s critical to test your app fully and early and to make any necessary modifications. Some platform updates may have an impact on how your app functions.

Normally, you can make changes to your app and publish an update without having to modify the targetSdkVersion. While this can vary depending on how your app is designed and the platform features it uses, you shouldn’t need to use new APIs or modify the compileSdkVersion.

Update the App’s Targeting and Include New APIs in the Design

The next step after publishing a suitable version of your app is to fully support Android 13 by changing targetSdkVersion and utilizing new APIs and features in Android 13. As soon as you’re prepared, you can implement these adjustments while keeping in mind what Google Play needs in order to target the new platform.

Review the behavior changes that affect apps targeting Android 13 as you prepare your work to fully support Android 13. You may need to resolve any functional issues that arise as a result of these targeted behavior changes. We advise being aware of and taking action against these changes as soon as you can because in some instances they call for major development.

We advise publishing your compatible app as soon as you’ve done testing and making any necessary updates. This enables your users to test the app ahead of time and ensures a smooth transition to Android 13 for them.

Testing for Compatibility

Testing an app’s compatibility with Android 13 is largely comparable to testing an everyday app. Reviewing the fundamental app quality principles and testing best practices at this time is a smart idea. Install your recently released app on a phone running Android 13 for testing, then go through all the flows and functions while keeping an eye out for problems. Review the behavior changes for all apps added in Android 13 that may alter how your app behaves or cause your app to crash in order to help you focus your testing.

Additionally, be sure to check and test for the use of prohibited non-SDK interfaces. Any limited interface that your program employs should be swapped out for a public SDK or NDK counterpart.

Image #1: Understanding the process of application migration. in Android 13.

Update the App’s Targeting and Include New APIs in the Design

The next step after publishing a suitable version of your app is to fully support Android 13 by changing targetSdkVersion and utilizing new APIs and features in Android 13. As soon as you’re prepared, you can implement these adjustments while keeping in mind what Google Play needs in order to target the new platform.

Review the behavior changes that affect apps targeting Android 13 as you prepare your work to fully support Android 13. You may need to resolve any functional issues that arise as a result of these targeted behavior changes. We advise being aware of and taking action against these changes as soon as you can because in some instances they call for major development.

Check Out Your Android 13 App

Start testing the app after compilation and installation on an Android 13-compatible smartphone to make sure it functions properly. You should review several behavior changes before beginning because some of them only apply when your program is designed to run on the new platform.

Verify and verify any potential applications of limited non-SDK interfaces. You may notice these accesses programmatically by using the StrictMode method detectNonSdkApiUsage() and keeping an eye out for logcat warnings that identify them.

Conclusion

In the conclusion, finally, make sure to thoroughly test all of your app’s libraries and SDKs to ensure that they function as intended on Android 13 and adhere to best practices for data handling, privacy, performance, and UX.

• Without actually altering the targetSdkVersion of the app: Test targeted modifications. Toggles can be used to force-enable particular targeted behavior changes so you can assess how they affect your current app.
• Concentrate your testing just on certain modifications: The toggles allow you to turn off all targeted changes aside from the ones you want to test against, so you don’t have to deal with them all at once.
• Control toggles via ADB: Toggleable modifications can be enabled and disabled in your automated test environment using ADB commands.

Hope this article helped you in migrating your Android Apps to the newer Android 13 platform, and if you haven’t done it yet, do it right away, as good-quality apps can churn you massive success.